''Women Do Cry'' ( bg, Жените наистина плачат, italic=yes) is a 2021 Bulgarian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Vesela Kazakova Vesela Yordanova Kazakova ( bg, Весела Йорданова Казакова; born 4 July 1977) is a Bulgarian actress, screenwriter, director and producer. She is best known for her roles in '' Mila from Mars'' (2004) and ''Stolen Eyes'' (20 ...

and

Mina Mileva Mina Nikolova Mileva ( bg, Мина Николова Милева) is a Bulgarian director and animator. She is best known for her cinematography in ''Cat in the Wall'' (2019) and '' Women Do Cry'' (2021) alongside directing partner Vesela Kazako ...

, and starring

Maria Bakalova Maria Valcheva Bakalova, . ( ; born 4 June 1996) is a Bulgarian actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Critics' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Gl ...

, Vesela Kazakova, Bilyana Kazakova,

Iossif Surchadzhiev Iossif Surchadzhiev (born 2 May 1945) is a Bulgarian stage and film actor. He has appeared in more than fifty films since making his screen debut in 1952. Life and career Surchadzhiev was born on 2 May 1945 in Sofia in the family of director Stef ...

and Ralitsa Stoyanova. Set in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, the film depicts 19-year-old Sonja, who is diagnosed with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

, and the women in her family who flock around and support her. The film premiered at the

2021 Cannes Film Festival The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after t ...

, where it competed in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section, and was also screened at the

Glasgow Film Festival The Glasgow Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Glasgow, Scotland. The festival began in 2005. By 2015, the festival had seen audience figures top 40,000 for two consecutive years. 2008 2008's festival took place between 14–24 Feb ...

and

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

. It was released in theatres in Bulgaria and France to positive critical reception.

Plot

A promising 19-year-old musician named Sonja learns that she’s contracted

. After she drops out of the

music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

, Sonja is helped out by her practical sister Lora, who supports the family by working as a crane driver, and their hapless mom Anna. Sonja’s crisis brings together two generations of women: sisters and aunts who have experienced relentless

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...

, shaming, and

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

in turn. The women also share the trauma of

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

in their own family, which slowly resurfaces the more time they spend together, learning to speak out and to grieve.

Cast

as Sonja *

as Yoana * Bilyana Kazakova as Veronica *

as The Father * Ralitsa Stoyanova as Lora * Dobriela Popova as Tina * Katia Kazakova as Anna * Rositza Gevrenova as Maria * Siana Georgieva as Katerina * Dragomir Kostadinov as Drago

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in the

section on 14 July 2021. Domestically, it was first screened on 15 September 2021 at Sofia Film Fest, and went on to screen at the

Cork Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City, Ireland. It was established in 1956 as part of An Tóstal An Tóstal (, meaning "The Gathering") was the name for a serie ...

on 7 November 2021,

on 9 March 2022, and

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

on 12 March 2022. The film was released theatrically in Bulgaria on 17 September 2021, and in France on 9 March 2022.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Women Do Cry 2021 films 2021 drama films 2021 LGBT-related films Bulgarian drama films LGBT-related drama films 2020s Bulgarian-language films Films set in Bulgaria