The question whether is easy to live in Bulgaria would most likely evoke answers that border on the extreme. Coming from Bulgarians, that is. Those who bear a different nationality may offer different shades of the black or white that natives are refusing to acknowledge.

The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate is trying to reflect on how women-immigrants go about their daily lives, what they miss from their countries and what they have found to enjoy in their new home. To give some insights on those questions, the centre is organising a three-day event titled To be a Woman Foreigner in Bulgaria. The event is also probing into the question whether there is such thing as Bulgarian hospitality or it is more of a myth.

From June 11 to 14, The Red House, located at 15 Ljuben Karavelov street, will bring together some of the immigrant communities in Bulgaria, offering an opportunity for close encounter with their culture. This initiative is a shared responsibility with the Centre for European, Refugee, Migration and Ethnic Studies (CERMES) at the New Bulgarian University.

The festival's programme features a Desislava Chongarova documentary film titled Being a Russian Woman in Bulgaria, which tries to answer the question whether "the Russian daughters-in-law" remain strangers after many years spent in Bulgaria and in which cultural tradition do they raise their children.

A debate under the same title follows the documentary, with participants Aleksandr Fedotov (Sofia University), Marina Dadikozian (head of Federation of Russian compatriots), Maria Minkova and Maria Vassileva ("Russkaya gazeta"), among others.

On June 12 opens the exhibition Portraits of Refugees, which features the works of Ivan Tafrov and Vladimir Morzhohanov. A presentation of the book titled Images of a Woman will mark the second day of the festival. Co-written by Asma Burzhi, Vania Ivanova and Albena Cholakova, the book intertwines two narratives - the one of a Lebanese woman-writer and the research of two women, who had tried to explore the "other woman" with life-story interviews.

The festival also presents Can Somebody Hear Me? - a theatre performance adapted from the works of Palestinian authors Elena Hamdan and Hajri Hamdan, who publish both in Bulgarian and in Arabic.

Then the cultural encounter will continue with some prominent members of the Afghani community in Bulgaria who share the wealth of their folklore as well as their problems.