Submitted by Bulgaria: Triumph

G.K. Chesterton's famous words: “When men chose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing anything” certainly applied to the godless Bulgarian Communists. Having rebranded themselves as Socialists after the break-up of the USSR, they spent two years digging a hole to nowhere, based on the contradictory advice of psychics. Often described as Bulgaria’s “Area 51,” the Tsarichina hole was more like their version of Al Capone’s vault. The characters are fictionalized, but the Tsarichina mission is bizarrely true to history in Kristina Grozena & Petar Valchanov’s Triumph, which Bulgaria officially submitted for Oscar consideration as Best International Feature.

Evidently, while the military was digging this hole to nowhere, assorted psychics predicted it would lead to various Fortean wonders, including aliens, mythical creatures, and/or Biblical revelations. In the film, Pirina Nyagolova picks aliens and sticks with it. Somehow, she convinced General Zlatev to authorize this excavation, "Operation Triumph," promising the ancient beings could lead Bulgarian into a new golden age.

Having steadily worked her way up the chain of command, Nyagolova’s current lover is Col. Platnikov, who appears skeptical of all her New Age babble. However, Nyagolova convinced his impressionable daughter Slava that she too has psychic powers that are especially sensitive to the alien energy, or whatever.

Grozena, Valchanov, and co-screenwriter Decho Taralezhkov ruthless skewer Nyagolova’s hippy-dippy babble. Frankly, it is never clear whether she or Slava really believe their own supposed channelings. Thanks to the filmmakers’ brutal ambiguity, it is unclear whether they are conning themselves as well as the entire Bulgarian military. Yet, there apparently reaches a point where everyone gets so deeply enmeshed in the madness, they have no alternative but to pretend to believe, to justify themselves.

Again, this premise is mind-bogglingly 100% real. To its credit, the Bulgarian government took a sharp turn towards sanity in 2022 under Nikolai Denkov, but with the fall of his coalition, the Russian trolls hope to reassert their influence. Hopefully, this film reminds Bulgarians of the Pro-Russia Bulgarian Socialist Party’s past lunacy (in addition to opposing sanctions on Russia, the current Socialist Party is also seen as increasingly hostile to same-sex marriage).

Regardless, the filmmakers witheringly depict the Chestertonian susceptibility to believing anything. However, their pacing starts to lag after they make their point several times over. Maria Bakalova (a forgotten Oscar nominee for Borat) is maybe a little too inscrutable as Slava. However, Margita Gosheva is a brilliant mess playing Nyagolova as both a complete grifter and a defiant true believer. Yet, Julian Vergov really humanizes the film as the sane Col. Platnikov, whose loyalties to his family and state demand he lose his mind.

Fittingly, Krum Rodriguez’s cinematography looks dirty and grubby, like the film was shot next to an open dusty crater, as indeed it was. This is not a pretty film in anyway, but it is distinctly and memorably farcical. Recommended for its boldness, Triumph deserves consideration from Oscar voters and the international committee (whose shortlist is due 12/17), but this is not feel-good Oscar bait. Nevertheless, here’s hoping a distributor takes a chance on it.