Delving into the disturbing underbelly of an already corrupt society, Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev crafts a gripping thriller focused on Blaga (Eli Skorcheva), a retired teacher who falls prey to a telephone scam. As she attempts to economically and socially recover, the narrative's inclination for overt bleakness slowly reveals itself. While there's measure in how the cinematic eye crafts the protagonist's story and the dreary image of a post-communist town, the message feels forced. Beneath the intense lead performance and the minimalist but effective camera work, there is a rigid moral waiting to be unearthed. A message of hopelessness reiterated with bad timing, to the detriment of a well-thought-out character study.
Having just lost her husband, 70-year-old Blaga is determined to purchase an expensive gravesite and tombstone for him. The graveyard manager (Stefan Denolyubov) promises to keep the spot and fulfil the order at a premium price. The woman is content.
Having just lost her husband, 70-year-old Blaga is determined to purchase an expensive gravesite and tombstone for him. The graveyard manager (Stefan Denolyubov) promises to keep the spot and fulfil the order at a premium price. The woman is content.
- 4/8/2024
- by Sergiu Inizian
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for its Contenders Film: International, featuring the full panel videos from Saturday’s award-season showcase of 12 movies submitted by their countries to this year’s Oscar International Feature race.
Click here to launch the streaming site.
Actors who took part in the discussions included South Korean entry Concrete Utopia‘s Lee Byung-hun, Renée Soutendijk from Netherlands’ Sweet Dreams, Eli Skorcheva from Bulgaria’s Blaga’s Lessons and Eliane Umuhire from Belgium’s Omen.
They were joined among others by directors including J.A. Bayona from Netflix’s Society of the Snow, Hugh Welchman from Poland’s The Peasants, Noora Niasari from Australia’s Shayda, llker Çatak from Germany’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Concrete Utopia‘s Um Tae-hwa, Ena Sendijarević from Sweet Dreams, Stephan Komandarev from Blaga’s Lessons, Omar Hilal from Egypt’s Voy! Voy! Voy!, Jude Anthany Joseph from India’s 2018 – Everyone Is a Hero,...
Click here to launch the streaming site.
Actors who took part in the discussions included South Korean entry Concrete Utopia‘s Lee Byung-hun, Renée Soutendijk from Netherlands’ Sweet Dreams, Eli Skorcheva from Bulgaria’s Blaga’s Lessons and Eliane Umuhire from Belgium’s Omen.
They were joined among others by directors including J.A. Bayona from Netflix’s Society of the Snow, Hugh Welchman from Poland’s The Peasants, Noora Niasari from Australia’s Shayda, llker Çatak from Germany’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Concrete Utopia‘s Um Tae-hwa, Ena Sendijarević from Sweet Dreams, Stephan Komandarev from Blaga’s Lessons, Omar Hilal from Egypt’s Voy! Voy! Voy!, Jude Anthany Joseph from India’s 2018 – Everyone Is a Hero,...
- 12/11/2023
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
Filmmaker Stephan Komandarev, whose credits include two previous Bulgarian Oscar entries including the shortlisted The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, wrapped a movie trilogy about the social ills of post-communist society with Blaga’s Lessons, about the harrowing journey of a retired teacher through the dangerous world of phone scams.
Taking care of his elderly parents over the past decade inspired Komandarev to take a closer look at the plight of retirees.
“This is the generation of our parents, and they became the biggest victim of the process of transition (from communism to democracy) that is already 30 years; somehow they lost the dignity of their last years,” he said during an interview for the Argo Films movie at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International.
He hopes the film and its shocking ending will provoke discussion about “the chronic problem” of how society treats its elderly and help bring in a positive change.
Taking care of his elderly parents over the past decade inspired Komandarev to take a closer look at the plight of retirees.
“This is the generation of our parents, and they became the biggest victim of the process of transition (from communism to democracy) that is already 30 years; somehow they lost the dignity of their last years,” he said during an interview for the Argo Films movie at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International.
He hopes the film and its shocking ending will provoke discussion about “the chronic problem” of how society treats its elderly and help bring in a positive change.
