Nina Roza (2026) Berlin 2026

An art expert living in Montreal returns to Bulgaria to check on viral sensation of a young girl who is painting masterful works of art. Along the way he is forced to deal with his past and his feelings regarding his daughter.

This is a solid film that is much more than it seems. At first the film is the art story and then the film spins outward into something more special and more moving.

I was not expecting to me as attached to this film as I was. At the start of the film, I thought it was going to be a good by somewhat typical European drama. Then once we got to Bulgaria and the film opened up and the characters widened the discussions I fell under the film's spell. Its a film that stayed with me and forced me to ponder its themes and plot points...something a week or so on I am still doing.

What a delight.

Recommended.

BLAGA'S LESSONS (2023) NDNF 2024

A retired woman who is trying to get a burial plot for her recently deceased husband is scammed out of her savings. She then tries to track down the scammers and ends up morally bankrupt herself.

This is a bleak black tale of life in the Balkans. There is no hope just people screwing each other. The film is profoundly sad as our heroine’s soul is crushed to dust.

I found the film difficult to watch. You don’t want to see someone we like sink, but that is pretty much the case here.

The real bright spot in the film is Eli Skorcheva) as Blaga. This is a glorious performance that gets under your skin moves you. In an age where many performers are phoning in their turns or going for big where small is required Skorcheva moves things along exactly as needed. It’s a performance for the ages. If you see this film do so for Skorcheva. She gives an Oscar worthy performance that Oscar completely ignored (this was an entry for best International Feature)

I should mention that this film is a kind of dark sister to a recent film that played Sundance called THELMA. That film is much lighter and life affirming even though it’s charting a similar narrative line. I am mentioning it because I was, unfairly thinking of THELMA while watching BLAGA.

3/4 (2017) NDNF 2018

Minimalist drama follows teenage Milla who wants to go off and play piano, her younger brother Niki who simply wants to be silly and their dad who simply wants to talk about grand things and not deal with real life. Largely plotless the film is more a series of moments that add up to a a portrait of a family over a period of time.

Its a very well made  film that is going to play best if you life small whisper thin films where not much happens other than life. I was very mixed about the film. I love the technical aspects of the film, from the look, the acting and so on, however the fact it really is less concerned with things happening than it is in people reacting kind of lost me by the half way point.  Yes I knew what it was doing but I didn't much care.

Recommended for the art house crowd and those for whom the New Directors New Films less mainstream films are the manna for your soul.

The Good Postman (2016) Sundance 2017

Haunting portrait of a small dying Bulgarian town Golyam Dervent on the border of Turkey the race for mayor is on. In addition to the current mayor there are two other candidates, one is throw back to the communist days and the other, is the village postman Ivan. Ivan has a radical idea to save the town by taking in Syrian refugees in the hope that if they save them they can save the town.

Operating on multiple levels The Good Postman is on its surface a look at the outsider political process in a small town. It’s so small that there are only 38 people in the village and everyone knows everyone. Even so both Ivan and his chief rival are the outsiders behind the towns incumbent mayor. We are given a ringside seat to a film that will examine what it take to both win the election and attempt to bring the town back from the brink of extinction.

On another level the film is working on is as an examination of the refuge problem in Europe. Golyam Dervent was once the literal gateway to Europe and the steady stream of refugees passing through the village are causing ripples. Despite Ivan’s good hearted desire to help people in need and the town itself the rumblings of the anti-immigrant factions of the right are seen to be in action on TV and the edges of the town. It’s this portion of the film that is so haunting since it nicely gives voice to the various sides of the issues. What is most intriguing is that within the village the most vocal voices against taking in any refugees comes from those who are themselves immigrants.

What starts off as a kind of comedy flips somewhere along the way to become a rather sad look at the state of Europe today. Its a film that leaves you pondering many thing- What does taking in refugees actually mean?  As it is being on the border the village has a problem in that the refugees wander through it on their way to somewhere else- but what would happen if they stayed? Can a  town be compassionate?

The Good Postman is something rare in documentary filmmaking, something that plays more like fiction. Watching the film I was struck by the notion that what I was watching was not real but a carefully modulated film from Eastern Europe. The people reminded me of characters in films from in and around Bulgaria. The images are simply stunning and at times seem too carefully composed to have been gotten by chance. This is not a knock against the film rather statement that this portrait of reality somehow transcends of happenstance recorded reality to become a very real and moving work of art.

