Binka Zhelyazkova

Binka Zhelyazkova was born on July 15, 1923 in the town of Svilengrad, Bulgaria. She studied theater at the National Theater Institute in Sofia. For a brief time she also studied theater direction at VGIK, Moscow, with theater professor Lobanov. Upon graduation she began working as an assistant director at the National Film Studio in Sofia. Her career as a film director began in 1957 when she co-directed her first feature film Life Goes Quietly By… with her husband Hristo Ganev.


At the end of the 1950s Binka Zhelyazkova was one of the few women in the world making feature films. Her career developed during the period of socialist realism in Bulgarian cinema, which demanded the presentation of an idealized image of life as if it were a reality. This was to be done by means of simple plots and positive heroes. But hers was a counter-cinema to the accepted socialist realism, often challenging the restrictive rules set by the Communist ideological machine.


Binka Zhelyazkova’s style was influenced by Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave, as well as Russian Cinema. The poetic and metaphoric imagery of her films often prompted critics to compare her to Fellini and Tarkovski. Her distinctive directorial style along with her perfectionism and nonconformism won her the label, “the bad girl of Bulgarian cinema”.


During her career she directed seven feature and two documentary films. Four of her nine films were banned from distribution and reached audiences only after the end of communism. She was the director of the Bulgarian section of Women in Film, an organization created in 1989 after the international women in film conference, KIWI, in Tbilisi, Georgia. She stopped making films after 1989, which coincided with the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria. For some time after that she remained active in the women in film organization but soon completely withdrew from public life.

Filmography

Life Flows Slowly By… (Zivotat si teche tiho…) feature film, 120 min, 35mm, B&W, 1957 Directed by Binka Zhelyazkova and Hristo Ganev

We Were Young (A biahme mladi), feature film, 110min, 35mm,B&W, 1961 Gold medal, Moscow Film Festival 1961; Award Old Shoes, and the award of the critics, Cartachena, Columbia, 1964

The Attached Balloon (Privarzanijat Balon), feature film, 98min, 35mm, B&W 1967 Expo’67 Montreal, special screening Berlin Film Festival 1989

The Last Word (Poslednata duma), feature film, 110min, 35mm, B&W 1973 Official entry Cannes Film Festival (1974); Famine award, Brussels International Film Festival, (1976)

The Swimming Pool (Baseinat), feature film, 140min, 35mm, Color 1977, Silver medal, Moskow Film Festival 1977

The Big Night Bath (Goliamoto noshtno kapane), feature film, 152min, 35mm., Color 1980, Special screening, Cannes Film Festival 1980

Face and No Face ( Litse i opako), Documentary, 136 min., 35 mm., B&W, 1982 not released

Lullaby (Nani-na), Documentary, 61 min., 35 mm., B&W, 1982, not released

On the Roofs at Night ( Noshtem po pokrivite), feature film, 140 min, 35mm, 1988, The Golden Chest International TV Film Festival, Plovdiv’88, Bulgaria