Atanass Atanassov
Set against an Eastern European nation's election, in a country that was the most notorious communist dictatorship, the film charts the paths of five characters; An aging CIA officer; A young attractive economic advisor; The ambitious Bulgarian Prime Minister's chief of staff; An American political consultant; and a retired member of the Bulgarian Communist State Police. These five character destinies intertwine in the weeks leading up to the elections in a fledgling democracy.
Three friends, Maro, Shpera and Yuri are unemployed and hardly make ends meet. They have complicated and hysterical relationships with the people closest to them. They seem to have emigrated from their families and their country. Provoked by a mysterious telephone call, they set out on a journey, filled with the hope to change their lives.
High in the mountains of Macedonia a team of young film makers are making a documentary about Katerina Vandeva - a descendant of an ancient and very famous family. Several former state and party functionaries interfere in the filmmaking in the hopes of manipulating Katerina's confessions for their own purposes. Nikola, the director, and his friends have to make the choice - whether to compromise with their consciences and their art, (as normally happens here in the Balkans), or whether to preserve Katerina's message.
June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.
