Grafinyata, Az

In the summer of 1968, the World Festival of Youth and Students takes place in Sofia. It serves the Zhivkov regime as a prominent symbol of ostensible liberality. Some young individuals, among them Sybille, or “the countess”, as she is also known, decide to put their ideas of this advertised freedom to the test by indulging in pop music and drugs, until a police raid puts an end to their brief revolt. For Sybille, who is placed under arrest, thus begins a painful odyssey through state re-socialisation facilities: re-education homes, forced labour camps, prison and psychiatric wards. With its dramaturgy of colours and broken taboos, this Bulgarian cult film unmasks the way in which totalitarianism infantilises society. (goEast - Festival des mittel- und osteuropäischen Films)