Binka: To tell a Story about Silence

Synopsis

Binka: To tell a Story about Silence is a film about Bulgarian director Binka Zhelyazkova (b.1923) who never shrank from controversy. A film pioneer, she was at the forefront of political cinema under Bulgaria’s Communist dictatorship.
Her allegorical and urban dramas examined human rights, artistic freedom and the legitimacy of the political system itself. Intercutting riveting scenes from Binka’s films, rare archival footage, and candid interviews with former Bulgarian studio executives and film professionals, this provocative portrait reveals the pressures and complexities that arise when art is made under totalitarianism.

Director’s statement

Within the core of this film are ideas of contradiction between old and new, between childhood and adulthood, silence and the cacophony of chaos, between conformism and preserving one’s identity, the luck of voice and meaningless chatter. The main theme of the film is silence, which concerned Binka Zhelyazkova during her entire career. What is silence? Why are we silent? asks the director in her films. The theme of silence is directly connected to Binka Zhelyazkova’s personal story where she was often silenced when asking difficult questions with her films.

The director’s persona is also full of contradiction. Polar views are expressed when the name of Binka Zhelyazkova comes about in conversation. On one side are the people who knew her personally and who speak of her as a warm, gentle person and a hopeless romantic; on the other are those who knew her only professionally as a strict and demanding woman, perfectionist, unreachable. A mythology grew up around Binka Zhelyazkova, heightened by the dramatic ending of her career and her withdrawal from public life after the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989. Her participation in the antifascist resistance during WWII, and her allegiance to the communist party which she later resisted, created even more drama and contradiction around her.

Another aspect of this contradiction is her standing within the Bulgarian and world cinema. While she was well regarded abroad for her participation at film festivals such as the Expo 67 in Montreal, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Cartagena Film Festival, Moscow Film Festival, and the Karlovi Vari Film Festival, in Bulgaria she was met with suspicion and distrust. The double standard applied to Binka Zhelyazkova was evident. While openly, the communist government awarded her artistic achievements, behind the scenes she was fired from the film studio, her films were banned and her projects rejected every time she dared to ask questions and not comply with the accepted rules.

Binka Zhelyazkova exemplified the drama of the artist from a small country ruled by a totalitarian regime, who was forcefully confined behind its borders. Every time she was allowed to get out she proved that she could reach audiences across the border and make her message heard.

For all these reasons the story of Binka Zhelyazkova was long left untold…The goal of this film is to uncover Binka Zhelyazkova’s story and to present her work to broad audiences.