STRANDZHA

Director Pepa Hristova is available for interviews.

STRANDZHA by Pepa Hristova is celebrating its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025 in the Harbour section on February 1st. The documentary is the debut film by renowned photographer Pepa Hristova.

At the crossroads of traditions, generations, borders and languages, STRANDZHA paints a multifaceted portrait of the human experience on the border and explores the consequences of division, both physical and mental.

In Europe‘s last primeval forest, between Bulgaria and Turkey, the Strandzha Mountains hold ancient myths and migration stories. This magical landscape becomes the backdrop for a film that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, as the film’s evocative images and sounds immerse the viewer in a journey where observation intertwines with the mystique of ritual. Here, fire dancers, ex-soldiers, children in abandoned military barracks and mentally ill women embody the trauma, spiritual power and timeless history of a place that transcends time and borders.

SYNOPSIS
Nestled by the Black Sea, the Strandzha Mountains hide the rugged borderland between Bulgaria and Turkey in one of Europe‘s last primeval forests. As one of the continent‘s oldest border zones, it was a passageway for those fleeing East Germany‘s communist regime and seeking to escape from West to East during the Cold War. Today, hundreds risk their lives every day to travel from east to west along alternative Balkan routes. Centuries ago, the Thracians settled in this liminal space between Asia and Europe. In honour of their ancestors, the locals continue to celebrate mysterious, intoxicating feasts. The earth seems to hold both intergenerational trauma and spiritual power, where past and present collide. In this terra incognita, deeply religious fire dancers, seekers of meaning, former soldiers scar- red by violence, children playing in abandoned military barracks and mentally ill women engage in ancient rituals and personal struggles.

The photographer Pepa Hristova, born in 1977 in the middle of the Bulgarian Balkan Mountains, has been living in Germany for 27 years. She studied communication design with a focus on photography at the University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg. Since 2006, she has been working as a freelance photographer for various major magazines, as well as on her own projects, exhibitions and publications. Her book Sworn Virgins was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2013. 2006 to 2016 she was a member of the renowned photographer agency OSTKREUZ in Berlin. Her work is driven by her fascination with the fractured beauty of the east and her interest in social phenomena and archaic traditions, leading to an examination of the unknown, changing side of Europe.

Pepa Hristova received multiple fellowships and awards including the C/O Berlin Talents Award, the Otto Steinert Award for subjective photography, a fellowship from the Berlin Academy of Arts, the Border Crossers grant of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the n-ost reportage award. Her work has been on display at House of Photography/Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, C/O Berlin, the Berlin Academy of Arts, Bozar, NRW Forum Dusseldorf, Stadtmuseum Munich, The National Galerie Sofia, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts Brussels and elsewhere.

STRANDZHA is produced by Fünferfilm, Germany, Agitprop, Bulgaria, in co-production with SWR & arte.
Supported by BKM – Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Eurimages – European Cinema Support Fund, Bulgarian National Film Center.

Production Company:
Fünferfilm UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Otzenstraße 12
22767 Hamburg
0049 (0) 176 63204892
mail@fuenferfilm.de

©/CREDITS:

Stills: © Pepa Hristova