November 5 (BTA) - Nearly 30 Bulgarian artists,
musicians, writers and filmmakers will be in Paris in late
November to present contemporary Bulgarian art during the Un
weekend a l`est festival. For a fifth year running, the festival
 showcases culture capitals in Central and Eastern Europe and
this year it is Sofia, said the organizers.

The festival opens November 24 with the award-winning film of
Mila Mileva and Vessela Kazakova Women Do Cry.

The programme includes close to 30 events at 20 locations
including galleries, cinemas, book shops and theares in the
Latin Quarter. There will be exhibitions, conferences,
discussions, cinema, performances, literary meetings and
concerts, all of them selected by  Brigitte Bouchard, President
of the Un week-end a l'est Association.

The events will be on until November 29.

Patron of this edition of the festival is Canada-based
Bulgarian-born animator Theodore Ushev and novelist Georgi
Gospodinov is the guest of honour. Partners of the fesival are
the Bulgarian Culture Institute in Paris, the Sofia City Hall
and the Bulgarian Embassy in France.

The contemporary literary scene in Bulgaria will be presented by
 writers Teodora Dimova, Kapka Kassabova, Aksinia Mihaylova,
Rouja Lazarova and Georgi Gospodinov. Bulgarian-French
translator Marie Vrinat-Nikolov will tell of her work with major
 Bulgarian authors and social scientist Ivan Krastev will
participate in the final debate.

A special focus of the programme are events dedicated to two
figures that are well-known and much loved in France, and whose
work has been linked with Paris: intellectual Tzvetan Todorov
and artist Christo.

Todorov's daughter and author, director and producer Lea Todorov
 will bring the audience to Bulgaria in a performance that
combines lyrics, music and video. It features his father filmed
on a final trip, three years before his death, in 2017.

An exhibition of rarely exhibited original works, photographs
and archival documents will tell of the formation of Christo as
one of the most recognizable innovative artists in the 20th
century. The exhibition at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute is
entitled
Christo. From Gabrovo to the Arc du Triomphe.

In March 2022, writer-director Elitza Gueorguieva will present
her theatre performance and master class entitled One Sofia
Roof.

Documentary film director Bojina Panayotova, whose work has
admirers and made success in France will participate in an open
discussion on new Bulgarian cinema together with her mother and
author Milena Makarius.  

Screening of films by Theodore Ushev, talks with him, a
masterclass and an exhibition of his water colours will be held
on several days of the festival.

Novelist and poet Georgi Gospodinov will hold several meetings
and discussions in bookstores in the Latin Quarter and the
Nouvel Odeon Cinema.  

On the programme are also exhibitions of visual artists Nina
Kovacheva, Stefan Nikolaev, Nedko Solakov, photographer Evgenia
Maximova, Nikola Mihov and Lyuba Haleva, who is the author of
the poster for the Sofia edition of the festival.    
   
Bulgarian musicians will perform in two of the oldest churches
in Paris, Saint-Germain des Pres and Saint Sulpice. In one
concert, pianist Georgi Cherkin will play Debussy, Brahms,
Pantcho Vladiguerov, as well as a piece by his father, composer
Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin. Ina Kancheva (soprano) and Emanuil Ivanov
 (piano) will perform pieces by Luciano Berio, Lyubomir Pipkov,
Dimitar Nenov and Dimitar Petkov. And finally, the original
compositions of UnTraditionnal Duo, in which the gadulka of
Hristina Beleva and the piano of Dimitar Gorvachov intertwine,
in a music between jazz and tradition.

In another concert, Bach, Paganini, Andre Jolivet, Eugene Ysaye
will be performed by the remarkable violinist Svetlin Roussev.

A retrospective of the first Bulgarian female film director
Binka Zhelyazkova will dominate the film programme with
screenings of February, The Father and Red, Too Red, among other
 films.

Un weekend a l`est was founded in 2016 by the business woman and
 art lover Vera Michalski and Brigitte Bouchard who became the
festival's art director. For a long weekend every year, a city
in Central or Eastern Europe is honored through its writers,
philosophers, artists, musicians, photographers, filmmakers,
choreographers, directors through events including discussions,
conferences, exhibitions, concerts, screenings or masterclasses.
 The events are open to all and are held in emblematic places of
 the Sixth District, including the Odeon Theatre de l' Europe,
the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Christine Cinema Club and the
Polish Bookstore. Previous editions were dedicated to Warsaw,
Kiev, Budapest and Belgrade. The fifth edition was scheduled for
 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. LN/





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