Kristina Spassovska is a Bulgarian writer-director and producer based in Sofia. A graduate of EICAR Paris in Film Directing, she founded the independent production company Bellevue Kino in 2019. Her short film The Reptiles (2024) premiered at the La Rochelle Cinema Festival and won the National Award for Best Bulgarian Short Film. She is an alumna of Talents Sarajevo and European Short Pitch, was selected for the Goethe-Institut’s First Films First programme, and received the Transilvania IFF Development Award. Kristina develops and produces fiction, documentary, and hybrid projects supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center, the National Culture Fund, the French Institute in Bulgaria, and international partners. She is currently developing her debut feature The Reptiles and her docufiction 40 Maria Luisa Boulevard, both funded by the Bulgarian National Film Center.
PROJECT
The Reptiles
Across three generations, a family codenamed “Reptiles” by Bulgaria’s State Security struggles to escape the grip of the communist regime. Narrated by the ghostly voice of “Cobra”, we follow her father-in-law Ivan, whose failed attempt to flee Bulgaria in the 1950s condemns his family to decades of persecution. Twenty years later, his son “Scorpio” attempts to escape across the Iron Curtain with the woman he loves. Betrayed before reaching the border, the young couple are imprisoned, having to begin their marriage behind prison walls. Released months later, they struggle to rebuild their lives, but fear and paranoia slowly poison the entire family as everyone begins to suspect one another. Blending archival footage, fiction and surreal reenactments, The Reptiles traces a family history where the ghosts of dictatorship survive to this day, long after the regime itself has fallen.
