Maria Bakalova

A true story that may be stranger than fiction serves as the inspiration for filmmaking duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Triumph. Set in Bulgaria shortly after the fall of Communism in the early 1990s, General Zlatev and his personal psychic are assigned a highly classified mission. A slightly meandering slow burn, Triumph is not nearly as weird or quirky as it could be. One wishes it fully embraced the true absurdity of sending a military team to dig in a field at the behest of a psychic.

In Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Bulgarian political satire Triumph the basic story comes from old media clippings found in the early 1990s although a “sensational ripped from the headlines” tale would be overstating how the Bulgarian government wanted the story told. Bulgaria was just becoming a democracy emerging from the shadow of the USSR. Not quite sure of its place on the world stage, politicians and the army alike we’re searching for something to give Bulgaria power and autonomy in the region. Triumph is a marvellous and timely piece of satirical filmmaking that reflects not only the past but the present. In a period where people willingly fall prey to, or actively promote, wild conspiracies and reject reason for their own gain, Triumph is a hilarious and pointed rebuke.