Abandonment is the central theme of Lust, lead actress Snejanka Mihaylova told a press conference at the Golden Rose Film Festival on Tuesday. She spoke after a screening of director Ralitza Petrova’s film.
Mihaylova said abandonment was a shared experience for many women of her generation, raised by single mothers and cared for in all-day nurseries or institutions. The film examines the theme through the protagonist’s relationship with her father, while Petrova explores it meticulously on several levels. For Mihaylova, the script’s most radical element is the protagonist’s abandonment of herself, creating an illusion of control that begins to fracture as the story unfolds.
She noted that the film builds a world around a single character and a single feeling. She saw its strongest positive element in the protagonist’s connection with her own body and her care for her deceased father’s body. The sexual addiction storyline emerges through photographs on a phone and characters associated with shibari. For Mihaylova, binding the body represents repentance, which involves overturning one’s understanding of the world. In the protagonist’s transformation, she saw a metaphysical dimension concerned with faith.
Mihaylova described Petrova’s cinematic language as precise and abstract, noting Lust’s economy of expression. She said meeting the director had been enormously important to her artistic practice. Mihaylova works in performance and contemporary visual art and also teaches. Her novel Madrigal was recently published.
She said she had struggled with the decision to accept the role in Lust, agreeing only after eight months of reading the script, screen tests and conversations with Petrova. She was initially struck by the connection to her own life, as she had grown up without a father.
Lust has been showing in Bulgarian cinemas since June 5. A co-production between Bulgaria, Denmark and Sweden, it is also due for release in the two partner countries. The film had its world premiere in the Forum programme of the 76th Berlinale and was also screened at Sofia Film Fest.
Film Lust Explores Abandonment and the Illusion of Control, Lead Actress Says THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-09-22 14:11:19
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