Interview with Rumyana Petkova
Interview with Rumyana Petkova
Question: Do you agree with the conventional wisdom that film directing is primarily a male profession?
Rumyana Petkova: It exists as a belief, but we are a hypocritical society and we don’t say it out loud. But in reality facts testify to it. It is quite hypocritical in some people, in others it’s on a subconscious level – when they see a woman they say to themselves, "Leave women aside, they are good for nothing." This attitude exists but still people in Bulgaria wouldn’t show it directly. So I say it is hypocritical. Many people think like this, but do not say so - "you are a woman, what do you think you are doing?" One part is subconscious, but there are some people who can’t help themselves sometimes and blurt it out.
Q: Do your films contain a type of world perception or sensitivity that is different from those of men?
R. P. : I am working with women only. All my screenwriters have been women, my director of photography is a woman. And back in those years it was quite strange. Regarding the crew it’s all right but my creative team has always been composed of women. For better and for worse, of course. I can say it now. While I was working, I thought it was only for the better. With my other two screenwriters - Rada Moskova and Malina Tomova, I grew close as we worked on the script. We became friends afterwards. It was somehow easier with the female type of communication.
Q: How did you deal with the difficulties as a female filmmaker?
R. P. : Women in that period had more self-confidence - which was something unexpected. Binka Zeljazkova contributed a lot to this. We had a good example and she was constantly fighting for us. The same is true for Boyka and Ivanka Grabcheva and Rumyana, they were very spirited women.
Q: How do you think female directors are perceived outside Bulgaria, in the global context?
R. P. : I’ve been to quite a few festivals for women only. And there I saw that the attitude to women who work only with women is entirely different. Something inside me was overturned then and I started thinking differently. The first festival I attended abroad was in Mannheim. There was a parallel program for "Female directors" – and seeing how many they were… There were also other people very much surprised and amazed that there could be so many.