Letter to America

A Bulgarian artist resident in New York sends video letters to his creative compadres still marooned in a post-Soviet Sofia of difficult transitions, anonymous housing blocks and attendant despair. When one letter reveals the artist to be seriously ill, and applications to visit the US are rejected, his buddy turns to the interior in every sense, embarking on a road trip of the spirit as he heads for the mountains and an old, barely remembered folk tune, believing it could provide the requisite, remote healing. An offbeat, humane and frequently telling exploration of the survival strategies adopted in the interstices of an increasingly hostile environment, where the tested consolations of community and tradition offer the only bulwark against the ceaseless commodification of experience.