The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner

I went to the theater with low expectations of another boring post-totalitarian Bulgarian movie and was pleasantly surprised - it had an actual story which was told consistently, the characters were lively, there were no irritating protracted shots in silence (trademark to many, many other Bulgarian movies) and the dialogue was real. While based on a novel the movie elegantly manages to stay focused and the plot is not overstretched.

Things I didn't like: the one-sided densely evil picture of the totalitarian oppressors that rendered them preposterously inhuman, the clichéd camera (e.g. yellowish retrospectives, rotation around characters while they played backgammon) and superfluous didacticism in some scenes.

All in all it's worth watching, but eight years of script rewriting could yield a bit better result.

To Hans Grob and all people that come from Western Europe - it is absolutely understandable why you would never appreciate a film like this - you have never lived in a Communist Country, you don't know what it's like and you probably don't understand the whole idea of the film that well... Mr Hans Grob, the old man in the film that you talking about is not the boy's uncle, it is his Grandfather!

This film may not be a master piece but it definitely has emotional value for Eastern Europeans who have experienced the Communist Regime! It describes the life and the people back then adequately and all facts represent true stories from people's lives! Actors emotions and reactions in the film are very close to what one Bulgarian would say or do so I find the film very realistic and definitely the best productions made by Bulgarians after 1989.

Pros: Very natural film. Very good reproduction of the communist Bulgaria and the lives of people who tried to survive that time outside and inside Bulgaria. The emotions go through the whole film without breaks. Excellent acting, excellent cinematography by inter-twisting the past and the present without losing the pace of emotions. Very simple and strong plot. Another confirmation that the perfection is actually in simplicity.

Cons: One mark on the leading actor Carlo Ljubec...his accent made it difficult to go deep in the role. As if he was struggling with speaking out his lines in Bulgarian which was not an advantage but Miki Manolovic play was so strong that balanced this.

As soon as the movie meets the audience (especially a particular group of generations) it feels like classics. Inspired by auto-biog novel of Ilija Trojanov published in 1996 and directed in 2008 by Stephan Komandarev (coevals born in the middle of Communist era in Sofia, Bulgaria) this move is devoted to the people that were rendered "enemies of the nation" in their own country. Bai Dan is a real Bulgarian (it is worth noting that the role is played by the Serbian, Miki Manojlovic - Underground (1995)) which everyone will agree had met at least once in his life. He is a dice master who knows how to deal with the chances in life, he is brave, he is wild and yet he is naturally wise and humble Christian. Now it is time to play he's most important game - he have to help his grandson to find his lost soul. The personage's character is really admirable and like everything else in the move is marked by the natural charisma of the intelligent masterpiece. There are a lot of background symbols throughout the script and as the movie answers a lot, it inevitably opens the Pandora's box defining the post-communist societies in Eastern Europe. Political issues are presented in a skillful adjunct with the personal drama and doesn't bother with details and references more than necessary while standing in the heat zone. Perfect camera, astonishing sight-seeings - this move is a real advertisement and an open invitation for the artists and the common EU travelers.

Let me open with a few relevant personal facts. I am a Bulgarian who immigrated to America with my parents around the age of nine. Initially we stayed at an immigration camp in Italy. Essentially, I have experienced the journey of the young kid.

Based on my personal experience, I think the movie contained quite a few overstatements of facts like the people staying in the camp 3-4 years while their documents were being processed, or the somewhat overstated communist reality in Bulgaria at the time. Among these exaggerations, there were quite a few things that were very accurate however. For example immigrants (profugas) were pretty much fed pasta - most of the time without any sauce - while the UN paid something like $50 per day per immigrant to the camp. This amount would have enabled us to live much better had it been given directly to us.

Thinking about these exaggerations, I am somewhat ready to forgive the makers for resorting to them, since they did amplify the ideas that were being conveyed. Emotions such as the paralyzing fear of the uncertainty ahead that gnawed at every immigrant's soul aren't easily expressed without relying on parable to some degree. Perhaps a more seasoned film maker would have toned things down, but likely not.

I did find a few somewhat pointless episodes like the love scene with the singer, which did nothing for me other than sweeten the happy end. Also I think the movie would have been better served if the Sashko's past hadn't been erased through the use of a somewhat brutally cliché device like the car crash, but through a more psychological one like the dissolution of his parents' marriage or such.

All in all - as other reviewers have posted - although the movie has a number of clichés, it uses them constructively. Rather than deafening or turning off the viewer, the clichés tend to amplify the message to a level that it becomes clearer.

Basically the movie works.