The movie

Sister

A habitual liar, teenaged Rayna lives with her mother and older sister beside a busy highway in rural Bulgaria. One day, Rayna's lying goes too far...

Length: 97 min
Country: Bulgaria
Language spoken: Bulgarian
Language subtitles: English
Cast: Monika Naydenova, Svetlana Yancheva, Elena Zamyarkova, Assen Blatechky, Valentin Ganev
Director: Svetla Tsotsorkova
Release date: 2019

Description

A deserving winner of a Special Mention in the San Sebastián International Film Festival’s prestigious ‘New Directors’ competition last year, writer/director/editor Svetla Tsotsorkova’s drama is unsentimental, honest, and visually inventive. Teenaged Rayna (an unforgettable Monika Naydenova) lives with her mother (Svetlana Yancheva) and older sister (Elena Zamyarkova) in a house by a busy highway in rural Bulgaria. The family survives by digging clay out of a hillside, processing it, and selling it to local businesses. Rayna also sculpts terracotta figurines, which she sells along the roadside by hooking potential customers with outrageous lies about her ‘traumatic’ childhood. Eventually, she tells one whopper too many, which threatens to destroy the family’s fragile existence…

‘A testament to [Tsotsorkova’s] talent and ability… Manages to thrill and entertain, as well as shed light on a reality that will be unknown to most of us.’ —Cristóbal Soage, Cineuropa