10. DokNRitam festival brings us even more interesting biographical movies this year. In Hell with Ivo is really something else. A documentary about Bulgarian singer and multidisciplinary artist Ivo Dimchev. Director Kristina Nikolova Dalio captured this artists both personas, the jovial and cheek stage one and the humane one, which has laid everything bare for the audiences. So we had a chance to talk about the documentary before the premiere:
VRK: What sparked the idea for you and Ivo to team up, and to put his life story on the big screen? And were you surprised by his personality?
Kristina: At the start of the pandemic, I was in Connecticut with my husband and in-laws—completely isolated, disinfecting surfaces, living in fear like so many others. I saw Ivo online, performing in people’s homes. I knew he had HIV, he was immu-nocompromised.
And yet, he was out there, unafraid, present. That kind of freedom and courage stunned me. He refused to let the virus—or fear—define his life. It was controversial, yes. But I found it deeply compelling. I made a short film that went viral—over a million views—even though I hadn’t gone to shoot it myself. That summer, I met him in person. The most powerful material came from those first ten days together.
He was open-hearted and generous with his trust. Initially, I was drawn to his defiance—his passion for life. He reawakened something in me that had gone dormant in motherhood and during COVID.
VRK: Ivo’s quite a character, there’s the bold and quirky stage persona that we see for most of the film, but underneath, there’s a deeply human, flawed man who really wants to connect with the world. Was it challenging to balance those two sides and bring out the real Ivo closer to the audience?
Kristina: Yes, There wasn’t one consistent method that always worked, so I had to just show up and film what unfolded. It began with his home concerts, but I quickly realized that wasn’t enough. I wanted to understand the full picture—his family, his inner world. He was hesitant about that, especially regarding his parents. But eventually, he agreed—with conditions.
He’d say, “Fine, but then you need to include my theater work,” and I’d respond, “I’m more interested in your parents.” It was a constant negotiation. Any time I tried to introduce structure—something more formalized—it didn’t work. He was resistant to it.
Over time, he began to understand the kind of documentary I was making, and he started contributing ideas—for instance, the home concert with the parents was his idea, which ended up being one of the most powerful scenes.
VRK: Musical and biographical docs often follow familiar story beats, but Ivo clearly wasn’t interested in fitting into any mold. He tends to answer personal questions with a mix of ambiguity, punkish attitude and wisdom. Was it difficult to draw those deeper parts of him out?
Kristina: Yes, and the only true solution was time. He stayed with me on many occasions. I got to know his family. I always had a camera with me. Some of the most intimate footage is just the two of us, handheld, unfiltered. Most of the time, he was perfectly comfortable with it.
He was always aware but unguarded, and asked for more cameras to follow him, and had a strong sense of what’s worth capturing—it was actually hard to keep up. Sometimes I’d shoot scenes I knew wouldn’t make it into the film, simply because he asked—and because it built trust.
That’s when the most genuine moments surfaced: when he forgot I was filming, when frustration or vulnerability came through unguarded.
VRK: How long did the shoot take, especially with the challenges of COVID and filming across multiple continents? Was it tougher dealing with travel and regulations, or getting permission from the people Ivo chose to play inside their homes?
Kristina: We were in active production for about four years. The COVID challenges were there from the beginning so if anything it got a little easier as things loosened up. There were tons of people who wanted to host from the very beginning of Ivo’s home concerts so the travel and coordination of visas and vaccines and negative tests were certainly more difficult than getting permission to go into people’s homes.
VRK: Did Ivo come up with all the personal and cheeky questions, after finishing the concerts, or was this something that you two discussed to include within the documentary? And in general, was there any structure for the story, or was it developed as you followed his adventures?
Kristina: The questions are all Ivo and eventually became central to his next stage piece, “In Hell With Jesus”.
With Ivo, you don’t direct in the traditional sense. You create space and let him fill it, like water finding its own shape. It’s like trying to guide a hurricane—your job is to help him find his path gently.
That meant approaching the process with patience, kindness, and absolutely no ego. He is a brilliant artist who has done a lot of autobiographical theater work.
When ideas came from him, I embraced them. The origin didn’t matter—what mattered was the result.
VRK: A lie is seventy percent truth, these words were uttered by Ivo’s father when discussing Trump and his love for the USA president. Was this an elaborate choice to be included due to the current state of modern world politics, and do you agree to some extent with this statement?
Kristina: No, like so many things in the film, this just bubbled to the surface and was caught. Not a purposeful choice and I don’t think my agreement or disagreement says much about it.
VRK: Did you find anything to be either too off putting or revealing and you decided that it needs to go out of the film and be left on the editing floor?
Kristina: There was a scene that Ivo asked him to remove as it was potentially dangerous for him (concerned another person) and I of course agreed as the last thing I set out to do is hurt him.
VRK: Since you’ve heard a lot of his songs, which one has become your favorite to listen to? And in general by having such a close rapport built with him, has anything changed in terms of how you perceive his music?
Kristina: I really love the song we used over the end credits – “Life,” it’s kind of accidentally a country song, or maybe not accidentally? But it just has this great bittersweetness to it. I would say I pay a lot more attention to the lyrics now because the way he draws words out can make them easy to miss and you may not realize you’re jamming along to a song called “Slut” or “Put Your Clit Up”. He is a brilliant original lyrics writer.
VRK: And for the end, would you divulge what responses you gave to Ivo to his most infamous questions uttered throughout the movie?
Kristina: Thanks for asking! Well, I’m a Christian so I guess I’d be in hell with Jesus and Ivo.
You will be able to see the movie at Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Kosovska 11, 27th September, from 20.30h.
