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‘Triumph’ Review: Maria Bakalova Seeks an Alien Connection in Bulgaria’s Eccentric Oscar Submission

Starring Maria Bakalova, Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov's satire 'Triumph' presents a country in a state of absurd post-communist confusion.

The panic brought on by unfamiliar liberties spirals to chaotic effect in “ Triumph,” a thoroughly singular political satire from Bulgarian directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, in which old-school power structures and preposterous new-age thinking grind each other down to a vain stalemate. Also overseeing proceedings is frizzy-haired medium Nyagolova (Margita Gosheva), personal psychic to Zlatev: Amid burbling mumbo-jumbo about “reaching the seventh zone” and “deactimination hazard control,” she more plainly insists that finding the artifact and channeling alien intelligence will be the making of the new Bulgaria. As perhaps the one innocent in all this, representative of a population buffeted by muddled political ideologies, Bakalova brings a game, physically elastic dizziness to the film that works in contrast to the terse, barking farce enacted by her elders — her face a clear pool of bemusement and wonder, eventually hardening into distrust.

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