In the Heart of the Machine

As a Bulgarian I've been let's put it nicely okay with the fact that there's not much of a cinema scene going on in our country. But this time I was actually stunned and amazed.

Amazing work, honestly hands down one of the best Bulgarian Films I've ever witnessed. The story was great ,acting was on par there were actual sense of what's going on and why ,not just randomly shot scenes. The dialogues were realistic with good use of slang and cussing.

The sound was great which I was not expecting honestly.

Colour, mood, camera movements and story telling all great.

I won't spoil anything it is an absolutely catching story that will keep you planted to your seat till the end. It doesn't have plot twist or anything but honestly it doesn't need them it tells the story of regular prisoners and what goes on it their world, what they strive, believe and deeply wish for each one of them for something specific and special.

Good watch, and again congrats to everyone involved. It was a pleasure.

Decent script (Yes, very similar to The Green Mile, Showshank Redemption, etc.), poor directing, some hit and miss camera work (excelent ending shot btw). Terrible sound (as if I was watching a pirate copy, recorded in a movie teather). The worst part are the dialogues. Terribly unconvincingly written, as if translated from English to Bulgarian. The only words which sounded natural from actors mouth are the curse words.

On the other hand, all this was shot in 21 days with almost no budget. They even forgot to mention it is based on a real story (!). I hope they read this and next time make much more real film and stop stealing lines and cliches from Hollywood. They even stole the FBI/ US Police constant fight for dominance in US movies and mirrored it in 1978 Bulgarian film. And I didn't even try to count the plot holes. I hope the next one is better!

A very powerful story, told in a very powerful way. Excellent cast and cinematography. The setting is the communist era central prison and metallurgical plant Kremikovtsi in Sofia. Reminds me of the Green Way in a way.

There is hope for Bulgarian cinema. The movie was beautifully shot for the most part with some very dramatic scenes. Overall good actor play, the movie would have been a lot, lot better without Bashar Rahal, he delivered a very underwhelming performance that contributed absolutely nothing. Definitely ruined the scenes between him and the prison director as they ere rendered quite shallow.

The plot line is similar to The Green mile movie, but the performance is under this level. And it's not up to the actor's play. It's about the scenario. Could have been more intriguing and a bit faster, because it reminded me of a soap series, especially in the last 40 minutes.

Kind of boring in the end.