RADIOGRAM / РАДИОГРАМОФОН

The Rodopi Mountains, 1971. Bulgaria.
Based on a true story, Radiogram follows Ali, who risks his life when he embarks on a three day journey through the army patrolled mountains to the nearest city, so he can buy a new radio for his rock ‘n roll obsessed son. Set against the backdrop of the Communist regime ruling the country, this is not only a story of how far a father is prepared to go for his son, but also about a desperate man seeking to re-capture his sense of freedom.

„Radiogram is for anyone passionate about true stories, foreign language films and rock ‘n roll. Although the setting is in Bulgaria, the story represents everyone in East Europe who remembers the communist era. And as we continue to live in turbulent times, Radiogram is more important to be told today than ever.
Radiogram brings a new meaning that music is freedom. In the 70’s, the Merseybeat sound started a shift in the UK, it changed the music landscape and even crossed the pond to America. Yet the effect it had in East Europe, the lengths people went through and what they risked to listen to popular music is not well known. It is this change that inspired people years later and helped the collapse of the Berlin wall. Even Michail Gorbachev admitted that Beatles ‘brought down Communism’.“
“People were united against the regime and found hope in music and in each other. It is this banned music that inspired my father's generation to seek their freedom in the late 1980s.”

Rouzie Hassanova for Cineuropa.org