Introduce yourself!
Tsvetelina Pencheva, from Tvarditsa, near Elena, 41 years old. A child of the Balkan Mountains with her eyes on the sea.
Tsvetelina’s profile HERE
Introduce your character in the film!
A mother of a withdrawn teenager.
How did you prepare for the role?
How did I prepare?!... I talked to a teen and to parents of teens... Being a teenager today is quite confusing. Having parents who have lived under two political systems makes it even more confusing.
Did your experience at the Film Academy for Talents help you during filming?
It helps me in life generally, not just in the film. I didn’t quite do as well in my role because I’m also the mother of almost the same kind of teenager, and... somehow playing myself and seeing myself from the outside was hard. It was hard to get past the fact that sometimes I’d had to try to find friends for my child, and she herself had felt uncomfortable around peers I had encouraged to befriend her. Today, though, I feel my efforts were in the right direction, and now my teenage daughter seeks me out, wanting to share her whole world with me. At some point, we need to leave today’s adolescents alone for a while without pressuring them, and then we will see the change.
How did it feel to be with everyone else on the team during filming?
The filming and the process itself were very exciting. We had rehearsals beforehand, where I did OK, but during the actual shoot, my inner turmoil and self-directing didn’t help me. Fortunately, Natalia is a wonderful director, writer and mentor who really helped me, and continues to help me, step outside the comfort of self-criticism.
The coolest thing during filming?
The coolest thing about making the film was that our whole team of mentors, Natalia, Lazo, Sofiya and Kalata (I don’t know what it would have been like if Tsvyatko had been with us too... (smiley)), encouraged, supported and motivated us so much. The other crew members I was meeting for the first time were also well armed with patience and understanding towards what was, for some of us, our first acting performance in a film. My fellow cast members and the "children", as well as some parents accompanying the children, were also positive and supportive.
A funny memory from filming?
Haha, the funniest thing was that one of my friends, whom I’ve become terribly close to (there are 4 of us), who is a little older than me and still a wild spirit, was worried about whom she would act with: who would play her child, and especially who would play the father she would argue with. She’s the "surprising diva" type, and I say that with love, and she got the role of a "hippie" mother with a husband of the same kind. The other mother and I (from the cast and our fabulous four) sneaked upstairs to watch how our "diva" would perform, and Nati threw us out. (smiley) In a good way. Afterwards, we laughed a lot when her scene ended and she came down to the ground floor. A little later, her "husband" called down commandingly from upstairs (the first floor of the hotel where we were filming): "My wife... upstairs immediately..." 
. The fourth girl in our group acts in another film, where she plays a school principal. So we have fun when we get together and joke that we’re at a parents’ meeting with the principal. That’s what I can share. I’m writing this as an interview, but it was an entirely personal, powerful and wonderful experience.