WOMEN DO CRY directed by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova
Country: Bulgaria | Program: Un Certain Regard
Cast: Vesela Kazakova - Yoana | Katia Kazakova - Anna | Ralitsa Stoyanova - Lora
Maria Bakalova - Sonja | Bilyana Kazakova - Veronika
Based on the true story of co-director Vesela Kazakova’s family, who also plays Yoana, Women Do Cry is very much a family affair. The film follows a hopelessly fractured yet ferociously devoted on-screen extended family portrayed by an explosive female ensemble cast—many of whom are related in real life—dealing with the trials and tribulations wrought by damaging patriarchal attitudes that persist towards women in contemporary Bulgaria. Borat 2 star Maria Bakalova plays principal character Sonja, and a heated interaction with her tempestuous sister Lora (Raltisa Stoyanova) at the start of the film plunges the audience into the impossibly fraught closeness found only between sisters. Insults fly and clothing is hurled over the balcony of their tiny high-rise apartment, and hair pulling, door slamming, and exasperated yelling characterise their interactions throughout the film. Their relationship pivots from derisive insults to unwavering loyalty as the sisters deal with Sonja’s HIV+ diagnosis after she learns too late that her partner has a wife, a child and is HIV-positive.
The prevailing theme of HIV stigma is explored with exceptional sensitivity. Sonja turns to her family, then to a medical professional who in one shocking scene calls her a whore and throws her out of his clinic after she informs him of her HIV+ status. As panic sets in at the feeling of her young life unravelling at a pace she cannot control, Sonja’s family come through for her whilst dealing with their own struggles. Lora is continually undermined at work as a building site contractor; their aunt Veronica presents a stoic front as she quietly battles postpartum depression and the realisation that her world, in which she excelled as an accomplished medical professional before her pregnancy, is now confined to the realm of motherhood, regulated by the ominous off-screen presence of her domineering husband - in a particularly gripping scene, a dishevelled and sleep-deprived Veronica approaches her baby brandishing a knife.
Sonja’s mother Ana (Katia Kazakova) and lesbian aunt Yoana (co-director/writer Kazakova) enter the fray to make up a formidable ensemble cast of characters who poignantly encapsulate the many woes facing women in their native Bulgaria. The narrative power of Women Do Cry lies in how directors Mileva and Kazakova deftly mobilise so many different pressures of the contemporary female condition in a tightly woven family tableau. Set in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia during the 2018 protests against the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty regarding violence against women, the societal tensions raised are both specific to women in Bulgaria and relatable to struggles for equality the world over - something lead actress Bakalova reflected on in an interview with The Upcoming following the film’s premiere at the festival.
Pertinent and oft-overlooked topics are brought to life in Mileva and Kazakova’s incendiary script which covers an impressive breadth of painful issues without feeling like an activism-checklist, from female workers’ rights to the injustice of women’s exclusion from the workforce after giving birth and the prevailing stigma surrounding the HIV+ community. An unapologetic exposition of the struggles women continue to face in battles for equality and independence, Women Do Cry may well cause you to see the women in your life in a new light - or, depending on how much of their fire you recognise in your own family, reaffirm something you already knew.
Global sales rights for Women Do Cry are being handled by Paris-based mk2 films. A UK release date is yet to be announced.
