email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

FRANCE

Bulgarian film takes pride of place at La Rochelle

by 

- Twelve movies shining a spotlight on the new dynamic in the Bulgarian film industry are being showcased at the 46th La Rochelle International Film Festival

Bulgarian film takes pride of place at La Rochelle
Ága by Milko Lazarov

Corruption, the grip of the mafia, social deprivation, the post-communist legacy... For the last few years, Bulgarian arthouse film has been enjoying a healthy revival through fiction and documentary titles tackling various social traumas. And while it’s still too early to say whether this is a major, deep-rooted movement, it certainly constitutes a future dynamic that becomes all the more distinct when we realise it concerns filmmakers in their thirties and forties. The 46th edition of the La Rochelle International Film Festival, which is now entering the home stretch, has decided to zoom in on this trend through a selection of 12 films, eight of which have not yet been released in France.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Organised in conjunction with MEDIA Desk Bulgaria, the Sofia International Film Festival and the Paris Bulgarian Film Festival, this programme of discovery most notably includes two titles that were screened at Berlin in February this year: Ága [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Milko Lazarov
film profile
]
 by Milko Lazarov (set to be released in France on 7 November, courtesy of Arizona Distribution) and the documentary I See Red People [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Bojina Panayotova.

A number of other movies that successfully turned heads at major international film festivals are also on the line-up, including two features by Ilian Metev3/4 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ilian Metev
film profile
]
(Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present section at Locarno last year) and the documentary Sofia's Last Ambulance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (presented at Cannes, in the 2012 Critics’ Week). Also on the menu are Directions [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Komandarev
film profile
]
by Stephan Komandarev (unveiled in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2017), Godless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ralitza Petrova
film profile
]
by Ralitza Petrova (Golden Leopard and Best Actress Award at Locarno in 2016), and the first two features by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov: The Lesson [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
film profile
]
(winner of the New Directors section of San Sebastián in 2014, following its premiere at Toronto) and Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petar Valchanov
interview: Petar Valchanov, Kristina G…
film profile
]
 (in competition at Locarno in 2016).

The programme is rounded off by The Last Black Sea Pirates by Svetoslav StoyanovThe Mosquito Problem and Other Stories and The Boy Who Was a King by Andrey Paounov, and the docs The Good Postman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Tonislav Hristov and Every Wall Is a Door [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Elitza Gueorguieva.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy