“We are extremely happy with the screenings at the Venice Film Festival and with the audience’s reactions - a fantastic start. There is significant interest both from upcoming festivals and in terms of sales, and Heretic are currently in active negotiations”, Stephan Komandarev told FNE.

Co-written by Komandarev and Simeon Ventsislavov, the film follows Iva (43), a seamstress in a small town, who hides her illness to keep her job. When COVID-19 spreads in the community, she becomes scapegoated and demonised by her neighbours.

The cast features Gergana Pletnyova, Gerasim Georgiev-Gero, Ivaylo Hristov, Anastasia Ingilizova, Todor Kotzev, and Ivan Barnev. The filming took place in Dimitrovgrad, Haskovo, Rudozem and Madan (Bulgaria), as well as in Leipzig (Germany).

Bulgaria’s Argo Film produced the film in coproduction with 42film (Germany), Negativ (Czech Republic), and Turkey’s Ikinciyeni Film, and Istos Film.

The project received support from the Bulgarian National Film Center, MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, the Czech Audiovisual Fund, ZDF/Arte, the Bulgarian National TV, and TRT Sinema, and it was developed through MFI (Greece, 2021), Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier (2022) and Arras Days (2023, where it won the award for Best Project.).

Komandarev’s previous feature, Blaga’s Lessons, produced by Argo film and coproduced by 42film,, won the Crystal Globe Grand Prix at Karlovy Vary 2024, and it was Bulgaria’s entry in the 2024 Oscars’ International Feature Film category.