How do we remember an artist when her life is never spoken of in full? A young woman sets out to trace the life of Vaska Emanuilova (1905-1985), one of Bulgaria’s most important sculptors, by moving through archives, artworks, conversations with people who knew her, and places that are slowly disappearing. Her search takes her from Emanuilova's former studio in Sofia, now repurposed beyond recognition, to her first gallery, now a restaurant, and her deteriorating childhood home in the village of Komshtitsa.

 

Emanuilova was an influential twentieth-century artist whose sculptures are especially known for their tenderness and striking portrayals of women’s bodies. As the young woman tries to piece together the sculptor’s image from these fragments, the journey becomes something more than a search for artistic biography. Little by little, she realizes that “Aunt Vaska,” as she was known to those close to her, did not only shape clay and bronze. In a deeper sense, she also shaped her.

 

Part documentary portrait, part personal journey, Auntie Vaska explores what remains of a life beyond the official record, and how someone we never knew can nonetheless become part of who we are.

 

(NAP, 2025, Documentary, 00:23:56, Bulgaria)