The Strandzha mountain range is located in southern Bulgaria, along the Turkish border. During the Cold War era, this wild and desert-like region protruding from the Iron Curtain’s southern border was a crossing place for those trying to flee the Communist countries. Today, it is a gateway to the European Union for migrants taking the Turkish road. Rusted barbed wire from 1989 has made way for 2019’s high-tech fence. Alexandre Lévy returns to where he grew up – a hunters’ and nature-lovers’ paradise – to tell the story of men and women from a Kusturici-esque region.

The author’s childhood memories intertwine with journalistic reporting in this journey through a wild and desert-like region of southern Bulgaria (the Strandzha), where elements of picturesque Balkan culture alternate with stigmata from the past and the upheaval of today’s migrations.