- 12/9/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event launches Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. Pt, the latest in our series of showcases that this time turns the focus toward global cinema via discussions with the casts and creatives of 12 movies submitted by their countries for the 2024 Academy Awards’ International Feature race.
Click to sign up for and watch today’s livestream.
The 2023 Oscar ceremony was a triumph for international film. Going into the ceremony, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was a winner already, having earned a spectacular seven nominations. If that wasn’t enough, it came away with four statuettes: one for International Feature, and three for Cinematography, Music and Production Design. Clearly this can’t happen every year, but, like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite before it, Berger’s World War I epic proved that boundaries are being broken down, and international film, once synonymous with arthouse,...
Click to sign up for and watch today’s livestream.
The 2023 Oscar ceremony was a triumph for international film. Going into the ceremony, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was a winner already, having earned a spectacular seven nominations. If that wasn’t enough, it came away with four statuettes: one for International Feature, and three for Cinematography, Music and Production Design. Clearly this can’t happen every year, but, like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite before it, Berger’s World War I epic proved that boundaries are being broken down, and international film, once synonymous with arthouse,...
- 12/9/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Blaga’s Lessons, Bulgaria’s International Film Oscar submission, has set a release in multiple countries.
The film. written and directed by Stephan Komandarev, will hit theaters in Germany in January through distributor Jip Film. Following an October 20 limited release, Blaga’s Lessons will go wide in Bulgaria on Dec. 15th. Its domestic distributor is A Plus Films.
Additionally, the film is premiering in Spring 2023 in Sweden with distributor November, January 2023 in Taiwan with Swallow Wings, with releases also planned in Spain with Filmin, Greece with Danaos, and Slovakia with Association of Slovak Film Clubs.
Blaga’s Lessons also will be carried by Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO/Max and Cinemax in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria and Adriatic countries.
The movie world premiered in July at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix for Best Film as well as Best Actress...
The film. written and directed by Stephan Komandarev, will hit theaters in Germany in January through distributor Jip Film. Following an October 20 limited release, Blaga’s Lessons will go wide in Bulgaria on Dec. 15th. Its domestic distributor is A Plus Films.
Additionally, the film is premiering in Spring 2023 in Sweden with distributor November, January 2023 in Taiwan with Swallow Wings, with releases also planned in Spain with Filmin, Greece with Danaos, and Slovakia with Association of Slovak Film Clubs.
Blaga’s Lessons also will be carried by Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO/Max and Cinemax in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria and Adriatic countries.
The movie world premiered in July at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix for Best Film as well as Best Actress...
- 11/16/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
This may be the comeback of the decade. In her first film role in almost 30 years, Bulgarian actress Eli Skorcheva — who had gone into self-exile from cinema, changing careers and working odd jobs including as a cleaning lady – stars in Blaga’s Lessons, which earned her the Best Actress Award at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival and is Bulgaria’s 2024 International Film Oscar submission.
The movie by Stephan Komandarev also won the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary and just added the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival.
Like Skorcheva’s accidental first foray into movies in the late 1970s with a lead role that made her a star, her successful return was not planned; it came courtesy of her dog. (More on that later.) Her triumph with Blaga’s Lessons also may have been foreshadowed by Baba Vanga, the famous Bulgarian blind mystic credited with predicting...
The movie by Stephan Komandarev also won the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary and just added the Grand Jury Prize at the Rome Film Festival.
Like Skorcheva’s accidental first foray into movies in the late 1970s with a lead role that made her a star, her successful return was not planned; it came courtesy of her dog. (More on that later.) Her triumph with Blaga’s Lessons also may have been foreshadowed by Baba Vanga, the famous Bulgarian blind mystic credited with predicting...
- 11/2/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
The jury included ‘The Royal Hotel’ director Kitty Green.
Behrooz Karamizade’s Empty Nets and Ibrahim Nash’at’s documentary Hollywoodgate have scooped the top prizes at Adelaide Film Festival (Aff)
Empty Nets received the Aff Feature Fiction Award, with Iranian-born German filmmaker Karamizade winning a cash prize of $6,300.
The Germany-Iran co-production centres on a young couple fighting for the survival of their relationship in the forbidding world of contemporary Iran. The film previously won the special jury prize at Karlovy Vary and premiered at Filmfest München.
