Mina Mileva

After two decades in the British animation industry Mina Mileva created Activist38 with Vesela Kazakova, also an actress. Vesela's leading roles have won her several Best Actress awards like Silver George at the 2005 Moscow International Film Festival and Berlinale Shooting Stars in 2006. Mina and Vesela have directed and produced subversive documentaries, which, according to Variety act as “rare gadflies whose sting is causing a massive allergic reaction on the thin skin of Bulgaria’s filmmaking elite”. Despite their international recognition, the films haven’t been aired on Bulgarian television for years. Vesela and Mina received institutional harassment and had to undergo numerous interrogations. A PR of a major political party and member of Bulgarian Parliament even nicknamed them the “Demonic duo”! Their first fiction film Cat in the Wall premiered in Competition at the Locarno Film Festival 2019 and SXSW for North America. It received the FIPRESCI Award at the Warsaw Film Festival 2019 and was part of the EFA Feature Film Selection 2020. The film ranked number 1 in Screen’s summer festivals selection of 2019. Their second feature drama, Women Do Cry, was selected in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2021.