Dario Anghilante

Bogre is a journey into time and space, on the trail of Cathars, Albigenses and Bogomils, medieval heretics who spread from Bulgaria to the European West. Why Bogre? Those who speak the Occitan language know that bogre (pronounced “bugre”) means Bulgarian, but over the centuries that word has acquired the meaning of foolish, the one who masks the truth. In the 12 th century, bogre became an insult directed towards the Occitan Cathars, who were equated to the Bulgarian Bogomils, from whom the Western Catharism derived. The followers of these heretical teachings called each other “good people” and “good christians” because they believed they were returning christianity to its original purity. Their ideas traveled the length and breadth of Europe, from the Balkans to the Pyrenees, from center-northern Italy to Bosnia.

The aging, conservative population of a small, sleepy village in the Italian Alps are surprised to see that a former French professor has settled there with his young wife and their three children to produce goat cheese, in order to escape the wrongs of civilization. At first they are suspicious of his unconventional ideas and lifestyle, then are conquered by the enthusiasm, kindness, helpfulness of the young family and start to see in them a possible rebirth of the place. But little by little misunderstandings, envy and conflicts take over.