Letter to America

Colour, 35mm
Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Hungary, 2001, 88 min
Section: East of the West

Synopsis

Young intellectual Ivan from Sofia discovers that his best friend Kamen is fighting for his life in an American hospital. On the other side of the world, “in a God-forsaken land called Bulgaria” – as legend has it – people are said to know songs which could avert death itself. Ivan decides to try and find them. He sets off into the mountains, a world of disappearing villages and remote shepherds’ huts, to seek out the old women who might still remember these ritual songs. His journey, offering an intoxicating vision of the beauty of the untouched landscape, uncovers the wisdom of folk customs as he records on video the genuine dignity of life. He writes a letter to Kamen, reminding his friend of his home which even he has now seen in its unimagined, archetypal image. It is also an answer to Kamen’s video-reports in which he gives his own impressions of bustling cosmopolitan New York life where he has found an emotional anchor in his friendship with a Japanese man.

About the director

Iglika Triffonova (b. 1957) studied film and television direction at VITIZ in Sofia and graduated with the film March Time (Martenski period, 1983). She has also made the following documentaries: Year of 1990 (Leto gospodne 1990-o, 1990), Possible Distances (Vazmozhni razstoyaniya, 1992), Murder Stories (Razkazi za ubiystva, 1993), Portrait of an Actress (Portret na jedna aktrisa, 1994) and On the Road (Po patya, 1995). Letter to America (Pismo do Amerika, 200l) is her feature debut.