23/12/2024 - Tonislav Hristov’s eighth documentary feature follows a young woman on the brink of adulthood who, having been abandoned by her mother, has already faced myriad life challenges

Films about orphanages and children lacking parental care in Eastern Europe, particularly in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, have primarily dealt with the miserable living conditions and the state’s inability to provide even basic financial support for these kids. Social progress has clearly been made in this area, at least, as Geri's Wish – which has just won the top prize, along with a number of other awards, at the 28th Golden Rhyton Festival of Bulgarian Documentary and Animated Film – tells the story of a girl and her stepbrother who grew up without parents, but does not present material well-being as an issue. However, on the brink of freeing themselves from institutional custody, they are faced with the reality that no one will support them from now on, and their fate lies entirely in their own hands. Focusing more on Geri than her brother, director Tonislav Hristov chooses to follow the decisive, short period before her school’s final exam that will determine her future.

The events take place in the town of Vratsa (Hristov’s birthplace), a city surrounded by dizzying, mountainous terrain and marked by unsightly grey buildings. Nineteen-year-old Geri attends school, where the teachers seem supportive and understanding, takes walks with her best friend, and studies in her room. She is well-dressed and exudes a cheerful demeanour, but through her conversations with those around her and her monologues to the camera, one realises she has endured more than many middle-aged women. Alternating between newly filmed material and archival footage showing the lonely moments of children falling asleep in their cribs without any parental care, Hristov, who also acts as the film’s editor, not only creates a narrative, but also attempts to reconstruct the emotional realm of the period around Geri’s eighth year, when she was abandoned by her mother, likely under the strain of violence from an abusive father.

Later separated from her brother and placed in foster care, she was overmedicated for epilepsy so that the family could exploit subsidies – a horrifying reality her mother would unconvincingly cite as the reason she never relinquished parental rights and allowed her to be adopted. In her teens, Geri fell into an abusive relationship with an older boy, Nicky, whose criminal actions landed him in prison. Now preparing for her secondary-school diploma and prom, Geri faces a new threat: Nicky, newly released, wants to take her to Germany, jeopardising her plans to attend university in Bulgaria.

Apart from the comments from a teacher, from whom Geri receives personalised care and through whom criticism is levelled at the state for its inability to compel negligent parents to give up their children for permanent adoption, the film aims to observe, rather than analyse, leaving the audience to draw its own conclusions. This approach frees it from the judgemental tone that often creeps into similar stories.

However, while the reality portrayed in Geri’s Wish is unquestionable, many scenes feel staged, and the conversations – particularly those among the young participants – seem orchestrated to fit pre-set situations. On one hand, this approach explains Hristov's high productivity, as he apparently does not wait for situations to unfold naturally, but instead provokes them. On the other hand, it raises broader questions about the nature of documentary cinema, where the authentic capturing of reality is increasingly compromised, often justified by the concept of “hybrid” forms.

Geri’s Wish is a co-production between Bulgaria’s Soul Food and Finland’s Making Movies.