Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Triumph — combined with their previous films The Lesson (TIFF ’14) and Glory (2016) — forms a trilogy inspired by sensationalist news stories from their Bulgarian homeland that prove once and for all that truth is stranger than fiction.
Based on Alain Gandy’s book Les Chiens Jaunes, the story takes us back to March 1945. The Japanese army launch a sudden, brutally violent assault on the French garrisons in the Far East. Thousands of civilians and soldiers are killed. Stalked by the Japanese enemy, a column of legionnaires who are already weakened by alcohol and disease decide to traverse the jungle in an attempt to reach China and allied bases.
A stark and intimate portrait of a woman against all odds, marginalised by society and trying to find a way to survive in a world where motherhood, misogyny, crime, and independence meet. Faced with societal scorn and her own moral conflict, she navigates a perilous path, determined to shield her child from chaos. In her struggle for survival, bonds of love and loyalty are tested. “I hope viewers leave feeling like it’s a strong story about a woman who is down on her luck and finds her way in a man’s world, doing things her way… and not his”.