Thinking about the film some weeks on I find I am still haunted by the film. There is something about it that hangs around your brain. The people crawl inside your heart and take up residence, its ideas rattle around and keep popping up asking to be considered.

Recommended when the film runs again at Sundance (tickets here) or during what I’m certain will be its eventual theatrical run

Aferim! (2015) Tribeca 2015

This film surprised the hell out of me big time. I thought I was getting depressing Romanian film instead I got a great adventure/slice of life.

Based on historical records AFERIM! is set in 1835 and follows a constable and his son as they leave to track down a runaway gypsy slave in Wallachia. We watch as the pair goes sets out on their trip, finds their goal and then heads home again . It's a film that could very well be called There and Back Again.

Shot almost entirely wide or medium shots (I think there is only one approximation of a close-up) the film is very much a film about space and distance and the landscape.  Where everyone is says a great deal about where they are in society. The distance also makes us outsiders. We are truly observers and not part of the action.

While very much it's own thing, the film echoes in many ways films like Tarkovsky's ANDRE RUBLEV or the work of Bela Tarr with long takes and little cutting within a scene. The film also isn't really what you would call an action adventure, there are no high points just life- and life goes on past the end of the film.

This is a glorious achievement. its a film that came out of nowhere as far as I was concerned and just worked me over. I couldn't look away, even though the film should on the face of it be something I wouldn't like.

A wonderful adventure in cinema. See it.

Making Waves New Romanian Cinema 2014: VIKTORIA, QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRADUM I AM A COMMUNIST HAG,WHERE ARE YOU BUCHAREST, CHILDREN 404

The annual look at Romanian Cinema is taking place at Lincoln Center (it started last night). I'm going to chime in with a capsule reviews of several of the films playing the series.

I know I normally do longer reviews but when I sat down to watch the films I found that I got lost in the films and didn't take that many notes. That's a rave for the selections since I lose myself it means the movies are damn good.

VIKTORIA (2014)
Viktoria is born without a belly button. This makes her some sort of miracle baby and delivered into a life of luxury. However when the Communist regime falls Viktoria's life is changed as she must now navigate life life differently.

Brooding moody film is beautifully made, wonderfully acted and to be perfectly honest not my cup of tea. For me VIKTORIA has a great first half  and then it loses itself in the second. It wouldn't be bad but the film runs an hour too long.

If you are a fan of Romanian films this is a must see, if not you may want to step away.

The film screens Monday the 8th as the closing film of MAKING WAVES. For more information and tickets go here.

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRADUM (2013)
Mathematics professor is placed under scrutiny when he publishes a paper in the west with out proper authorization. This turns his life upside down  since there is nothing in the paper of any real use to anyone.

Moody black and white drama about life under the Communist regime is definitely worth a look, A weird trip into the double think existence that would be gone five years later. Its film like this that make me keep going back and trying Romanian cinema.

This film plays tonight at 830. For tickets and more information go here

I AM A COMMUNIST HAG (2014)
Bittersweet and frequently charming look at a 60ish woman with a nostalgia for the old Communist days who has her world shaken by a film crew asking her to participate in a documentary on  said old days and the return of her daughter from America with her fiance in tow.

I really liked this film a great deal with it's great characters, sense of life and pondering of the old vs the new. Probably my favorite of the series and a must see.

The film plays tonight at 6 and on Sunday. For tickets and more information go here.

WHERE ARE YOU BUCHAREST? (2014)
A look at the protests that srpung up in 2012 when the people of Romania got pissed off with their president and decided to speak out. Director Vlad Petri follows the demonstrations for a year as the unrest grows and referendum for Impeachment is voted upon.

Excellent documentary walks the fine line from giving us a been there and done that on the street approach (how many films about public unrest have their been?)  and giving us some truly wonderful food for thought. Listening in on the various factions expressing themselves is marvelous especially when you consider that the country had only gone through even more massive upheavals within living memory.  Nostalgia for what was clashes with dreams for a better tomorrow and the harsh realities of today.

One of the better poltial documentaries of recent vintage and a must see.

The film plays tomorrow and Monday. For tickets and more information go here.

CHILDREN 404(2014)
Running as a small side bar called Creative Freedom Through Cinema which is looking at LGBTQ issues in Eastern Europe CHILDREN 404 is a look life in Russian under Putin's anti-gay propaganda laws. 45 Russian teens share their stories

I don't know what to say other than the film is a deeply moving and that you should go see it and get pissed off. I'd say more but ranting about how big a dick Putin is and the damage he's doing is not film criticism and serves no purpose. Go see the film and get active.

