Women Do Cry, as seen by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

What inspired you to begin work on this film? 

We come from a documentary background and took a serious beating for seemingly defaming people and ideas with our first documentaries. There were death threats, institutional harassment on all possible levels, slanderous articles, monthly interrogations from the public prosecutor in Bulgaria. We’ve always drawn inspiration from revealing injustice. There’s a lot of domestic violence in the world and it’s accepted as a norm. As it’s cool to keep quiet about it, the subject is swept under the carpet and it’s been there for so long it’s not considered true anymore. For example, violence is often blocked out from the memory. As the case is in Vesela’s family, we decided to delve into it without over-dramatizing and to use it as a background.

What was your working method and the atmosphere like on set?

We were in the unique situation of working with one family on their family story while all of them are professional actors. We used a bit of psychodrama and relied on team work and studies with the actors. They could define their own expression in this process. In theatre this takes weeks but we set the task in the evening and it had to be acted out the following day. This method allows for deeper trust to be established between director and creative team, especially when incorporating true events or rather emotional memories that took place in this family. The only outsider to this family of actors was a young girl called Maria Bakalova. Surprisingly, she then became the latest Hollywood sensation. It’s frightening to think that out of the 100 talented girls we cast, we could have chosen another one!

Could you tell us more about your actors?  

Maria (Sonja) showed emotional maturity and an ability to go to extremes, which was crucial for the character of Sonja. Her quick mind, mobilisation and cool head in critical situations was important for our process as we imagine it was in Borat 2. Ralitsa (Lora) has a quick and reflective mind. Her feistiness combined with warmth is reminiscent of Penélope Cruz. She loved Sonja as her own sister. This affection ultimately helped build an amazing chemistry and bond. Bilyana (Veronika), also the initiator of this project as a co-writer, possesses such a refined manner, which is difficult to see in cinema nowadays. Her facial expression is in complete harmony with her inner world. There was such seamless chemistry with the baby playing the role that there’s no doubt she’s her mother. Katia’s role (Anna) is one of the great surprises because she hadn’t acted in films professionally. Her childlike quality is infectious, especially at the age she portrays. There are just no actors of her age who could do this and it’s thanks to her great experience in stage theatre where they experiment with form and content. Vesela (Yoana) being also a director stepped into the role of the provocateur. Iossif (The Father) is a legend of Bulgarian cinema but hasn’t had any roles since he had a massive stroke 15 years ago. He magically rebuilt his speech, which surprised the doctors. But what's more important is his passion for work and the flair he still has. A truly great actor.

What did you learn during the course of making this film?  

We learned that there’s always room for improvement even when it’s seemingly too late down the line. This project was changed inside-out from the moment it garnered initial support because the story that we were planning to shoot was too fictional and it felt far removed from our initial inspiration. We decided to change it completely by really diving deep into our wounds, emotions and motivation. We decided to explore darker corners that were left unvisited for 15 and more years. When we touched on that secret place the circumstances started to arrange themselves magically. We no longer had to labour over it.