The five-strong jury, which included filmmakers Kitty Green and Goran Stolevski, described the film...
Behrooz Karamizade’s Empty Nets and Ibrahim Nash’at’s documentary Hollywoodgate have scooped the top prizes at Adelaide Film Festival (Aff)
Empty Nets received the Aff Feature Fiction Award, with Iranian-born German filmmaker Karamizade winning a cash prize of $6,300.
The Germany-Iran co-production centres on a young couple fighting for the survival of their relationship in the forbidding world of contemporary Iran. The film previously won the special jury prize at Karlovy Vary and premiered at Filmfest München.
The five-strong jury, which included filmmakers Kitty Green and Goran Stolevski, described the film...
- 10/23/2023
- by Sandy George
- ScreenDaily
The German festival posted its biggest ever audience in 2023.
Filmfest Hamburg came to a close on October 7 with an awards ceremony that saw the Cicae’s arthouse cinema award presented to UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How To Have Sex which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May
The cash prize €5,000 is provided by Hamburg’s local film fund Moin to be spent on the film’s PR campaign by its German distributor capelight pictures which will release the film in German cinemas on December 7.
The €5,000 Ndr young talent award, sponsored by local public broadcaster Ndr,...
Filmfest Hamburg came to a close on October 7 with an awards ceremony that saw the Cicae’s arthouse cinema award presented to UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How To Have Sex which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May
The cash prize €5,000 is provided by Hamburg’s local film fund Moin to be spent on the film’s PR campaign by its German distributor capelight pictures which will release the film in German cinemas on December 7.
The €5,000 Ndr young talent award, sponsored by local public broadcaster Ndr,...
- 10/9/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...
- 9/11/2023
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
Stephan Komandarev’s Blaga’s Lessons (Уроците на Блага), which took the Grand Prix in the Crystal Globe Competition at 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as well as the Best Actress Award for its star Eli Skorcheva, will be Bulgaria’s International Film submission for the 2024 Academy Awards.
The country’s selection committee picked the dark contemporary drama by an unanimous decision Thursday. The choice makes Komandarev the Bulgarian director with the most Foreign Language/International Film Oscar entries, three.
You can watch a trailer below.
He holds the distinction of directing the only Bulgarian submission to make the category’s short list with the crowd pleaser The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner in 2009. His migrant drama The Judgement competed in 2015.
Blaga’s Lessons, a Bulgarian-German co-production, is the third film in Komandarev’s trilogy about his country’s social ills which he embarked on following The Judgement.
The country’s selection committee picked the dark contemporary drama by an unanimous decision Thursday. The choice makes Komandarev the Bulgarian director with the most Foreign Language/International Film Oscar entries, three.
You can watch a trailer below.
He holds the distinction of directing the only Bulgarian submission to make the category’s short list with the crowd pleaser The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner in 2009. His migrant drama The Judgement competed in 2015.
Blaga’s Lessons, a Bulgarian-German co-production, is the third film in Komandarev’s trilogy about his country’s social ills which he embarked on following The Judgement.
- 9/8/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
The lessons learned in this pitch-black German-Bulgarian co-production are very grim indeed, a social-realist drama that takes an unexpectedly shocking turn at its harrowing climax. The film’s recent win at Karlovy Vary, where it took the Grand Prix in the Crystal Globe Competition, should give it a welcome boost on the arthouse circuit, but the unwary are warned that Stephan Komandarev’s latest feature packs a punch not seen since Lars von Trier or Michael Haneke in their provocative prime.
Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a widow, grieving after the recent death of her beloved husband Hristo, a former policeman. After saving up, she plans to buy a plot of land to bury him in, 40 days after his passing, with a custom-made double gravestone for them both. Hristo “believed in Lenin more than Jesus,” but Blaga’s desire to substitute a cross for a red star is expressly forbidden in Bulgarian law.
Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a widow, grieving after the recent death of her beloved husband Hristo, a former policeman. After saving up, she plans to buy a plot of land to bury him in, 40 days after his passing, with a custom-made double gravestone for them both. Hristo “believed in Lenin more than Jesus,” but Blaga’s desire to substitute a cross for a red star is expressly forbidden in Bulgarian law.
