A teenage girl’s rare medical condition marks her out as cursed to her superstitious neighbours, in Bulgarian writer/director Milko Lazarov’s contribution to the Love strand at London Film Festival 2024.
The Tarika at the centre of this film is a teenage girl living a peaceful rural life in Bulgaria, with her father Ali (Zahari Baharov), and grandmother (Cornelia Stefanova). The family is ostracized by the locals as they believe that Tarika (Vesela Valcheva) is cursed; like her mother and grandmother, she has a rare bone condition known as ‘butterfly wings’, and the villagers believe that she is the cause of the deaths of their animals and that she brings bad luck to the community. Naturally, Ali wants to protect his daughter from the superstitious antagonism of the village, but alone, it seems an impossible task.
Containing perhaps half a dozen extended conversations and little other dialogue, Tarika conveys many of its themes through observation, a little of the supernatural, and Kaloyan Bozhilov’s beautiful cinematography. Writer/Director Milko Lazarov makes much use of wide-open landscapes, never-ending skies, and themes of flying – by birds, butterflies, and even helicopters. In contrast, a border fence is also being built “to stop some people from going to other people”.
The rural homestead, lacking electricity and running water, combined with the almost medieval superstition that abounds, feels like something from at least a hundred years ago. It’s only gradually that the viewer realises that, with its references to the European Union, the setting is most definitely the early part of the 21st century.
This viewer came away with the impression that Lazarov definitely has something to say about the state of his country in present times, and conceivably more broadly about bigotry and humanity – but perhaps the film was a little too ethereal. Beautiful, though.
Tarika plays in the Love strand of the London Film Festival 2024.
A teenage girl’s rare medical condition marks her out as cursed to her superstitious neighbours, in Bulgarian writer/director Milko Lazarov’s contribution to the Love strand at London Film Festival 2024.
The Tarika at the centre of this film is a teenage girl living a peaceful rural life in Bulgaria, with her father Ali (Zahari Baharov), and grandmother (Cornelia Stefanova). The family is ostracized by the locals as they believe that Tarika (Vesela Valcheva) is cursed; like her mother and grandmother, she has a rare bone condition known as ‘butterfly wings’, and the villagers believe that she is the cause of the deaths of their animals and that she brings bad luck to the community. Naturally, Ali wants to protect his daughter from the superstitious antagonism of the village, but alone, it seems an impossible task.
Containing perhaps half a dozen extended conversations and little other dialogue, Tarika conveys many of its themes through observation, a little of the supernatural, and Kaloyan Bozhilov’s beautiful cinematography. Writer/Director Milko Lazarov makes much use of wide-open landscapes, never-ending skies, and themes of flying – by birds, butterflies, and even helicopters. In contrast, a border fence is also being built “to stop some people from going to other people”.
The rural homestead, lacking electricity and running water, combined with the almost medieval superstition that abounds, feels like something from at least a hundred years ago. It’s only gradually that the viewer realises that, with its references to the European Union, the setting is most definitely the early part of the 21st century.
This viewer came away with the impression that Lazarov definitely has something to say about the state of his country in present times, and conceivably more broadly about bigotry and humanity – but perhaps the film was a little too ethereal. Beautiful, though.
Tarika plays in the Love strand of the London Film Festival 2024.
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