The film plays tomorrow. For more information and tickets go here.

Connection Session: A discussion with the director and participants of LOVE AND ENGINEERING

One of the highlights of this year's Tribeca Film Festival was LOVE AND ENGINEERING, a documentary from Finland about a group of engineers who explore a scientific approach to the nature of attraction and forging successful relationships. Both humorous in its following of subjects that are oftentimes charmingly out of tune with others around them, and insightful in its earnest pursuit of the factors that make certain people click, it was clear that the conditions around this production were not ordinary.

During the festival I had an opportunity to speak with the film's director Tonislav Hristov and two of its subjects, Atanas Boev and Todor Vlaev, about the collaborative nature of making the film, what is involved in undertaking a carefully constructed documentary production in Finland, and some of their reactions to what transpired while it all unfolded. 

Mondocurry: How did you come to meet around this project?

Tonislav Hristov: I Was doing my first feature length documentary, The Rules of Single Life, . And on my trip back to Bulgaria, I met Anatas on the airplane, and he was an old friend of mine. He said that he saw the film but it was ‘ok,’ but didn’t like it so much. It was about some single guys who are trying to find love. (Anatas) said to me ‘this is not working, listen to me, I’m an engineer and I know a better way. ‘

Atanas Boev, director Tonislav Hristov, and Todor Vlaev (left to right)

Atanas Boev: (Tonislav) was doing an artistic approach and my ideas was that a systematic or sequential approach would be much better.

 MC: At the beginning of the film, we see you talking about ‘hacks‘ for attracting people. When did you start thinking about these?

AB: Actually I had been in a long term long distance relationship. I was trying to let it go and get myself together and address the problem. I went online to find some research and I found out there’s already plenty. But it was addressed in a nonscientific way. It’s like the stuff you find in an online shopping guide. I took up the challenge to do it in a proper scientific way.

MC: The subjects of the film are all engineers. Could you give your definition of what being an engineer is?

Todor Vlaev: We are all IT engineers. One guy is good at programming, one guy is working with software, another guy working with networks… It just happens that IT is such a big field in Finland. Most of the guys are somehow connected to software or IT. An engineer can be a very broad term. It implies that you studied something technically and you basically use rules and science to create things.

TH: Before I got my film school degree, I got an engineering degree too.  So this was a bit of a personal agenda for me. I was a machine engineer. I wasn’t in IT.

MC: Affected working together when knowing subject vs not so familiar with?

TH: I always make documentaries about people who I know or subjects that I am really aware of. Finding funding for those films takes a very long time. There are hundreds of commission editors that will ask you so many questions about the subject of your film. I know in America it works a little different. Documentaries here are done more in a guerilla style, I think it’s called, where you just take the camera and follow things and wait for something to happen. But for a bigger budget you have to find your subjects, then the story, then you sell the idea a bit. Maybe show a trailer, and then you start making the proper film. So you have to be really well prepared for what the film will look like. You don’t need to know what’s going to happen at the end but you should at least know what’s going to happen in the first third of the film. The way I do films is with really big equipment like very heavy cameras with equipment and lighting so it’s kind of a different way. It’s not a cheap way to do it. And then when the guys get used to the equipment and the lighting and everything, then they can relax and be themselves. It’s the opposite of doing it with a small camera and running around.

MC: How do you try to keep from influencing the subjects being filmed?

TH: The only way is that they need to get used to the lighting and the camera. And also we are very close friends. The cinematographer is also a very good friend. So we make this core group to work and feel comfortable in.  Once they feel comfortable in that, they are themselves. It’s the only way. And if they don’t feel comfortable, it’s very clear there is some problem and we try to deal with it.

For example in the original story,  there was another engineer also, but then he kind of dropped out of the film because he didn't really fit with how things were going.

AB: I also took this responsibility. If we're going to do science, I will tell how the experiments are going to be and what experiments we will do…(Tonislav) didn’t have any way to influence us. He didn’t mess with the experiments and I didn’t mess with where the camera shoots, etc.

TH: And of course beforehand we know very well what the shooting day is going to be like because we have the permissions and the laboratory and the people involved. We cannot just go anywhere with a camera in Finland. We needed at least 2 or 3 weeks in advance to prepare for one shooting day. It’s this kind of process.

MC: Are there any experiments that you had to leave out of the film and regret not being in the final cut?