- 7/18/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Blaga's Lessons Photo: Courtesy of Kviff The main prize at the 57th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has been awarded to a Bulgarian-German production Blaga’s Lessons, directed by Stephan Komandarev.
The film, a riveting social thriller in which a widow takes matters into her own hands after falling victim to a telephone scammer, received Grand Prix Crystal Globe. Eli Skorcheva was named best actress for her role in the film.
Blaga’s Lessons was also the choice of the Ecumenical Jury who have it their grand prize.
The special jury prize has won by Empty Nets, directed by Behrooz Karamizade, and is an Iranian-German co-production.The powerful drama deals with the economic realities of life for young people in Iran through the tale of a waiter who loses his job and his forced to take an arduous alternative as a fisherman.
Fremont Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute...
The film, a riveting social thriller in which a widow takes matters into her own hands after falling victim to a telephone scammer, received Grand Prix Crystal Globe. Eli Skorcheva was named best actress for her role in the film.
Blaga’s Lessons was also the choice of the Ecumenical Jury who have it their grand prize.
The special jury prize has won by Empty Nets, directed by Behrooz Karamizade, and is an Iranian-German co-production.The powerful drama deals with the economic realities of life for young people in Iran through the tale of a waiter who loses his job and his forced to take an arduous alternative as a fisherman.
Fremont Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute...
- 7/8/2023
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Karlovy Vary Film Festival organization has announced winners from the 2023 event, with the Bulgaria/Germany co-production “Blaga’s Lessons” (“Urotcite na Blaga”) and the Germany/Iran co-production “Empty Nets” (“Toorhaye khali”) taking home top honors.
“Blaga’s lessons” won the Grand Prix Award, which includes a $25,000 cash prize for director Stephan Komandarev, to be split with the film’s producer.
Meanwhile, “Empty Nets” won the Special Jury Prize, securing a $15,00 prize for its director, Behrooz Karamizade, also to be split with the film’s producer.
Other winners include Best Director for Babak Jalali for the American production “Fremont,” and the French entry, “The Edge of the Blade,” directed by Vincent Perez, which won the The Pravo Audience Award.
Read on for the complete winner’s list.
Also Read:
‘We Have Never Been Modern’ Review: Czech Drama Looks at Sexuality Through the Lens of 1937
Crystal Globe Competition
Jury members:
Dora Bouchoucha,...
“Blaga’s lessons” won the Grand Prix Award, which includes a $25,000 cash prize for director Stephan Komandarev, to be split with the film’s producer.
Meanwhile, “Empty Nets” won the Special Jury Prize, securing a $15,00 prize for its director, Behrooz Karamizade, also to be split with the film’s producer.
Other winners include Best Director for Babak Jalali for the American production “Fremont,” and the French entry, “The Edge of the Blade,” directed by Vincent Perez, which won the The Pravo Audience Award.
Read on for the complete winner’s list.
Also Read:
‘We Have Never Been Modern’ Review: Czech Drama Looks at Sexuality Through the Lens of 1937
Crystal Globe Competition
Jury members:
Dora Bouchoucha,...
- 7/8/2023
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
The 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 30 – July 8) came to a close this evening with an awards ceremony that bestowed two key prizes to contemporary Bulgarian drama Blaga’s Lessons (Urotcite Na Blaga) by director Stephan Komandarev.
The third film in the director’s trilogy about his country’s social ills focuses on an old woman duped by a telephone scam.
Also among winners on the night were Vincent Perez’s The Edge of the Blade (Une Affaire D’honneur), which took home the audience award, and filmmaker Babak Jalali, who took home the best director prize for the film Fremont.
There were two prizes on the night for Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis (Hypnosen) while the top industry award of 90,000 euros went to Czech film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, which is currently in post.
As previously revealed, Russell Crowe...
The third film in the director’s trilogy about his country’s social ills focuses on an old woman duped by a telephone scam.
Also among winners on the night were Vincent Perez’s The Edge of the Blade (Une Affaire D’honneur), which took home the audience award, and filmmaker Babak Jalali, who took home the best director prize for the film Fremont.
There were two prizes on the night for Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis (Hypnosen) while the top industry award of 90,000 euros went to Czech film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, which is currently in post.
