Ralitza Petrova
Directing
Biography
Born in Bulgaria, Ralitza lives and works between England, Bulgaria, and France. In early life, she studied Fine Art, and later Fiction Directing at the UK’s National Film and Television School. Her films have won acclaim at film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Toronto, as well as on numerous art platforms, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris. She was previously awarded the Prix UIP, Best European Short Film at the Berlin IFF, and nominated for an EFA. Her film 'By the Grace of God', which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, is currently on DVD release at the British Film Institute and Tate Modern. Ralitza is an alumna of Creative England’s Elevator Programme 2013, Le Groupe Ouest 2013, and TorinoFilmLab’s FrameWork 2013. Her debut feature ‘Godless’ has been awarded production support by Eurimage, Danish Film Institute, Bulgarian National Film Centre, TFL Framework 2013, Sarajevo Film Festival's CineLink 2015, and the Women in Film Finishing Fund, Los Angeles. In 2015, Ralitza Petrova founded Aporia Filmworks, a production company that aims to produce independent, uncompromising and relevant films.
Known For
With formal rigour and subtly playing with genre, body and soul, this story of knots and liberation follows Lilian, who is as inscrutable as her desires, constrained by a pact of celibacy. When her father dies, she returns to the place of her past.
Lust
When Tsanko Petrov, a railroad worker, finds millions of lev on the train tracks, he decides to turn the entire amount over to the police. Grateful, the state rewards him with a new wristwatch… which soon stops working. Meanwhile, Julia Staikova, the head of PR for the Ministry of Transport, loses his old watch. Here starts Petrov’s desperate struggle to get back not only his old watch, but his dignity.
Glory
A father and son move to a deep countryside, in a bid to forget the wife and mother they’ve lost. One day a mysterious woman visits their farm.
Rotten Apple
A crime documentary project gets hijacked by its subject.
Danny. Legend. God.
A nurse traffics the ID cards of demented patients on the black market of identity theft. Driven by easy cash, and an addiction to morphine, she struggles to keep tabs on her emotional void, and a growing fear of punishment.
Godless
'By The Grace Of God' follows the tragic odyssey of Juergen, whose attempt to make contact with his imagined mother, the Queen of England, leads him to a sense of personal crisis, of aporia.
By the Grace of God
The short film tells the story of a disgruntled employee who, in the name of corporate teambuilding, is forced to exercise positive thinking while planting trees. But it's only after she has passed through cruelty and succeeded in connecting with another human being that she is able to experience a moment of peace and love.