This timely black and white social satire from theater and film veteran Ivaylo Hristov was Bulgaria’s official submission to the 2022 Academy Awards. 

Svetla is a strong-willed widow who has recently lost her job as a teacher, and lives alone in a small Bulgarian village that is close to the border of Bulgaria with Turkey and refugees often appear nearby. One day, while hunting in a forest, Svetla comes across a migrant from Africa (Bamba), who is trying to reach Germany. She sees herself as a law-abiding citizen, so she takes him to the border guard station. However, she is duly informed that she should manage this situation on her own, since there are so many refugees coming into the country, and there is nowhere to put them. Reluctantly, she offers him hospitality, but day after day, a bond develops as Bamba learns the language and takes part in her daily life. Eventually, Svetla will have to make life-changing choices that go against her traditional community, which causes  a revolt among the villagers, as absurd, comic and tragic situations ensue as she breaks barriers of loneliness, prejudice and fear of the outsider.

As the filmmaker Ivaylo Hristov has said about his film: “Despite the title, Fear is not a horror film. This is a film about the fears that each of us carries deep inside. There is violence in the film, you will go through feelings of sadness and anger, but you will also enjoy its vibrant humor, irony, and even sarcasm in many moments, which turn the drama into absurd comedy. This film is about painful love, a love beyond fear, with an unexpected ending.”