Scent of Linden - a story about the Bulgarian emigration

Exactly two years ago, Radio Bulgaria wrote about the start of filming of the first Bulgarian feature film shot entirely in the USA with a mainly American crew. From the end of October, Scent of Linden be seen in cinemas in Bulgaria, and as of this week its European screenings also begin. The first one is on November 15 at the Mladost cinema in Bratislava, Slovakia, at the finale of the Festival of Bulgarian Culture and Art. A special guest of the screening will be Yoana Bukovska-‎Davidova who plays one of the main roles. ‎

The debut black comedy of director Tzvetana "Sissy" Denkova tells the story of a small Bulgarian community in North America and the story of a newly arrived Bulgarian emigrant Stefan. In the main role is Ivan Burnev, who after the Spanish-Bulgarian co-production Vasil can easily be defined as an expert in transforming the image of the Bulgarian emigrant today.

On the screen we also see Toncho Tokmakchiev, Albena Koleva, Reni Vrangova and Ivan Petrushinov. All of them for more than a month at the beginning of 2022 participated in the filming of Scent of Linden in the USA.

In an interview specially for Radio Bulgaria, Sissy Denkova emotionally admits that with this film she wants to tell the story of an entire generation of Bulgarians who left their homeland more than twenty years ago. An emigration that is different from the current one and from the one in five or ten years, she believes. "This movie is for those people who maybe didn't feel like they had so many choices before them":

"Scent of Linden was born from my personal life experience of growing up in a small Bulgarian community in Memphis, Tennessee, where there were about 50 of us. My family and I have been living in America for nearly 30 years in this community, in which people have come and gone, others have stayed longer and this community changes over the years, there are different personalities, different Bulgarians who become our involuntary friends in life. We gather because we are Bulgarians. If we were in Bulgaria, we probably wouldn't know each other, but here we are an island of mutual help, of support, of Bulgarian traditions and memories. Of course, the film is about the nostalgia we feel for Bulgaria. For a whole generation of people who live in the USA, but their heart is still in their homeland and they continue to love Bulgaria, for their loved ones who they left there, for their memories. And that's why the scent of linden trees is something that takes us back to our Bulgarian past."‎

It is this small community that becomes the basis of a comic scenario about emigration and the various characters in it. ‎

Sissy Denkova herself was born in Bulgaria and grew up between Dobrich and Varna. When she was only 10 years old, her family won a Green Card and a chance to fulfill their American dream. "Luck beyond all dreams and fantasies" - that's how she defines the moment today. The year was 1995 and the place was Memphis, Tennessee. ‎"Once you get the papers to live in the US you need a local guarantor and the only Americans my father knew at the time were a family that lived in Memphis. They agreed to help us and we owe all these years of living here to them," continues the story Sissy.

"Memphis turned out to be a very favourable place to start your life from scratch, with two bags of luggage - because the standard of living is a little lower, you can more easily start your own business and create for yourself a slightly more relaxed way of life than in bigger cities like Chicago and New York. We were two or three Bulgarian families in the beginning and it was very difficult. This was the time before the Internet, before home computers. We wrote letters to each other with relatives and friends, we couldn't wait to return to Bulgaria for the summer. Those were probably our harshest years, when we felt the strongest and most painful the separation from Bulgaria. It was even more difficult for my parents and their peers, of course," the young woman recalls. ‎

And this is how the other main thread appears in the emigrant life and in the film "Scent of Linden" - the encapsulation of a community on the basis of national affiliation to the extent that you do not allow external ennoblement. But that is changing. After years spent among the "others'', building friendships and having conversations about the world and us in it, you begin to understand them. ‎

In Scent of Linden, viewers see a micro-community that is a symbol of the large Bulgarian community all over the world. However, the emotions and questions raised by the film are different for Bulgarians abroad and those who stayed at home. "Somewhere in Bulgaria, the film is perceived as a little sadder than I expected," says Denkova.‎

"I think that Bulgarians in their homeland look at history by taking stock of the people they know who have emigrated, of their personal decision not to do it... Our American festival premiere was in San Jose and there is a small Bulgarian community there, which I didn't know. After the screening, people were very excited and told me that what I presented about life in Memphis was exactly the same for San Jose. And it was very nice to know that people recognized each other in the story everywhere in the world and we have achieved universality."‎

All this is probably also due to her American accomplices in the Bulgarian cinematic adventure. In addition to being a director, Sissy Denkova is also a co-producer of "Scent of Linden" together with Megan Kay Jordan. The screenplay is written by Jordan Trippeer who is in the Top 25 of the International Screenwriters' Association - Screenwriter to Watch in 2021 list. Cinematography is of Paola Trulin, music is by Jonathan Kirkscey. "Through their perception of us, I could see our good features again," she says.