Lightdox has acquired world sales rights to “The Big Boom!,” the latest documentary from Swiss filmmaker Gabriel Tejedor, ahead of its world premiere in IDFA’s Frontlight program. The film explores the contradictions of a Bulgarian town pulled into Europe’s shifting geopolitical order, where arms production for Ukraine’s frontlines collides with enduring ties to Russia, personal convictions, and the everyday need to survive. In Kazanlak, known as Bulgaria’s “Valley of Roses,” rose oil production and folklore traditions exist alongside a major arms industry.
The Arsenal factory, the town’s main employer, provides work for thousands of people manufacturing weapons and ammunition. Through the lives of four residents, Tejedor examines the place this industry occupies in the town’s economy and identity, and the questions it raises for those whose lives depend on it. But the invasion of Ukraine shattered my convictions,” Tejedor said.
I do not judge the workers at Arsenal, nor the local population. As someone of Bulgarian origin myself, I find his sensitive portrayal of Kazanlak and its people particularly meaningful. He reveals the layers of history, identity and geopolitical influence that shape the region without reducing them to a political argument.” Tejedor is a Swiss filmmaker and journalist whose work explores utopias and the relationship between individuals and authority across the former Soviet Union and its satellite states.
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