2014 Sundance Film Festival / 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam / 2014 Busan International Film Festival

Synopsis

 Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s decade of notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse and the hardship of new times finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together?
 

Program Note

 Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria is born in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country\'s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria\'s decade of notoriety comes to a crashing halt with the end of European communism. Can political collapse and the hardship of transition finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together? Told in three parts and spanning several decades, Viktoria is both intimate and epic, unfurling a mother-daughter story while also working as a wry, philosophical fable with broad historical scope. A bright talent, filmmaker Maya VITKOVA employs a storytelling style that is dramatically compelling, visually inventive, and full of playful figurative devices, metaphors, and ironies. At the same time, Viktoria finds its emotion and lyricism in its characters\' need to love and be loved. Representing a new generation of Eastern European filmmakers, VITKOVA offers a fresh, personal perspective on the hopes and dreams of her parents\' generation—and her own.