As previously revealed, Russell Crowe...
- 7/8/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Stephan Komandarev’s Blaga’s Lessons, a Bulgarian/German co-production, has been chosen as the winner of the top prize — the Crystal Globe, which comes with a $25,000 prize — of the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The festival announced the winners during its closing ceremony on Saturday. The film’s star, Eli Skorcheva, was named best actress. (See THR‘s review of the film here.)
Meanwhile, the top Czech festival’s special jury prize, which comes with a $15,000 check, was awarded to Behrooz Karamizade’s German-Iranian co-production Empty Nets (see THR’s review). Its audience award went to Vincent Perez’s The Edge of the Blade, a French film (see THR’s interview with Perez), and a special jury mention was designated for Cyril Aris’ Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, a German-Lebanese entry (see THR’s review).
Babak Jalali was honored as best director for the American film Fremont,...
Meanwhile, the top Czech festival’s special jury prize, which comes with a $15,000 check, was awarded to Behrooz Karamizade’s German-Iranian co-production Empty Nets (see THR’s review). Its audience award went to Vincent Perez’s The Edge of the Blade, a French film (see THR’s interview with Perez), and a special jury mention was designated for Cyril Aris’ Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, a German-Lebanese entry (see THR’s review).
Babak Jalali was honored as best director for the American film Fremont,...
- 7/8/2023
- by Georg Szalai and Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Prizes also for ‘The Hypnosis’, ‘Fremont’.
Stephan Komandarev’s Bulgarian-German drama Blaga’s Lessons led the winners at the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff), taking three prizes including the Crystal Globe Grand Prix.
The eighth feature from Bulgarian filmmaker Komandarev also received the best actress prize, for Eli Skorcheva; and a non-statutory Grand Prize from the ecumenical jury.
The main Grand Prix from the Crystal Globe jury consists of $25,000, to be shared equally between the director and producers, the latter of which are Komandarev and Katya Trichkova.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Blaga’s Lessons...
Stephan Komandarev’s Bulgarian-German drama Blaga’s Lessons led the winners at the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff), taking three prizes including the Crystal Globe Grand Prix.
The eighth feature from Bulgarian filmmaker Komandarev also received the best actress prize, for Eli Skorcheva; and a non-statutory Grand Prize from the ecumenical jury.
The main Grand Prix from the Crystal Globe jury consists of $25,000, to be shared equally between the director and producers, the latter of which are Komandarev and Katya Trichkova.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Blaga’s Lessons...
- 7/8/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Bulgarian crime story “Blaga’s Lessons” by Stephan Komandarev scored the top prize and $25,000 at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Saturday, capping a week of celebrating art film, stars and bold global work.
Calling his film a tribute to his parents’ generation, many of whom have become victims of the rough transition to capitalism, Komandarev accepted his Crystal Globe from actor Robin Wright and fest president Jiri Bartoska.
Wright, on winning the fest president’s prize moments earlier, said festgoers in the Czech spa town have shown a love for experiencing cinemas onscreen, urging them to keep up that passion as streaming platforms erode cinema audiences that have still not fully rebounded from pandemic days. “I thank all of you for supporting cinema. Let’s bring it back – Covid put a bit of downer on that.”
With sold out screenings ranging from Russell Crowe introducing “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World...
Calling his film a tribute to his parents’ generation, many of whom have become victims of the rough transition to capitalism, Komandarev accepted his Crystal Globe from actor Robin Wright and fest president Jiri Bartoska.
Wright, on winning the fest president’s prize moments earlier, said festgoers in the Czech spa town have shown a love for experiencing cinemas onscreen, urging them to keep up that passion as streaming platforms erode cinema audiences that have still not fully rebounded from pandemic days. “I thank all of you for supporting cinema. Let’s bring it back – Covid put a bit of downer on that.”
With sold out screenings ranging from Russell Crowe introducing “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World...
