Hot Docs 2008

Take a trip on a connecting road that doesn't exist between three mistrustful countries that may not even want to be linked. Filmmaker Boris Despodov embarks on just such a haphazard journey as he attempts to travel along Corridor #8, the massive infrastructural project joining Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. Commissioned by the EU in 1997, the complex rail and road system is designed to connect the Black and Adriatic seas and lift the economic hopes of the farmers and blue-collar workers along its way. But after millions of euros and 10 years, little progress has been made. An unfinished Bulgarian railway tunnel is used for growing mushrooms, threats of roadside Albanian blood feuds expose the growing cultural unrest within and between nations, and peoples' skepticism about their future is degenerating into abject apathy. Absurdly funny, quintessentially Balkan and poignantly revealing, Corridor #8 is a fascinating portrait of the new unified Europe.
-Myrocia Watamaniuk