The phrase “stranger than fiction” can aptly be applied to the new Bulgarian film “Triumph,” which is – shockingly – based on true events. Set after the fall of Communism in the 1990s, a task force of high-ranking Bulgarian army officers and psychics embarks on a military operation to dig up an alien artifact.
The film’s co-director Kristina Grozeva encountered the soldiers as a kid living in Bulgaria, and co-director Petar Valchanov said this inspired them to use the true story as a jumping off point for their own story.
“It’s incredible when you have a chance to work on something that has been inspired by something that really happened, because you realize that real-life stories have even more layers than fictional stories,” producer and star Maria Bakalova told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design.