Notable festival films come to the city under the Blue Stones with the 7th edition of Sofia Film Fest. Within 3 days – from May 29 to 31, five films will be screened in the “Sliven” hall.
The Municipality of Sliven and the team of “Sofia Film Fest” invite the residents and guests of the city to the opening, which will take place on May 29, Monday, in the “Sliven” hall at 6 p.m. The beginning will be given with the premiere of the film “The Lord of the Forests” “. This is a portrait of a remarkable person whose work was awarded in 2018 with an alternative Nobel Prize – the Right Livelihood Prize. The first festival evening continues at 8 p.m. with one of the most successful Bulgarian films of recent years – “Sister”, the second feature film by director Svetla Tsotsorkova. It has an enviable festival fate – its world premiere is at the San Sebastian Festival, in the “New Directors” program. The film is the winner of a number of international awards, it was also awarded the grand prize “Sofia – City of Cinema” at the 24th “Sofia Film Fest”. In it, viewers will see Monika Naydenova, Svetlana Yancheva, Asen Blatechki, Elena Zamyarkova, Valentin Ganev, Ivan Savov and Alexander Benev. The script is by Svetoslav Ovcharov and Svetla Tsotsorkova, who are also producers of the film. After the screening, the Sliven audience will have the opportunity to meet the authors of the film.
The festival program continues on Tuesday, May 30, with Nikolay Vassilev’s documentary “Vaklush”. The screening starts at 6 p.m. The film was shot over a period of almost three decades – between 1994 and 2022 and contains extremely curious archival footage from the life of the famous spiritual leader and teacher Vaklush Tolev. The film is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth and is a story about the life path and ideas of one of Bulgaria’s most enigmatic personalities. Nikolay Vasilev is a screenwriter and director, extremely active in finding exciting characters and plots. For his film “Tales” he was awarded in 2010 the “Jameson” award at the Sofia Film Fest for the best Bulgarian short film. His filmography includes dozens of award-winning films such as “The Good Samaritan”, “The Road to Thebes”, “Being the Master”, “Theo’s Formula”, “Gladiator” and others. He will also meet the audience in Sliven and be available for a chat after the screening.
The third film day of the festival, which is on the eve of Children’s Day – June 1, will be dedicated to young moviegoers. From 6 p.m., the screening of “Titina” begins – an interesting animated story by director Kaisa Ness, which tells the story of a legendary dog and its owner Umberto Nobile, an airship engineer from the 20th century. The co-production between Norway and Belgium is inspired by the real events of a century ago – the famous explorer Roald Amundsen contacted Nobile and ordered him an airship to conquer the North Pole. The film is dubbed in Bulgarian and is suitable for children and their parents.
The film festival will end with Serbian director Radivoje Andric’s latest film “How I Learned to Fly”. The project was created based on the award-winning novel by the famous children’s writer Yasminka Petrovic and was presented at “Sofia Meetings 2018”. There is a serious Bulgarian participation in the film – Stefan Shterev is in the acting team, Momchil Bozhkov is the sound engineer, Petya Simeonova and Atanas Temnilov are the make-up artists. The screening starts at 8 p.m.
“Sofia Film Fest in Sliven” is part of the Art Fest project “Operation Cinema 2023”, realized in partnership with the National Fund “Culture”, with the support of the cinema chain “Europa Cinemas” and OMV Bulgaria.
