Thumbs up again :-)

Ever since I have known Ralitsa Assenova in 2014 I associate the Young European Cinema Meeting in Bulgaria with her. This year (19-25 June 2017) the movies I saw were no exception – exceptionally good: “La loi de la Jungle” and  “As I Open My Eyes”.

The former – a French comedy, the latter – Tunisia in the summer of 2010 – just a few months before the revolution – a moving story about the love of freedom, and not only, repressing regimes and not only. Fara herself from the movie (Baya Medhaffar) was there – in the photo below. Keep up the great idea!

From left to right: Baya Medhaffar, Ralitsa Assenova

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Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers (2016) – a very spicy and tasty Italian movie. Paolo Genovese remarkably confronts us with the idea if we want to know our friends by the face they show us or by the face they do not. An intriguing but somewhat unusual dinner: long-lasting friends decide to place their mobile phones on the table and whatever arrives (texts, WhatsApp messages, calls) they would share it with the others … In the movie (as is often the case in life) one is confronted with the indecipherability of the human soul. The finale is somehow double-edged with an unexpected turn. An outstanding movie – cast, cinematography, plot.

How to be a Latin Lover

Some movies, despite their relaxed plot, get you to the point about the truly valuable things in life. In How to be a Latin Lover (2017) – Salma Hayek (Sara) was a delight to watch. And so was Eugenio Derbez – her crazy brother (Maximo) who found himself dumped after 25 years of marriage. A marriage that was also a career for him. The movie was somewhat simplistic, but not a bad idea for a lazy rainy Sunday afternoon.

Julieta

Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta (2016) – a movie about a fatal accident changing the lives of mother and daughter and the daughter’s decision to go missing suddenly after a vacation with no clues about where to be found. The story is smoothly flowing where the colors please the eye and the background is always in the right tone.

The heartbroken mother struggles with the pain until a painful incident occurs in her daughter’s life and the chance of the two getting re-united opens up. A very elegantly filmed drama.

Blind Vaysha

Can you imagine if you could see the past with your left eye and the future with your right one – never able to live in the present. The 8-minute animated short “Blind Vaysha” by Theodore Ushev, based on a story by Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov, tells exactly this story. The films was nominated for the 2017 Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film!

The film in Bulgarian here >>>

Cinderella

What fascinated me about the  Cinderella (2011) movie was the original story line (the myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward) intriguingly intertwined with quite contemporary real-life situations. Fairies play important roles in fairy tales and in this particular case, the fairy was Aurora’s grandmother. We all once in a while need fairies and they do seem appear at the right time in one form or another.