In 2016, my father passed away – someone I barely knew. What followed was not conventional grief, but the mourning of absence already in place. LUST emerged from this space as a frame for what is missing and how it lingers. A minimalist gaze on the emptiness left by absent fathers and how daughters carry that weight. Conceived as a coming-of-mid-age psychodrama, I wanted the film to move between mystery, fantasy, and ghost story – not to resolve absence, but to trace how it unsettles control and, at times, creates an opening.
Ralitza Petrova
