VASKO AND THE VIOLIN

Bulgaria (2024) 80 min.

dir. Lora Krumova and Maria Yotova

The child prodigy of communist Bulgaria lives in a small apartment building in Lyulin. The state promised Vasko to study at a prestigious music school in the West, but the death of a senior party functionary replaced New York with Moscow. There, Vasko’s talent is forged under the harsh laws of a school with a three-hundred-year history, until the next historical event turns the orbit of his entire family’s life upside down. On the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Vasko finds himself a poor emigrant in London. Thirty years later, the Bulgarian is concertmaster at the coronation of King Charles III and is one of the greatest violinists of his time. Dictators have fallen before his eyes and kings have risen, but the most important lesson learned on the way from Lyulin to the Royal Opera House is quite simple and human.

“Master of Art” Film Festival 2025