Epidemics are stark mirrors, reflecting the selfishness of humanity and exposing the fragility of social solidarity when death is near.  And when the epidemic coincides with a rare historical moment of major transformations in the world they inhabit, the scene becomes all the more complex and uncertain. In the time of the coronavirus pandemic, Bulgaria experienced a moment of historical rupture, where one appeared to be torn between remaining in a turbulent place or seeking personal salvation beyond it. The filmmaker examines that historical moment through a critical lens, approaching it with a multilayered cinematic text in which major political transformations intertwine with personal fate. To embody his vision, he places Eva, a seamstress in a luxury clothing factory, at the heart of the turmoil, where she must confront her destiny within an atmosphere of crisis. Her work at a factory, owned by an Italian who arrived during Bulgaria’s transition from socialism to a capitalist market, drains her of all energy and vitality. Dependent on the modest income that sustains her and her young son who dreams of discovering new worlds and trying his luck abroad, she lives in constant fear of losing her job, and so endures the factory’s strict conditions and rigid regulations. Contracting COVID-19 turns her, as well as her son’s, life upside down. Her colleagues and those around her come to see her as someone who intentionally spread the virus and knowingly concealed her illness.With an aesthetic approach inclined toward simplicity and a refined writing style that skillfully captures human fear and panic in the face of impending death, Made in EU lays bare the world’s selfishness and its ease in abandoning the very values it pretends to uphold — discarding them without remorse. Yet amid this grim and somber atmosphere, glimmers of light appear, offering the cinematic text, set against a time of pandemics and oppression, a sense of hope that people might one day live a different and better life.Kais Kasim