7th Sofia Film Festival 2003

An the back of the catalogue for the 7th Sofia International Film Festival (7-16 March 2003) there’s a »Festival Guide« to key film events in Central and Eastern Europe. Though hardly complete, the guide is a vital information highway in film-video-media activities. Sofia festival director Stefan Kitanov organized a panel to discuss more cooperation among 17 festivals: Belgrade in Serbia-Montenegro, Budapest Titanic in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, Cluj Transsilvania in Romania, Cottbus in Germany, Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic, Kyiv in Ukraine, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Moscow in Russia, Riga Arsenals in Latvia, Sarajevo in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Skopje in Macedonia, Sofia in Bulgaria, Split New Film in Croatia, Tallinn Black Nights in Estonia, Vilnius Film Spring in Lithuania, and Warsaw in Poland.

        Sofia 2003 programmed over 120 films (89 features, 15 documentaries, plus shorts), a competition for first and second features (12 films), a Bulgarian showcase, French coproductions, Scandinavian cinema, European films, documentaries, avant-premieres of commercial hits, tributes to Otar Yoseliani and Takeshi Kitano ­ a rich program that drew crowds to the National Palace of Culture, the adjacent Lumiere Cinema, and four other city venues. Critics, as well as the jury, were unanimous in their praise for Hanna Slak’s Blind Spot (Slovenia), about a girl’s attempt to help a friend withdraw from heroin.

        Bulgarian cinema is experiencing a revival. Ivaylo Hristov and Lyudmil Todorov’s Emigrants, awarded by the international jury, amuses right from the start as a sociocritical comedy about the frustrations of three young men who want to leave the country but hardly know why or how. Krasimir Krumov’s Under the Same Sky, the story of a 15-year-old girl who decides to leave her mountain village to look for her father in Turkey, features some stunning photography in the dead of winter. And Teddy Moskov’s Rhapsody in White stars Bulgaria’s favorite comedienne ­ impish Maya Novosselska ­ in a tragicomedy reminiscent of Giulietta Masina in her best films with Fellini. This opening-night film and instant box-office hit was produced by Stefan Kitanov.

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