In the year of its centenary, new Bulgarian cinema has a worthypresentation at the 33rd edition of the Golden RoseBulgarian Film Festival held in the city of Varna. It features 13 new Bulgarian film titles. What trends emerge in this selection -we seek answers from film theory critic Antonia Kovacheva, Director of the Bulgarian National Film Archive and member of the jury for feature film:

"It was a very strong festival. As a film critic, I always try to stay away from excessive excitement regarding new Bulgarian movies, as well as excessive pessimism. The truth is that there was a very wide range of different genres and forms. Of these 13 films eight are debuts. This confirms the trend of recent years that a new generationis enteringBulgarian cinema, and it is extremely important not only for the relevance of the topics to be considered, but also for the way they are interpreted and presented to the audience. Overall, the program of feature films was quite interesting, and this hindered the jury because given the strong titles in the demonstration of serious professionalism, the distribution of the prizes turned out to be quite a complex task.”

As to the debuts, they are divided into two main streams. One is of the young artists who shoot their first films. And the second group of debutants are actually experienced filmmakers who previously worked in documentaries or short fiction forms.

"They dwell mainly on important problems of Bulgarian society”, the film critic says.“Maya Vitkova's debut for example is a very serious, risky and provocative movie entitled Victoria. It is long and complex in terms of structure. Also impressive is the debut with The Petrov File of an established documentary filmmaker - extremely talented colleague Georgi Balabanov. These films continue, albeit from a different perspective, to address problems of the communist heritage, the transition between the state of internal lack of freedom in a totalitarian society and the transformations we underwent in the transition years. Very interesting is the approach in both films."

Antonia Kovacheva is also impressed by the movie The Woman of My Life, directed by Anthony Donchev, which tells the story of two young Kurds engaged since they were children. The developments in global conflicts, however, take them away from each other. They try to reunite across borders and changes in geopolitics.

"In any case there is serious effort to make the films understandable to the public, without making concessions in terms of quality”, explains Antonia Kovacheva. “So when we were discussing the films, we had serious arguments about who should get the Golden Rose. The two major contenders, at least among the jury members, were Family Relics of Ivan Cherkelov and Losers of Ivaylo Hristov. Both deserve the Golden Rose for various reasons."

The Golden Rose grand prix for feature film went to the title Losers because of "its credible tale of spiritual loneliness and life deadlock of young people in Bulgaria, ofits strong artistic presence and visual solutions." The Special Prize of the city of Varna went to the film Family Relics - about the dedication, talent and cinematic excellence of the team. Awarded were also the films Barter, Face Down, Corpse Collector, Thirst, While Aya was Sleeping.

English: Rossitsa Petcova