IMDb RATING
7.1/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
Through Georgi (a juvenile) and Itso (an adult), we take a quick glance (about one and a half hour quick) at what happens in post cold-war Bulgaria.Through Georgi (a juvenile) and Itso (an adult), we take a quick glance (about one and a half hour quick) at what happens in post cold-war Bulgaria.Through Georgi (a juvenile) and Itso (an adult), we take a quick glance (about one and a half hour quick) at what happens in post cold-war Bulgaria.
- Awards
- 18 wins & 12 nominations total
Saadet Aksoy
- Isil
- (as Saadet Isil Aksoy)
Nikolina Iancheva
- Niki
- (as Nikolina Yancheva)
Alexander Radanov
- Drega
- (as Alexander 'The Indian' Radanov)
Angela Nedyalkov
- Angela
- (as Anjela Nedyalkova)
Ivan Vitkov
- Psychotherapist
- (as Dr. Ivan Vitkov)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
This is the most honest Bulgarian movie made in the last 20 years. Bravo Itso, Kamen and the rest of the team! It is a movie that resonates on the same wave as the contemporary BG people. It shows the heart...and the really important things in life - hope, love, tolerance, dialogue, the continuity between the generations and freedom - the choice to live your life as you want and to be its real master... Well, it is difficult for me to come up with 10 lines for this movie (as the guidelines indicate) since this is a movie that needs to be seen coz it is a movie to be felt...because it is simple and that's why it is a work of genius!!! It's absolutely worth seeing!
This is probably the best Bulgarian film in a decade. There are a couple of things that must be said about it. 1. “Eastern Plays” is first and foremost a humane story. I cannot underestimate the importance of that fact given the long-standing tradition of Bulgarian movies (and European cinematography in general) to intimidate their characters and to dissect them with horrifying bluntness. 2. More than that, the film is a really, really good contemporary narrative. The story is told in a subtle, calm and compassionate manner. 3. This film is a rare display of the importance of each and every human existence. The idea is presented without the help of complex existential constructions or intellectual roundabouts.
It's not action, interesting story or fancy special effects who hooks you. It's something special, so basic and simple and in the same time so tragic. It's called life. And this film is perfect reflection of two brothers life who is living in post-soviet Bulgaria. And about lifes of others, their culture and toleration.
Bulgarian cinema is witnessing a new resurgence after the demise of communism.This change can be seen in films made by new generation directors who are quick to observe realities around them and depict what they have personally experienced.Bulgarian director Kamen Kalev is a lucky person as not only he got a chance to study at prestigious French film school FEMIS at Paris but also got a lot of critical as well as commercial success with his first film "Eastern Plays" which was part of "Quinzaine Des Réalisateurs" section at Cannes International Film Festival 2009.It can be surmised that Kamen Kalev's film "Eastern Plays" has been a success as it looks at mundane issues haunting Bulgarian society albeit from an international perspective. It is true that all nations are plagued with problems like racism, skinheads and unemployment but there are very few films which are able to combine a local point of view with that of a much broader international dynamism.This is the reason why this film's lead players speak some of their dialogs in English.Although "Eastern Plays" is a film about tough themes,it is good that it has not ignored its lighter side.This is the reason why Kamen Kalev's film does not appear as a serious film preaching hard to follow moral values.Film critic Lalit Rao got a chance to see this film at 14th International film Festival of Kerala 2009.
What I particularly liked (and I know friends of mine who did as well) in this movie is that it is not a movie about a person, or a story, but mostly an aesthetic vision of a city... which happens to be my city. The storyline is almost missing: apart from the sad coincidence that one brother took part in the beating of another, there is not much of a narrative thread and the entire movie is just a sequence of impressions of present-day Sofia, including the people living in it. Hristo Hristov became the focus of the film because he represented a particular type of Sofianites (actually he was born in Burgas but that does not make him less of a Sofianite since this is the city where he painted): artists who have received serious formation, have developed their own style, have reached the level of creators of unquestionably valuable works, and yet have found no chance to live on their art and be successful. Hristo was not the first, and will not be the last of generations of creative persons who had to find various exits from the difficult situation the last twenty years placed us all in. He chose drugs and in the real life passed away even before the movie was finished. But his sad story is one of hope, too, since the real-life Hristo, even posthumously, proved that recognition can come (and we are now expecting the long-postponed exhibition of his art), while the movie-character Hristo showed to his younger brother that there is alternative to violence and hatred, and that there is enough beauty around us to save us from despair.
Did you know
- TriviaWriter/Director Kamen Kalev was inspired by the life of his friend Christo Christov, who plays himself in the film, with the locations comprised of places from Christov's life, such as his actual apartment and the workshop he worked at.
- GoofsIn the restaurant scene where Itso and his girlfriend order, Itso orders a Swedish beer but we see him drinking Shumensko, which in fact is a Bulgarian beer.
- ConnectionsReferences Star Trek (1966)
Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $132,547
- Runtime
- 1h 23m(83 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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