- 7/8/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
In one fell swoop, 70-year-old widow Blaga Naumova goes from being cash-strapped to cash-stripped. All her life, she’s carefully pinched pennies to accumulate a modest cushion of life savings that she’s nonetheless never been sensible enough to put in the bank; decades of scrimping amount to naught when, in a moment of terrorized madness, she caves to the threats of a phone scammer and quite literally throws her very small fortune out the window. How could you be so stupid, everyone asks her, and many in the audience are likely to echo them. But Stephan Komandarev’s damning, despairing, riveting thriller “Blaga’s Lessons” sees things another way: In a post-communist Bulgaria where women like Blaga are legally bled dry by cowboys and corrupt institutions on all sides, how is she supposed to see the difference?
Premiering in the main competition at Karlovy Vary, this is tense, tough-minded...
Premiering in the main competition at Karlovy Vary, this is tense, tough-minded...
- 7/5/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In the opening scene of Stephan Komandarev’s harrowing drama, Blaga’s Lessons, an elderly Bulgarian woman is making a down payment on a burial plot for her recently deceased husband, a former police officer. She promises the somewhat sleazy cemetery salesman that she’ll get the rest of the money to him shortly. Since she’s a retired teacher living on a meager pension, it’s no small purchase, especially since this particular gravesite is apparently in hot demand.
But before she can finalize the deal, the 70-year-old Blaga (Eli Skorcheva, delivering a magnificent turn) falls victim to a terrible telephone scam. In a traumatic sequence, she receives a call from a man saying he’s a police officer and that she’s being targeted by a gang of thieves. He instructs her to place all her cash and even her wedding ring in a plastic bag and throw...
But before she can finalize the deal, the 70-year-old Blaga (Eli Skorcheva, delivering a magnificent turn) falls victim to a terrible telephone scam. In a traumatic sequence, she receives a call from a man saying he’s a police officer and that she’s being targeted by a gang of thieves. He instructs her to place all her cash and even her wedding ring in a plastic bag and throw...
- 7/4/2023
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film about a pensioner who is victim of a phone scam world premieres in Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe Competition.
Gaining international prominence with his 2008 festival hit The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner, director Stephan Komandarev has continued to make both fiction and documentary features that address inequality and injustice in his native Bulgaria.
His 2017 film Directions – a drama about the experiences of various taxi drivers over the course of one night – premiered in Un Certain Regard, while 2019’s Rounds examined the work of the police over the course of a day and a night. The...
Gaining international prominence with his 2008 festival hit The World Is Big And Salvation Lurks Around The Corner, director Stephan Komandarev has continued to make both fiction and documentary features that address inequality and injustice in his native Bulgaria.
His 2017 film Directions – a drama about the experiences of various taxi drivers over the course of one night – premiered in Un Certain Regard, while 2019’s Rounds examined the work of the police over the course of a day and a night. The...
- 7/2/2023
- by Laurence Boyce
- ScreenDaily
Bulgarian multi-hyphenate Stephan Komandarev completes his trilogy on social problems and moral ills in contemporary Bulgaria with “Blaga’s Lessons,” world premiering in Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Crystal Globe competition. Heretic is the sales agent.
After “Directions” (2017), which centers on tough times for some Sofia taxi drivers over a long and eventful night, and “Rounds” (2019), about police officers patrolling the capital, Komandarev and his co-writer Simeon Ventsislavov use an older woman duped by a telephone scam to look at issues afflicting their parents’ generation. Komandarev says: “The Bulgarian pensioners turned out to be the real victims of the so-called ‘transition’ (the time from 1989 to today.) These people, who have worked and created persistently all their lives, have lost basic safety and security, normal food, adequate medical care, heating, etc.”
The protagonist Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a retired Bulgarian language and literature teacher. A recent widow, she’s worried about how...
After “Directions” (2017), which centers on tough times for some Sofia taxi drivers over a long and eventful night, and “Rounds” (2019), about police officers patrolling the capital, Komandarev and his co-writer Simeon Ventsislavov use an older woman duped by a telephone scam to look at issues afflicting their parents’ generation. Komandarev says: “The Bulgarian pensioners turned out to be the real victims of the so-called ‘transition’ (the time from 1989 to today.) These people, who have worked and created persistently all their lives, have lost basic safety and security, normal food, adequate medical care, heating, etc.”
The protagonist Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a retired Bulgarian language and literature teacher. A recent widow, she’s worried about how...
- 6/28/2023
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
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