StrayFeral

Captain Dimitar Spisarevski is a Bulgarian WWII Air Force hero, which heroically died in the sky, defending Bulgaria against the Allied forces.

So far, despite being 2025 and this documentary being made in 2013, it is still the longest and we could say the best documentary about capt. Spisarevski.

The movie is showing different points of view and angles, throwing light of different aspects of the life of Spisarevski, both showing his personal life and military qualities, with interviews ranging from distant relatives, comrades and current admirers.

However by the end credits the viewer is left with more questions, than answers - is Spisarevski still a hero or a WWII propaganda item?

I personally served in the Bulgarian Air Force for a short time and for me captain Spisarevski would always remain a hero.

There are not many goth movies, but we definitely can put this one next to titles like "Gypsy 83" (2001).

The moment I first read the title of this one in HBO's catalog I knew I'm up for something. The title immediately snatched me with the humor of its absurdity and I could not wait to be alone and fully dedicate my attention to it.

In the total duration of nearly 90 minutes I had super fun, felt sad, felt anger and felt desire. We definitely shall give a credit to Sarah Montpetit for how well she presented to us the character of a young vampire girl.

Of course the cast did great their job, but a well deserved credit shall go also to the director Ariane Louis-Seize.

We need more movies from Quebec. I remember the moment I first saw a movie coming out of Quebec - "Jesus of Montreal" (1989) by Denys Arcand and I immediately fell in love with the cinema Quebecois.

But let's go back to our vampire movie. What the trailer is showing you is just what you're getting - a young coming out of age vampire girl dealing with the vampire problems of a newbie vampire. There is no horror, it's just a great well measured quality of dark humor, along with making us think of the death as a salvation, not as a punishment or horror.

I very highly recommend this movie to any movie buff and especially recommend it to any goths out there.

One piece of advice: watch this movie in a dark room. Most scenes are shot in a very dark environment and if you have sun coming to the room or any other light you won't be able to see lots of details on the screen.

But hey, this is a goth movie, right?

To my knowledge there are only two sport movies focused on the athletes as people, instead of the struggle for the gold and this is the second one. This movie shows an amazing insight to the damaged mind of a young Soviet gymnast champion girl.

Most sport movies focus on the transition from a good athlete to a champion and the struggle for the gold and this is what sport movie fans would expect when seeing every sport movie. This is what we see in the classic martial arts movies like "Bloodsport" (1988), "Over The Top" (1987), "Breaking Away" (1979) and even the recent Russian movies like "Dvijenie Vverh" (2017).

However what we see in "Kukolka" is different. It shows us what happens to the person after it has been molded into a world class champion. We see what the struggle for the gold actually costs. We see the falling apart of the personality and we get insight into the dark side of being a world champion.

The movie gets different angles to show the process of becoming a champion from the early age of six. Young girls tumbling on the tumbling floor and walking in line on the balance beam like bottles of soda pop on a production line in a manufacturing plant. Endless hard exercises. Muscles aching. Competitions. Damaged spines in pain and coaches not telling the truth to the girls, pushing them beyond the human limits, beyond the pain in fear of their own coaching failure, because then they would need to explain their failure in front of their Communist Party superiors.

We see literally the manufacturing of a champion and the breaking and falling apart of a child personality.

At some point the pain goes beyond the tolerable and the girl cannot compete anymore. She is sent to a normal public high school. She is sixteen-years-old and trying to integrate into the society, but her broken psyche prevents her. She is selfish and rebellious, using her inner and muscle strengths to achieve her little goals which lead her falling from a champion to a monster and finally to her own decline probably to a wheelchair. This is not shown to us.

One element which is a bit exaggerated is the main class teacher - a very beautiful single lady trying to get along with the class. She portrayed as a very soft personality, but the main reason her personality is exaggerated is to underline the contrast to the main character's personality. Another very important reason for this exaggeration is to show us that a group of people needs a strong leader and to show us the fall of society into degradation if such leader is not present.

The only similar movie I can compare "Kukolka" is "Personal Best" (1982) which shows another insight of the personal life of the champions and their own personal human struggles.

In general this movie is a very serious product and near masterpiece, layered with great music.

A must-see for any sport movies fan.