Bulgarian Lovers

This is one of the really bad films I have seen lately(thanks for the gratuitous nudity!). Beside the poor acting and lack of authenticity in the representation of the Bulgarian hunk, the meager Spaniard is regretful, the whole plot is brave but lacks back up from the cast and director. The generalizations about the Bulgarians are so hmmmm...general that they should be found offensive by anyone who is Bulgarian. (My friend is and she thought it was awful too). There are so many loose ends and discrepancies, the cast and acting are so naive and not convincing. The Spaniard who supposedly is a big fish and has a consulting firm is so dumbfound with love or desire for the BulG hunk, that he looks like an idiot. The solo shots of him looking at the camera and trying to deliver some sort of documentary feel to the movie do not fit, there is nothing that can save it.

Don't waste your time and money to rent this.

Overall this film gives the viewer a good picture of the gay night world in contemporary Spain, but the focus is on the relationship between stolid, bull-like Kyril and emotional passive Daniel. Daniel is the successful and well--to-do middle-aged business consultant who spends much of his free time cruising for sex in night spots. He hooks up with much younger (supposedly age 23, but Biba looks older) Kyril, a Bulgarian immigrant, missing his fiancée who is in Berlin. (Why these two young lovers are separated is not clear.) But Kyril is ready to meet Daniel's needs for friendship and more. The nature of the developing relationship is made clear at the outset with Kyril making love to Daniel in an overpowering and explicit manner. Daniel is much in love with Kyril, but Kyril sees Daniel only as a convenience, a source of money, shelter, and help with his working papers in Spain and with a project that evidently deals with international atomic fuel smuggling. In connection wit the last, Daniel often finds himself involved in skirting the law. The performances by Dritan Biba and Guillen-Cuervo as the older man are excellent and make this movie fun to watch. Both actors should get special awards for their sensitive portrayals of men having a sexual relationship.

Not the best film ever to come out of Spain, but makes some pertinent points about some contemporary issues, which must surely be (almost) as timely in the US as for us in "federal" Europe at the moment. Not least of them, how much are our perceptions of love, loyalty and honour shaped by our perceptions of our relative socio-economic and geographical circumstances?

Personally, I agree with the reviewers who felt the Bulgarian interlude is very important for assisting characterisation - particularly for helping explain the motivations of Kyril and Kalina. I can understand some bristling at what they see as offensive clichés about disenfranchised eastern Europeans, but hey, it's the work of one director, not some Party committee. However, he does seem to tread the line between thriller, comedy and Almodovar-style melodrama with the unease of someone who's a bit rusty (and the clunkingly obvious "tribute" scene to Almodovar's "Law of Desire" when Kyril and Daniel are returning home from a drunken night out as Madrid's municipal cleaners hose down the street could only ever make you pine for that earlier, greater work).

Having said that, I think it bears repeat viewing. But, as for the "gratuitous nudity" - uptight Americans get over yourselves, please. There is hardly any.

Another of the reviews here has it right: the attraction of someone from a foreign and backwater culture very different from one's own to an affluent -- hence more powerful -- person whose own culture betrays elements of decadence is unlikely to portend anything good.

There is as well something of the whiff of upper class meets lower class here. I am reminded of Christopher Isherwood's opus in which that theme is played out in Berlin and Spain even as this one is. The writers of this novel and film are covering ground trod before. I do not find this questionable, and indeed I think there is a universal element at work here. That involves the age-old theme of someone with money and social standing besotted by a physically attractive and naive but appealing person who lacks those other attributes. Sometimes it works out, like Pygmalion, but most of the time it is doomed from the start.

The question here is whether the story or the film itself is any good. I thought it was something of a mixed bag. It seemed to me compelling in some parts, as in its vivid depiction of social and cultural distinctions or its clearly professional production values; but I felt less certain of the plot. Although the character of Daniel is completely open and obvious, and even Kyril is vaguely recognizable in both his person and background, the connections to third parties seem forced and improbable. It would have been a more successful film had it concentrated on developing internal conflict rather than hopping about Europe. Sometimes less is more.

If you have ever been involved with another guy from a former communist country who has absolutely nothing, you can relate to this film! Involved with an poor guy from ANY poor country? YOU CAN RELATE TO THIS FILM! You don't understand their culture, you don't understand their compatriots, their language or their relatives. This guy excites you TOTALLY and you don't really mind the growing drain on your pocketbook... You become more and more in love and more and more involved. The passion of it is exciting; so is the exotic nature of the whole thing including the travel to their home country. What are you getting into?