Brief nach Amerika

Letter to America is an interesting film to watch. What makes it worth seeing is the unique blend that its director applies to it. Iglika Trifonova is primarily a documentary director and her film certainly carries authentic feeling. The plot is simple and even touching. What is more important is that the film has a storyline to follow and it actually follows it. Those who are aware of recent Bulgarian films (not that we have many of them) will perhaps agree that our directors usually tend to make general philosophic conclusions that might be interesting to some scholars but not to the audiences. The actors make good try to fit in their roles, especially Phillip Avramov, a theatre actor. Peter Antonov, one of the famous new faces of Bulgarian cinema, makes a short but impressive role. Perhaps the most interesting aspects to the foreign audiences will be the traditional Bulgarian music and the ride through several picturesque villages of Bulgaria where the time seems to have stopped.

What a touching movie! This film will take you on a trip through a beautiful country: Bulgaria. Somehow a forgotten place in Europa. The film shows the ancient culture and beautiful scenery. The acting is superb and the situations often authentic.

All contemporary Bulgarian features share a common problem - they're more of a theater play than cinema. Although this movie really tries to escape the status quo, the feeling that I was watching a play rather than a movie left me only in a few moments - in the scenes with unprofessional actors, who really outperform the professional cast. Unfortunately, the director did not risk shooting the movie without the theatrical actors - I think it would be a lot better if she dared. Another malady of the Bulgarian cinema that plagues this film is the slow manner in which the story is told.

To summarise it: the story is strong, and the real people who play themselves are a bit of a compensation for the other shortcomings.

"Letter to America" was a thoroughly discussed picture in the year 2000 in Bulgaria. The fact that this movie was our representative at the 2000 Oscar awards, made the discussion even more ardent. Naturally, we didn't even get a nominee for Best Foreign Movie.Why? Because this production is not fit for the international(not to mention the American) audience. The movie is strictly Bulgarian, filled with our culture and made for our people. The journey of one person deep into the mountains in search for remedy, perhaps even for his roots, is pictured very well, but delivered poorly. Bottom of the line- our cinema industry is doing as bad as ever. But perhaps we took a step in the right direction...

I have been very eager to see the film as it is a rather rare occasion to have a new Bulgarian movie made in the past decade. I liked it though not of patriotic feelings only. I think that it has something very important for every film - a story line, and if you're a Bulgarian you'll know what I mean - our directors usually "forget" about the story line and crave to make great philosophic observations about life as such, immortality, etc. instead. Do they succeed - that's another question. I'm not sure that the title is the most proper choice for I felt the film rather carries a message to us, Bulgarians and not to Americans.

The acting is quite good - the film features some of the best actors of the new Bulgarian generation - Ana Papadopulu and Filip Avramov are famous theatre actors and Peter Antonov has an impressive acting experience in theatre and films as well. What I think will be most interesting to foreign viewers is perhaps the traditional Bulgarian music and the genuine feeling of authenticity which the director plausibly creates.