The Bulgarian Family Keeping a Millenia-Old Demon Chasing Festival Alive
The Balkans is home to an ancient pagan tradition where magic and mystery still have a sacred place in the cosmic order. The Kukeri festival has had a strong hold over Bulgarian cultural life since the fifth century, surviving the Ottomans, Christendom and communist rule. Every winter, hundreds of terrifying figures prowl snow-capped forests and village centres in search of evil spirits to dispel from their communities.
Co-Directors Daniel Ali and Jacob Schühle Lewis introduce us to a family fighting to keep the tradition alive in the beautiful ‘Kukeri’, our latest Free of the Week, with words from Daniel Ali.
Edit: ‘Free of the Week’ is now ‘Short of the Week’.
'Kukeri' came about through what feels like a never-ending process of researching for the next film!
I first discovered the Kukeri tradition a couple of years ago but started properly developing the story mid-way through 2019, from September 2019 Jake and I were in full pre-production planning for a January 2020 shoot. We chose this subject for a number of reasons; the Kukeri costumes are visually striking in the way they look and move, the ancient tradition is wonderfully bizarre and fascinating, and probably one of the key factors for choosing this subject is that it's something that is rarely seen by anyone outside of Bulgaria and we felt this was a rare opportunity to share such an incredibly unique tradition. On top of the amazing spectacle that is Kukeri our local production team and the family who star in the film were so welcoming and very proud of their traditions and wanted to help showcase these ancient traditions in whatever way they could.
We only had 4 days in Bulgaria, 3 days of which were with the family but we managed to achieve 4 interviews and 10 locations. Jake and I were well prepared and storyboarded the film as much as possible which ended up being invaluable to the process.
We set out with the aim of creating an ethereal experience of the Kukeri rituals and traditions which not only reflected modern interpretations of the practices but were also true to their historical routes. We hoped this approach would not only document our subjects but would also allow the viewers to experience the magic and mystery of the tradition.
