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Theres a thin line between doing the right thing and getting a front-row seat to the worst decision ever. At least thats the premise on which the 2016 movie, Glory, is built. The film itself is a darkly comic exploration of morality and manipulation from directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov. It hones in on the story of a humble railway workers act of honesty, which inadvertently sets off a chain of events that spiral wildly out of control. Tsanko Petrov, played with heartbreaking sincerity by Stefan Denolyubov, finds a bag of cash by the tracks and turns it in, expecting nothing more than a simple Thank You. But, things end up being a lot more layered as a PR nightmare ensues and at the center of it all is Julia (Margita Gosheva).

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.

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.

Five features (plus a scattering of documentaries) into his career, leading Bulgarian writer-director Stephan Komandarev has resisted cultivating a clear thematic or stylistic throughline to his oeuvre. Yet his latest, the overnight police patchwork “Rounds,” feels surprisingly close to quintessential, pulling as it does plot points, structural models and tonal switches from his previous films into one stacked crowdpleaser. Alternately wry and solemn as it follows three pairs of police officers through an eventful night’s patrol in central Sofia, “Rounds” unites several splintered mini-narratives about human trafficking, euthanasia and institutional corruption — among other hot-button topics — more cohesively and engrossingly than you might expect in its 106-minute runtime, though there’s as much soap as there is grit in the final mix.

A palpable hit with audiences upon its premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival — where it scooped the Cineuropa Award, as well as the Best Actress jury prize for...

No good deed goes unpunished in this lugubrious realist fable about a Bulgarian railway linesman who hands in some cash he finds scattered on the tracks

If it’s black humour and fatalism with a stiff shot of misanthropy you’re looking for, search no further than this cruel but compelling drama from Bulgaria. Elegantly written and assembled by co-directors Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva (with script assistance from Decho Taralezhkov), this realist fable revolves around railway linesman Tzanko (a soulful Stefan Denolyubov), a shy loner with a stammer.

One day, Tzanko finds cash scattered all over the tracks he tends to, and reporting it to the authorities sets off an all-too-plausible chain of mishaps that rebound on Tzanko most of all.

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Glory, Bulgaria's official entry in the foreign-language Oscar race.

Though Petar Valchanov and his wife and co-director, Kristina Grozeva, didn't set out to channel Kafka, he says, "Kafka is very much the reality in Bulgaria."

The directing team's second narrative feature, Glory tells the story of Tzanko Petrov (Stefan Denolyubov), a railway lineman with an innate idealism, a terrible stutter and a thick beard he cannot shave because he "made an oath," the backstory of which is never revealed. Each day, Tzanko wakes...

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical   Kong: Skull Island (action-adventure; Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman; available now on cable Mod as well as Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD; rated PG-13) Glory (drama; Stefan Denolyubov, Margita Gosheva; not rated) Free Fire (action-adventure; Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley; rated R) The Promise (romantic drama; Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon; rated PG-13) First Kill (action-thriller; Bruce Willis...

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You see “Iran” and think certain things. You go to Iran and see the people, the shops, street activity, the environment, its museums and you forget the two things about it which shape your emotional reaction to it: politics and history. Being one of two Americans attending the Fajr International Film Festival makes me feel responsible for sharing my best moments with a broader public.

The Fajr International Film Festival is a gala affair, small enough to meet and share time with the many participants, both filmmakers and invitees from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Armenia, Turkey, Japan, Mongolia and Korea (and more!). I can only think of one other film event which offered such a luxurious array of experiences to go along with film watching (when Rosskino of Russia invited 25 U.S.distributors and us to Moscow and St. Petersburg and then repeated the event for Brics countries...

“Glory” screened at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival. Now, the drama by writing/directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov will open at New York City’s Film Forum on April 12. The story is a follow-up to the duo’s 2014 award-winning drama “The Lesson,” which was the first feature film the two worked on together.

Read More: ‘For Here or to Go?’ Trailer: Timely Drama Shows the Dangers of an Expiring Work Visa — Watch

“Glory” follows Tzanko Petrov (Stefan Denolyubov), a shy and solitary railroad worker in Bulgaria who discovers a large sum of cash on the tracks and turns it in to the authorities. When the head of PR for the Transport Ministry, Julia Staikova (Margita Gosheva), uses him as a “national hero” to divert attention from a corruption scandal, Tzanko’s life gets turned upside down and he ends up being ridiculed nationally.

“Glory” (“Slava” in Bugarian) is the...

Film Movement has acquired Us and English-speaking Canadian rights to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Glory (Slava) following its recent world premiere in Locarno.

The filmmaker’s follow-up to The Lesson is described as a modern-day morality tale about a railway linesman who discovers a small fortune on the railroad tracks and feels unrewarded after he returns the money.

Stefan Denolyubov and Margita Gosheva star in the Bulgaria-Greece production, which was inspired by a Bulgarian news story.

Film Movement plans an early 2017 theatrical release.

President Michael E. Rosenberg brokered the deal in Toronto with Wide Management head of international sales Diane Ferrandez.

Sometimes a simple premise leads to deep results. Such is the case with “Glory” (“Slava”), Buglarian directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s stirring third feature, which plays like a parable that keeps expanding its themes. Solitary railway worker Tsanko (Stefan Denolyubov) discovers a pile of cash in the middle of the tracks and, good samaritan that he is, calls the authorities. From that straightforward opening, “Glory” borrows a page from the Frank Capra playbook of working class men thrust into the limelight and disoriented by forces beyond their control.

Building on territory last explored in their 2014 feature “The Lesson,” Grozeva and Valchanov utilize the naturalistic style of Belgian duo the Dardenne brothers — documentary realism, a slow-burn pace — where everyday social realities take on poignant dimensions. Those familiar traditions mean that “Glory” breaks no new ground, and at times its morality play can seem pretty straightforward. But it’s so...