Liuben

Victor is back in Bulgaria for his grandfather's funeral. His last visit was 12 years ago, and we quickly understand that as a gay man, he felt safer abroad and was able to be himself in Madrid, Spain.

Coming back is an ambivalent, intense experience: everybody considers him a foreigner, although he was born and raised in this village. He remembers how it felt to grow up as a bullied kid at school, he catches up with his father and a few other people, and he befriends a gypsy boy, Liuben, who is desperate for a better future.

It's interesting that the title of the film is Liuben instead of Victor, maybe the director wanted to pay a tribute to the subaltern, most precarious character in the plot. The film is an excellent contribution to the topics of queer migration, as well as hybrid identities, corruption, representations of gypsies in cinema, and contemporary Bulgaria.

Like Joyland, And then we danced, and Land of Storms, Liuben is another illustration of how queer migrants need to find their way and voice elsewhere, and then come back to their country to direct some pioneering queer films as an invitation to move forward and be more inclusive.