Ralitza Petrova
PEACE
When the privileged wife of the owner of a weapons-testing range survives an explosion and emerges from a coma profoundly changed, she undermines her family’s security while her husband undermines hers.
SYNOPSIS
Shortly before her fiftieth birthday, Nadezhda, the privileged wife of the owner of a weapons-testing range, barely survives an explosion and falls into a coma. When she awakens, doctors discover a ballistic fragment lodged in her brain, too dangerous to remove. But the deepest change is invisible: unable to perform the social lies that shaped her life, she begins to unsettle the fragile order protecting her family and sustaining their privilege. As Nadezhda loses the ability to protect those she loves through silence and deception, others cling more fiercely to the illusions that sustain them. While her husband tightens his grip on the world she is letting go of, their marriage becomes a struggle between control and compassion. On the eve of her fiftieth birthday, Nadezhda meets the father of a little girl who was killed in the explosion. In a final act that neither truth nor justice could accomplish, she offers a single compassionate lie before relinquishing the life she once fought to protect.
DIRECTOR
Ralitza Petrova
PRODUCER
Katya Trichkova
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Contrast Films, Aporia Filmworks
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
Mater Pictures
COUNTRIES
Bulgaria, Denmark
Ralitza Petrova
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Ralitza Petrova was born in 1976 and studied film and video at the University of the Arts London and fiction directing at the National Film and Television School. Her work has screened the Festival de Cannes, the Berlin and Toronto International Film Festivals, and the Locarno Film Festival, among others, as well as at institutions such as the Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou. Her debut feature, Godless (2016) had its premiere in Locarno, where it won the Golden Leopard for Best Film. The film went on to receive twenty-seven international awards and was nominated for the European Discovery – FIPRESCI Prize at the European Film Awards. Her second feature, Lust (2026), premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale. It subsequently received the Best Director Award at the Sofia International Film Festival and the Jury Prize at the Bulgarian Film Academy Awards. Petrova is an alum of TorinoFilmLab, Le Groupe Ouest, the Nipkow Programm, and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme. She is a member of the European Film Academy.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I see Peace as an eco-mystical moral fable about the fragile architecture of peace. I am interested in peace not as a stable condition, but as a fragile construct sustained by fear, privilege, and the belief that control can protect us. What happens when the structures that protect us begin to fracture? At this film’s centre is Nadezhda, a woman who survives an explosion and awakens unable to perform the social lies that have shaped her life. Her transformation reveals the hidden violence beneath ordinary life, turning every encounter into a moment of choice. The adventure of the film will not lie in physical heroism but in ethical risk. Visually, I envision a restrained, image-led film in which landscape becomes conscience and silence becomes confrontation. Nature functions as a moral counterpoint to the human desire for control. Nadezhda’s final choice suggests that peace begins where fear no longer governs our actions.
Katya Trichkova
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
After earning a master’s degree in law and completing a specialisation in film directing at NATFA under the supervision of Professor Lyudmil Staykov, Katya Trichkova founded the production company Contrast Films in 2009. Initially, the company produced music videos, stage plays, and short films. Since 2011, she has collaborated closely with Bulgarian director and producer Stephan Komandarev, while also working as an independent producer with various Bulgarian production companies. Her filmography includes nearly twenty feature and documentary films, among them the co-production of Nebojša Slijepčević’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent(2024), which won the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes, the Best European Short Film prize at the European Film Awards, and received nominations for the Academy Award and César Award for Best Short Film; Komandarev’s Made in EU (2025), which was selected for the Venice Film Festival, Blaga’s Lessons (2023), which screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Rounds (2019), which was presented at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and Directions (2017), which screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Festival de Cannes; Petya Nakova’s documentary Silent Legacy(2021), a co-production with HBO that was broadcast in twenty-three countries); Bogdan Mirica’s Dogs (2016) which won the FIPRESCI Prize when it screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes; Veselin Boydev’s short Clothes(2017), which won the Jameson Award for Best Bulgarian Short Film at the Sofia International Film Festival and the Bulgarian Film Academy; and Aike Bettinga’s Chain(2015), which was named Best Short Film at the Edem and ASIANA International Film Festivals. Trichkova specialised in film production through the EAVE and EURODOC programmes and participated in Talents Sarajevo, the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab, and the ExOriente programme. She is a graduate of the ACE production programme, a member of the European Film Academy, and Chair of the Bulgarian Association of Film Producers.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
As producers, we are committed to creating the strongest possible conditions for Ralitza Petrova to realise her most ambitious film to date. Peace is a timely and deeply human story that explores the psychological consequences of living within systems built around fear, violence, and power. We believe the project has exceptional artistic and international potential, combining Petrova’s distinctive cinematic language with a subject of urgent European relevance. Our role is to support a rigorous creative development process, build meaningful international partnerships, and secure the financing needed to protect the film’s artistic vision. Together with our Danish co-producer, we aim to develop Peace as a bold European co-production with a clear festival strategy and long-term international audience reach.
Production company profile
Contrast Films was founded in 2009 in Sofia. The company’s initial activities were primarily focused on the production of music videos and short films, as well as independent stage productions. Currently, the company focuses on producing feature and documentary films – both short and feature-length – by emerging and established filmmakers. The driving force behind the company is its owner, Katya Trichkova.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
1.601,787 €
FINANCES PENDING
1.509 656,€
FINANCING IN PLACE
92.131 €
Production timeline
2027
Financing and packaging
1st half of 2028
Prep
2nd half of 2028
Shootings
2029
Completion