For viewers irreconcilable with the crimes of Socialism and

those who still believe in the idea...

THE BEAST IS STILL ALIVE

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thebeastisstillalive

Using animated sequences and a semi-mystical dialogue between a young woman and her dead grandfather, The Beast Is Still Alive shows how young generations need to study and question the communist ideology

Creative documentary I directed by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova I 90 min I HD I Bulgaria UK I 2016

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Awarded for: IDFA Forum Award at EDP 2015; Best Documentary at Aegean Docs 2017; Best Documentary at Calcutta Cult Film Festival 2017; Best Animation - Gold Award and Best Director - Bronze Award at the European Independent Film Awards 2018; Best Documentary at  European Cinematography Awards 2018; Golden Palm Award – Mexico International Film Festival 2018

Festivals: Sarajevo Film Festival, Warsaw Film Festival, IDFA, Trieste Film Festival, Goteborg Film Festival, ZagrebDox, Beldocs Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival, Manaki Brothers, Aegean Docs, SEE East and others

Synopsis:

This political documentary is about the search for an ideal communism and how it has never been found in practice. The film begins with the secret police file on the grandfather of a young Bulgarian woman. He sympathized with the Bulgarian Socialists in 1920s, but after seeing the damage the Communist Party caused during World War II, he joined the Goryani anti-communist resistance movement in the Bulgarian mountains. Using animated sequences and a semi-mystical dialogue in voice-over between the young woman and her dead grandfather, The Beast Is Still Alive shows how young generations keep rediscovering communist ideology against the backdrop of discredited politicians and former agents of the secret police. The young woman’s attitude towards the political alternatives to capitalism grows increasingly complex.

Pitched at La Rochelle – Best Project Showcase - History, Zagreb Dox, Baltic Sea Forum, Robert Bosh Foundation, East European Forum, East Doc Platform - IDFA Forum Award 2015, EDN Docs Thessaloniki 

Developed at: 

Rough Cut Service – Iikka Vehkalahti 

Supported by:  

CE’s progmamme MEDIA for Development; Bulgarian National Film Centre for production; Co-production with the

Bulgarian National Television and Nova Film 

activist 38

Creative crew:

Cast: Vesela Kazakova, Rousy Chanev

Written and directed by: Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

Editing: Donka Ivanova

Animation and compositing: Mina Mileva

Music by: Emilian Gatsov

Camera: Alie Crawford, Plamen Gelinov, Dimitar Kostov, Svetlin Marinov

Sound editing and mix: Georgi Marinov

Voice over recording: Ivaylo Stefanov

Colour correctios: Donka Ivanova

Produced by: Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

n e x t  w o r k

Enter Text

The PR of the Socialists and member of Bulgarian Parliament Alexander Simov issued a condemnation on the party’s channel Поглед.TV calling the authors a “demonic duo”, “schoolgirls”, overemotional “female authors” and other derogative terms.