With its 11 feature films and 12 shorts screened at the 12th Sofia International Film Festival, it could be said that Bulgarian cinema production is undergoing something of a revivification.
From the festival’s opening on March 6 with director Rangel Vulchanov’s А днес накъде (Which Way Today) to the conferring of the audience award on Stefan Komandarev’s Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде (The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner) at the awards ceremony on March 15, Bulgarian movies drew in the audiences both foreign and local.
At the Bulgarian gala on March 14, festival founder and director Stefan Kitanov said to a packed hall 1 of NDK (National Palace of Culture): “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many people turn up for a Bulgarian film!” The film in questions was The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, which tells the story of finding one’s self through the coming together of generations, while on a bicycle trip from Germany to Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian films at the festival all dated from 2007 and 2008. In addition to Which Way Today and The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, the movies screened or to be screened over the three weeks of the programme were Шивачки (Seamstresses) by Lyudmil Todorov, which tells the story of three country girls trying to find the big life in the big city; Летете с Росинант (Fly by Rossinante) by Jacky Stoev, a comedy about an old bus called Rossinante, which has been said to recall those of Kosturica; Хиндемит (Hindemith), a drama by Andrei Slabakov about two modern families; Авантюрата Хамлет (The Hamlet Adventure), or a modern retelling of the classic, by Stanislav Semerdjiev, Ivailo Dikanski and Greg Roach; Военен кореспондент (War Correspondent) by Kostadin Bonev, which tells the life of Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov through six of his war accounts; Вътрешен глас (Inner Voice) by Milena Andonova, in which a joe-normal boy starts to hear voices; a storyline retelling of Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya in Малки разговори (Small Talk) by Vladimir Kraev, Моето мъничко нищо (My Little Nothing) by Docho Bodjakov, about man’s impossibility to combine the attainment of good while preserving that which is searched out; and Valentin Goshev’s debut film Самотни сърца (Lonely Hearts), which tells of an old bachelor tractor driver whose biggest dream is to get married.
Seamstresses and Which Way Today have already have benefited from major release.
In total, 190 films were presented at the festival, which drew more than 180 foreign guests from the cinema industry and press, along with thousands of Bulgarian spectators.
Sofia Film Fest projections continue through March 27 in Sofia and March 21 and in Bourgas, with screenings having ended on March 16 in Plovdiv. All films are subtitled in both Bulgarian and English.