TH: I believe the best we had were in the film and if we didn’t take any out it would be really long. In the original idea, somewhere there were more proper professors involved. We even shot some talking heads like interviews between Atanas and conversations with the professors. We had 2 or 3 or even more professors. We decided to not concentrate on the science and the professors’ point of view of what’s happening to the engineers.  We’d just let the experiments happen and the engineers themselves realize what is happening and basically concentrate on what is character driven, not someone narrating it.

  

MC: Because of friendships, was there collaboration or separation of filmmaker and subject?

AB: We collaborated with the other subjects.  They took their tasks very seriously. They were checking things online as we were checking things like how to design a proper experiment.

TH: It has never been like that for me. They are not just my subjects, they are my friends.

TV: Yeah all the time we discussed where are we going, what are our new ideas, what can we do, and as Tony mentioned when you need permission to go somewhere, they're not gonna just let four random guys get into the university. We had the support of the producers.

MC: Were there experiment results that surprised you?     

TH: It was really interesting when we did this test about smell and the body. There were some pretty nice reactions from the women…For example we had an experiment where we had the t-shirts of very handsome actors who were running and we put the t-shirts together with their t-shirts and we asked the women which smelled best. Because there’s this idea that if you are in better shape and eat very healthy, that’s what most actors do, then your smell is much more pleasant. Some of the results with these women were exactly the opposite. One woman really liked the guy who was the shabbiest. Of course most of them loved the actor’s t-shirt’s smell. But there were 1 or 2 who were strongly into the other guy, which was really interesting. This was a result that we couldn’t predict. There were many such kind of results.  

Td: One thing was about the experiment with these jokes that we were writing. Markus made this kind of matrix so you could see what kind of girls like what jokes. And mostly they didn’t like them at all. But there was this one girl, number 6, and she rated everything pretty good. So she liked most of the jokes even though they were pretty bad. The girl was a lawyer and very intelligent. And she had a very weird sense of humor. The weirdest and the craziest jokes, she liked the most.

AB: Even for the engineers with a weird sense of humor, there is a proper girl who liked that.

MC: Is there one person who you all felt changed most significantly over the course of the film?

TH: That was Todor. That’s why he ended up the biggest character in the film. Of course the other guys were also changing throughout but Todor was trying the most. And that’s why it was so visible. It didn’t matter if the other guys were around, he tried to go out of his comfort zone. He tried to use what we were talking about, he was trying to change and this is why it was so good.

A: I also had the same opinion. He’s the one that put in the most effort.

Td: There were some guys that put in more effort as far as actually researching and reading papers. But I think you see that emotionally I changed the most.

MC: You really seemed to show a lot of self awareness. Do you feel it’s a result of being in the documentary, or just participating in the experiment?

Td: Well yeah, it’s everything. I’m pretty interested in why I feel a certain way so it’s a very self-centered thing. But for a long time I’ve been obsessed with self-improvement. On many kinds of levels from sports to emotional resilience, so I’m constantly analyzing this sort of thing. If you ask me about anything, I’ll try to figure it out. But I’m told sometimes (I) shouldn’t think so much about these things. But this is how I am. And it’s kind of hard when you realize sometimes things are hard to change, even if you understand them.

MC: The music in the film really gels with the images and sets a mood. Can you talk about coming up with it? Any influences?

TH:  (Peter Dundakov) is a very good friend of mine. We worked on a few movies together. He did the music beforehand. I have to be honest it was pretty rough because I was fighting with him and sometimes it got really aggressive. I had some vision about the music and he was giving me some other things, which is great. The composer has to give you some other things. But he was trying to convince me and I hate when someone is trying to convince me of something I don’t like.  There were fights and there was shouting. But it happens with everyone. He’s a brilliant guy and did a great job. It’s a friendly kind of thing but it’s not an easy process. And even at the end, of course the music was good because it took us one and a half years. We were working constantly on the music. At the end it was really exhausting but of course I’m gonna work with him again, there’s no question.

I wanted something like Moby’s music, which has a feeling that is more like human. It has the voice. It has the humming. And then there is this melodic beat. Then I had this other music by this brilliant DJ, Caribou. I really liked it and in some working trailer with which we pitched the film we used Caribou for the soundtrack especially these two songs Jamela an (  ). they were the last two songs on the album, Odessa.

MC: There was a very impressionable image in the film of rows upon rows of blinking lights in a very large room…

TH:  Assembly.org is the website. Basically every winter and summer an event is held in Helsinki. In the summer it comes up to 10,000 people. They’re all in the same ice hockey hall. They sit together and connect their computers.

