"Following Gregg Araki's " I Want Your Sex" and Cathy Yan's " The Gallerist," which both premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to mixed results, Geneviève Dulude-De Celles' " Nina Roza " is the latest 2026 film to take a swipe at the absurdities of the contemporary art world. Though instead of relying on the scandalous machinations of satire, as the Sundance titles did, this one pivots to and later works in service of the meditative allure of grief and memory drama."
"The film's title reflects that "idea of the double," featuring two women who seem enigmatically one and the same to the unmoored protagonist, art curator Mihail, played by Galin Stoev. One is an eight-year-old Bulgarian painting prodigy named Nina, alternately played by twins Sofia and Ekatarina Stanina; the other is Mihail's daughter Roza (Michelle Tzontchev) who's currently staying with him alongside her young son Thomas (Raphaël Fournier), after feeling adrift from the child's father."
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles shot Nina Roza between Canada and Bulgaria as a follow-up to her debut fiction feature A Colony, winner of the Crystal Bear. The narrative centers on art curator Mihail, who confronts two women who mirror each other: eight-year-old Bulgarian prodigy Nina, played by twins Sofia and Ekatarina Stanina, and Mihail's daughter Roza, played by Michelle Tzontchev, who visits with her son Thomas. The resemblance functions as an 'idea of the double' symbolizing Mihail's past and present. The film favors a meditative approach to grief, memory, exile, and belonging over satirical scandal.
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