This story contextualizes the general problem of depopulation and negligence, as well as the repetitive occurrence of individuals abandoning the rural parts of South-Eastern Serbia, and the Balkans in general. It does so through an intimate narrative about two twin sisters who are living in such an environment–in a small municipality called Dimitrovgrad, a border area between Serbia and Bulgaria.
By portraying the problems contained within their mundane life, as well as through illustrating the challenges that the two sisters face daily, I am trying to draw attention to an undoubtedly significant social problem. This a problem where families living in such rural areas are left to their own devices, forgotten by the state and local municipalities, as well as by all the other stakeholders who would be able to make an impact on their overall well-being.
My motives for choosing to tell such a story, are up to a high degree personal, given the fact that I come from the very same community. A community where during the period of my upbringing, placed within the same physical and metaphysical borders, I had the same set of experiences, the same emotional challenges, and the same obstacles.
Through my established relationship with the sisters from the Mladenov family, I am also attempting to visually explore memories from my own childhood, as I remember and understand what it really means to live in an environment such as Dimitrovgrad.
