Archive: Keswick Film Festival

Saturday 8th March 11:00 AM - Rheged

Tarika

Director: Milko Lazarov Country: Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg
Cert: 15 Year: 2024 Length: 86 mins

2025 Festival

Audience Reaction

Score: 75% Attendance: 33

Links

The Tarika at the centre of this film is a teenage girl living a peaceful rural life in Bulgaria. The family is ostracized by the locals as they believe that Tarika (Vesela Valcheva) is cursed; like her mother and grandmother, she has a rare bone condition known as ‘butterfly wings’. The villagers believe that she is the cause of the deaths of their animals and that she brings bad luck to the community.

Thanks to Films Boutique

Critics

Tarika conveys many of its themes through observation, a little of the supernatural. Kaloyan Bozhilov’s beautiful cinematography makes much use of wide-open landscapes, never-ending skies, and themes of flying – by birds, butterflies, and even helicopters. In contrast, a border fence is also being built ‘to stop some people from going to other people