Windless (2024)

After years away Kaloyan returns to his native Bulgaria in order to sell his late father’s flat. What at first seems like a routine task devoid of emotion gradually develops into a journey to the depths of his being, where he is confronted with distant traumas, yet he also strikes a new path towards self-discovery. While childhood is filled with sensations and the rustling wind, adulthood is a state of fragile, windless and fading memories of those closest to us. Vesnakov delivers colourful existential reflections on the nature of family bonds and personal identity over the course of time. Yet he also muses on modern-day Bulgaria, where the cemeteries of its original inhabitants are being replaced by shady casinos, and where cultural memory is waning in a country deceived by an illusory vision of economic prosperity. Vojtěch Kočárník (kviff.com)