Biennale di Venezia 2025 – Official Selection

Accused of starting a COVID outbreak, a factory worker is turned into a scapegoat discarded by the very system that relied on her labor.

Iva works in a clothing factory in rural Bulgaria battling a persistent, yet mysterious illness. When it is revealed that she is the first case of COVID in her small town, the news spirals into an endless j’accuse - first from the factory owners eager to shift responsibility, then from her fellow coworkers, her son, and eventually her entire community, despite the fact that Iva hasn’t left her small town in years. With Iva's public demonization escalating as the first victims of the virus emerge, she is quickly turned into a social outcast.

With a structure that edges on a social mystery drama focusing on the unsung layers of the COVID pandemic, Cannes director and KV Crystal Globe winner Stephan Komandarev returns with a reflection on aggressive capitalism to compound another gripping, timely, yet fierce portrait of the exploited—all made in the EU.