This movie proves that good film-making is still alive in Bulgaria. One of the best Bulgarian films I've ever seen in my live. This movie should have won Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with its ravishing performances by the actors, breath-taking plot, Steven-Spielberg-style one-shots and exhilarating landscapes.
This is the story of Mitio (The amazing Assen Blatechki), who lives day by day, trying to connect both ends in order to produce a better live for him and his son Vasko (Ovanes Torosian). Mitio's wife, whose name isn't mentioned throughout the film, has died from some kind of illness, again it's not said what kind of illness. Trying to keep her alive, Mitio gets 7000E loan, which he has to return to the bank.
Assen Blatechki is unmistakable in Sadilishteto (The Judgment), he again shows us that there are still good Bulgarian actors, who can perform at a very high level, even capable of staring in Hollywood productions. He fits perfectly to the poor villager demeanor and we can really feel and sense his love towards his son, Vasko. When the story slowly unfolds, we see that Mitio is still being haunted by his dark past, when he used to be a soldier, alas he can't run away from it, even though he tries hard to do so.
Sadilishteto (The Judgment) is a really well-paced movie, with a top-notch long take that lets us know that Bulgarian cinematographers can do it, too! I can't hide my admirations for Stephan Komandarev, who's done an excellent job directing this movie. I truly hope that there would be more movies like this one in the following years. It was a pleasure watching Sadilishteto.
