After more than half a century, a Bulgarian film competes for the Palme d’Or

“The Dreamed Adventure” is a film by German director Valeska Grisebach about a Bulgarian archaeologist named Veska who is pulled into a shady world near the border close to Svilengrad. Grisebach describes the plot as an echo of the 1990s, even though the action takes place in the present day.

“The Dreamed Adventure” is Grisebach’s second film shot in Bulgaria, following “Western” from 2017, which was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the “Un Certain Regard” section.

Filmed in the village of Matochina near the medieval fortress Bukelon and a mysterious Thracian tomb, with Bulgarian actors and in the Bulgarian language, the film is a “Palme d’Or” nominee.

The last time a Bulgarian film competed at the Cannes Film Festival was in 1972, when “The Last Word” by Binka Zhelyazkova was included in the Main Competition.

The Cannes Film Festival opens on May 13, with other contenders including directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Paweł Pawlikowski, Andrey Zvyagintsev, László Nemes and Asghar Farhadi.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov