VIKTORIA New Auteurs

Maya Vitkova’s sharply satirical and surreal debut mixes the personal and the political, seeking out clever parallels between the life of a young woman and the political upheaval of modern Bulgaria. Viktoria is a girl born unwanted. Her mother attempted to abort her and then gave birth, only to find, astonishingly, her baby had no umbilical cord. Viktoria is immediately exalted by the Communist Party as the “Child of the Future,” and becomes a privileged brat whose every immature utterance is celebrated as gospel by party leaders. But when the Eastern Bloc crumbles, Viktoria is forced to grow up, confronting the backward system that made her a celebrity and showered her with special treatment. As the film progresses, it deconstructs Eastern European cinema with acidic humor, playing with gender politics in a wholly unique, ambitiously epic and visually surprising way.