AZBUKA NA NADEJDATA
Bulgarien 2003 – Director: Stephan Komandarev – Original language: bulgarisch, türkisch – Subtitles: English – Length: 55 min.
Along the Bulgarian border to Turkey, the "dead zone", unmarked and two hundred meters wide, stretches for miles and miles.
In the 1980s the people living here left, when Bulgarian authorities ordered all Turkish names to be changed into Slavic. Gradually all the villages in the zone were abandoned.
This film is about the few families who stayed behind. They struggle to get an education for their children, as nearly all the schools in the area were closed. The nearest school is a hundred kilometres away and the students must be driven there by van. The children’s friendship with the driver or with the local physician gives hope to their parents that someone cares. Belonging to a tiny minority in Bulgaria the people who decided to change their names to be able to stay, attempt to raise their offspring with a positive spirit.
Alphabet of Hope is a beautifully shot elegy for lives determined by others.
English/Original Title: Alphabet of Hope. German title: Alphabet der Hoffnung. Writer: Yuri Datchev. Camera: Anton Bakarski. Sound: Blagomir Alexiev. Editing: Nina Altaparmakova. Music: Stefan Valdobrev. Production: Argofilm. Producer: Stephan Komandarov.