AB: Everywhere they are sitting. It is the Woodstock for IT guys. In 2004 they actually had over 10,000 people.

TH: They go together, they play, they do animations.  They do music. It’s a huge LAN party for 4 or 5 days and everyone sleeps and is doing stuff in the same spot. It’s a really huge thing in Scandanavia.

MC: There is also a lot of imagery showing homes with various of screens set up. Does this affect the ability to form relationships?

TH: I’m not so sure. Of course everything affects the way we are.  But I think this has more of an effect on the comfort zone

AB: They form their own kind of nest there.

TH: I think when you are surrounded by gadgets they make you feel more comfortable and secure and this is what makes it hard to go out of the comfort zone.  Everyone should know that when you are in this comfort zone there will never come a girl to knock on your door and say let’s watch a romantic film. It doesn’t work like this. So you have to go out of this nest. And that’s why we are surrounded by gadgets; because they make us feel good.

A: This is why the Google Glasses is the IT guys’ attempt to bring the nest with them.  My advice to all the IT guys is to leave the Google Glasses at home if you are going for a date. Because otherwise you are never going out of that comfort zone.

MC: Did completing Love and Engineering point you in direction of what you would like to do next?

T: Yeah we are already writing a third part of this romantic series, called the mathematics of divorce. It’s about an algorithm of predicting when a couple will divorce. Because Finland has the highest rate of divorces in Europe. So we think there must be some reason for it. It’s going to be a very humorous kind of thing but still a very serious subject.

Tonislav Hristov has been an active documentary filmmaker. Prior to LOVE AND ENGINEERING, he  made 'The Rules of Single Life' in 2011. He also made 'Soul Food Stories,' a documentary about the interaction of individuals from different religious backgrounds living in Bulgaria, which was nominated for the Golden Gate Award at the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival. 

Ace photography and positive background atmospheric vibes provided by Chocko. Check out his photoactivity on his instagram.

Color of the Chamelon (2012) New Directors New FIims 2013

After the accidental death of his father in the printing press...

Damn near impossible to describe film has a young man recruited by the Bulgarian secret police to spy on people at his school. When the police decide they don’t want his help he continues to do so anyway creating his own bureau… (I'd say more but it's best you discover the twists and turns on you're own)

To say that the film is weird is an understatement. This is an off kilter walk through a fun house hall of mirrors. Nothing and no one is normal, but they are all so compelling that you simply have to keep watching no matter where it goes.

Adapted by Vladislav Todorov from his own novel this film plays exactly like a work of literature taking its time to twist and turn all over the place. No one it seems is on the level and no one is playing anything straight. There is no one anyone can trust except themselves. It’s also so twisted that ten minutes in I gave up trying to figure anything out or what it meant and just let it wash over me.

You're bookish you're thoughts are borrowed...

As to how close this is what it was like in Bulgaria before the fall of communism your guess is as good as mine, but it’s clear the society was designed by his holiness Franz Kafka with an assist by George Orwell. And while I’m very aware of how absolutely cliché that sounds there is no other way to simply explain what it’s like. Saying the film is weird won’t cut it, you’ll want to know weird how. It’s weird like Kafka but only nine or ten degrees weirder.

The film stays the course of compellingly strangeness for most of its running time before going off the rails about 90 minutes in. There is a point where the film jumps ahead two years to after the fall of communism. At this point the film seems to have morphed into another film all together. We don’t fully know how we got from there to here and the result is jarring. The result is the kind of like getting on a train heading toward Boston and then suddenly finding you’re pulling into Chicago. You’ve made the trip safely and pleasantly but you don’t know how you got there.

I really like it a great deal. It’s so unique and out there it’s impossible to be a lover of the offbeat and weird and not love it. It’s a film that forcibly engages you until it’s very last moment which makes it thrilling.

For me the real joy of the film was listening to my fellow reviewers trying to make sense of the film after the screening. No one could get a handle on the film. No one could make heads or tails of it. One person complained about the ending, some people babbled about the whole thing. Most dismissed it because it didn’t fit their idea of what a film should be. One gentleman went around sing songing about how bad a film it was (and yet I could tell during the film he was laughing at many of the jokes). Any film that confuses and confounds a theater full of critics this badly has to be great.

If you want a film that will challenge you, frustrate, amuse and engage you see this film. I doubt you’ll see another film like it this or any other year.

No one can tell you how to live in happiness...