Natasha

Citygoers are familiar with the sight of (presumably) Eastern European panhandlers working the streets. But who are they? Filmmaker Ulli Gladik finds out. Natasha was begging in Graz when Gladik met her. Many long conversations later, he accompanied her to her hometown in a former industrial site near Sofia. Clichés about beggars from the former Eastern Bloc dissolve image by image. Natasha is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes in love or depressed - just as any we all are from time to time. "The filmmaker Ulli Gladik has made a quite remarkable, respectful portrait." (Der Standard)