– Bulgarian filmmaker Nikola Boshnakov’s sophomore documentary follows the trail of disappearing traditional foods in his homeland through the tragicomic story of a tenacious cheese-maker
After portraying the Bulgarian sociopolitical transition in the aftermath of the Eastern Bloc collapse through the artistic and existential odyssey of a painter, his punky nephew, and a peculiarly decorated Sofia apartment in My Uncle Luben, Nikola Boshnakov takes a different angle on the same period and transformation – this time through the bitterly ironic peripeteia of a cheese maker. His second documentary, A Few Chunks of Cheese, is currently competing in the Regional Competition of ZagrebDox. Younger than Luben Stoev and less experienced during the communist era, but equally consumed by its aftermath, stubborn protagonist Mina Vardzhieva is an eclectic figure who has preserved her own values and managed to create what she was meant for in ludicrous times such as the post-totalitarian transition. Similarly to Luben, Mina is a funny, odd character and an original artist in her field, but most importantly, a narrator whose worldview makes everyday dealings with exhausting bureaucracy, shameless abuse of power, outright cynicism, or mere stupidity sound like an unprecedented adventure. This perspective also aligns with that of Boshnakov, for whom approaching serious topics seriously seems to be a sign of bad taste, which is why he looks for the humorous side of every absurdity.
The daughter of a poet and literature scholar, Mina has been going against the stream from an early age, hence her involvement in sport shooting and her diploma as a food technologist specialising in dairy, despite the warning that “milk is white, but its troubles are black.” Thus, also in defiance of her intellectual parents and in contrast to her affinity for opera, in the 1990s, when free private enterprise in Bulgaria was finally permitted, Mina became a goat herder and set up her own cheese dairy. But soon after, when the country joined the EU in 1997, the impossible new regulations for a small producer to comply with pushed Mina onto the black market, and although it was clear to everyone that her cheese was the best in the region, her production suddenly began to be treated as poison, and she herself as a smuggler. The blackmail from local strongmen, which she had previously managed through negotiation, now became a legalised practice, and Mina, along with a host of other small-scale food producers, disappeared from the official food market. Her ingenuity and love for what she does help her keep going even under ridiculous conditions, but when her granddaughter Bela is born overseas, her priorities begin to shift.
Most of Mina’s ordeals are conveyed through her own voice-over, alternating in contrast with a playful, carefree soundtrack, while on screen we see her either with the goats, in the USA with her daughter’s family, or in what remains of the dairy, now turned into a cheese-making school. Boshnakov’s dramaturgical choice allows for a smooth, mutual interweaving and juxtaposition between past and present without omitting the necessary reckoning, which comes directly through the heroine’s vivid language: the new European bureaucracy is not very different from the totalitarian one, and corruption is no less prevalent than in the mafia-ridden 1990s, but the mechanisms are more refined, whilst the Bulgarian state has not done enough to protect local production. Despite its overt critique of institutional corruption at all levels, the film remains far from merely political. At its centre, above all, is an inspiring woman whose spirit and talent no system can destroy, yet we all lose from her absence within it.
A Few Chunks of Cheese was produced by Bulgaria’s Gala Film.
