THOUGHTS FROM THE DIRECTOR               

When I started the script of Voevoda 5 years ago I didn’t realize how popular the “female heroes” would become, in the archetype sense of the word. Roumena is not a sci-fi hero, neither exactly a feminist, she is a rough and raw true character, more of a man than most of the men around her, as critics describe it. What inspires me greatly is the fact that in the harsh times of the Ottoman Empire 16-19cent. most of the women who became rebels actually became voevodas - commanders of the rebellious bands. There are over 40 known of the type. To me this is a phenomenon that manifests how a small person pushed to the wall either brakes or strikes back harder and grows beyond the "square boxes" of the society or the times. That's what actually kills them - the fact they can't be understood and therefore accepted. Even by their closest allies, even by the beloved one.

Looking for non-professional actors whenever possible aiming at authenticity and failing to cast the lead role, I had to face a hard choice to either play Roumena myself or postpone the shooting with one year or give up the project. The usual 3 in 1 for me became 4 in 1: writer, director, producer and actress, with my daughter playing my younger self. This resulted in an unexpected merge with the character who I wrote and played, and my profession of director melting with my on-screen “job” as rebel-leader. It all became one, very often putting me miraculously in the shoes of my heroine, making me face similar issues she has faced - trust, proving abilities, stamina and most importantly: how can one achieve all that and still be a descent mother. The question every second working mother faces nowadays, but for the period Roumena was a pioneer.

The authenticity of the film and "modus vivendi" of that period was achieved through a rough training camp for the actors, where we had to live with the costumes, on the rural locations, exercising martial practices of the period, sleeping and eating in the forests with no shelter. Visually ,in terms of cinematic narrative together with Cinematographer Krum Luis-Alirio Rodriguez and editor Victoria Radoslavova we decided on subjectivity and minimalism as our cinematic language  trying to “breath with the characters”. In sound design the subjective approach were pushed even further, some scenes get to a complete silence or mono sound design, to focus on the inner worlds of our characters. We intend to achieve physicality of watching the film and the audience to be (with) the characters – seeing and hearing what they see and hear. These ways of subjective and minimalistic storytelling the three of us intend to pursue further in our next films.

Zornitsa Sophia

​