"Masquerade Spirit" presents the living rituals of Europe in Pernik

On January 22, Pernik will host a special screening of the documentary film "Masquerade Spirit" by Bulgarian director Rossita Lazarova Sbaraglia, who has been living and working in Italy for years. The event is part of the program of the International Festival "Surva", which this year is being held under the auspices of UNESCO. On this occasion, together with the author of the film, representatives of the European Festival of Zoomorphic Masks in the Italian city of Isernia are also arriving in Bulgaria.

"Masquerade Spirit" was realized under the program of the Ministry of Education and Science "The Untold Stories of the Bulgarians" In the film, Rossita Lazarova unites two iconic masquerade traditions – "Surva" in Pernik and the European Carnival of Zoomorphic Masks in Isernia, in the Molise region, which is a region associated with the historical presence of Bulgarians in Italy since the time of Khan Alcek.

Celle di Bulgheria – the Italian municipality with a Bulgarian heart

The film has already won international awards – the Audience Award at the Oko International Festival and a place in the top 5 among 130 films at the Fiorenzo Serra Festival in Sardinia – recognition of its cultural and documentary significance.

The colorful and noisy survakars, kukeri, babugeri and mamutoni have different names in different European regions, but what they have in common are the fearsome masks. Their role is to ward off evil and protect fertility. The film traces the symbolism of masquerade games – from ancient rituals for agriculture and the revival of nature to protection from chaos. It emphasizes their universal power to unite communities and generations in different cultural spaces. The author of the film says that one of the biggest challenges for her was the participation of 27 children from the Bulgarian Sunday School "Abagar" in Rome, Ladispoli and Nettuno.

Children from "Abagar" Sunday School are actors in "The Spirit of the Masquerade Games"

"As a historian, I had to focus on the scientific presentation of the masquerade games, their history as part of the European cultural heritage,“ Rossita Lazarova says. „The message of all the creators and participants in the film is that we must believe in young people, in their energy and ideas and give them the tools and opportunities to be able to build a fairer and more prosperous Europe."

The screening of the film will take place at 6:00 PM on January 22 in Pernik at the invitation of the "Surva" Festival and will bring together Bulgarian and Italian cultural ambassadors of a living, noisy and still strongly active European tradition.

Editor: Veneta Nikolova

Photos: Facebook/scuolaabagar