Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Micransix Crappy film

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

peretasi 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.

noxidog 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.

Dr. Smoke We start with a cliché and we end with a cliché. And guess whats in the middle? The world is cliché and boredom lurks around the corner - this pretty much sums up what this film is all about. About the cinematography.... like in Bulgarian bank loans commercials is being gentle with it. You just don't put every trick in the book & this direction and hope you will get away with it. But it actually works, this stupid little movie is praised a lot, mainly from the jurors at festivals and why is that I will never understand. Maybe they look at a movie differently then the common people. Cause if you seek fake drama and suffering from the characters and the inevitable happy end this film is full of it. But it has nothing else. The rare funny moments are clichés again, loads of Kusturica lurks around the frames, the acting of most of the people is poor but this is a general problem with Bulgarian movies, cause our so called film school just don't have the ground and people to teach the kids in cinema anymore, and they end up fake on the screen cause there are differences between theater and cinema acting and the teachers never seem to got that right. And also just a few movies are made in Bulgaria and they are all done with the same actors, crew, plots and always involve love, drama and suffering. Most of the Bulgarian movies look, sound and feel like this movie which is just shame and waste of money. And If this movie gets nominated for Oscar, I will never consider this thing a reward anymore.

truwarrior I just saw "Eastern plays" (also Bulgarian movie) and was really disappointed and gave it really bad comment. But, this movie is even worse. It is just terrible copy of some Kusturica works, mixed with completely naive direction. I don't know if this director ever saw any movie that is done in 21st century. It is full of big words, fake artism and - well, maybe I am stupid, but this movie is about nothing. Movie is so pretentious, making audience burst into laughter aloud. Almost all the shots, dialogue, scenes were seen at least billion times in other, better movies. I can not believe somebody takes this movie serious. I saw the list of awards this movie received - and I just don't know what the other movies competing with this one were like. Anyway, I don't want to be a bore - skip this movie, you will save some money and more important, some time.