In the Heart of the Machine

As a Bulgarian I've been let's put it nicely okay with the fact that there's not much of a cinema scene going on in our country. But this time I was actually stunned and amazed.

Amazing work, honestly hands down one of the best Bulgarian Films I've ever witnessed. The story was great ,acting was on par there were actual sense of what's going on and why ,not just randomly shot scenes. The dialogues were realistic with good use of slang and cussing.

The sound was great which I was not expecting honestly.

Colour, mood, camera movements and story telling all great.

I won't spoil anything it is an absolutely catching story that will keep you planted to your seat till the end. It doesn't have plot twist or anything but honestly it doesn't need them it tells the story of regular prisoners and what goes on it their world, what they strive, believe and deeply wish for each one of them for something specific and special.

Good watch, and again congrats to everyone involved. It was a pleasure.

A very powerful story, told in a very powerful way. Excellent cast and cinematography. The setting is the communist era central prison and metallurgical plant Kremikovtsi in Sofia. Reminds me of the Green Way in a way.

This movie is just all heart. You can feel that the movie will be good in the first 10 seconds when the inmates are singing the national anthem and the soundtrack kicks in. Just the melody has returned you to the times when you first watch the Green Mile or The Shawshank Redemption. I know, I know, you will say "What? Your comparison is with those movies? ". Well the feeling is the same, the narration for the viewer feels real and powerful and makes you want to know more about the characters and you suddenly feel them closer to your heart.

All the scenes are shot perfectly. We are kinda used for the bulgarian movies to be highly lit , without thinking of the cinematography too much ....but this one .... man i love every shot of it . Executed they way it should , so that you not be distracted from anything else. Mr. Makariev has outdone himsels again, prooving ..to me at least..he is the best director in this country and deserving of much more praise than he gets. (we see other movies and directors be talked about more).

I won't mention the acting , because .... damn the slang they used (like it should be used in every movies, because that is the way you can feel the emotions in the actors, not just some theater way of talking to show how many years we have played on the scene) . Every actor is perfectly chosen . They embodie their character perfeclty in giving the raw emotion.

And the soundtrack !! I think Victor Angelov (correct me if i am wrong , but read it somewhere) is reponsible for this masterpiece of emotion and hope intertwined together to emerge the characters like phoenixes from thier Destiny.

A big bravo to all involved and i sure hope so , that the movie brings a lot of bucks , so that the talent of this director continues to bring us a reason for believing that a bulgarian movie can be nominated for Oscar....... because this movie deserves it.

Decent script (Yes, very similar to The Green Mile, Showshank Redemption, etc.), poor directing, some hit and miss camera work (excelent ending shot btw). Terrible sound (as if I was watching a pirate copy, recorded in a movie teather). The worst part are the dialogues. Terribly unconvincingly written, as if translated from English to Bulgarian. The only words which sounded natural from actors mouth are the curse words.

On the other hand, all this was shot in 21 days with almost no budget. They even forgot to mention it is based on a real story (!). I hope they read this and next time make much more real film and stop stealing lines and cliches from Hollywood. They even stole the FBI/ US Police constant fight for dominance in US movies and mirrored it in 1978 Bulgarian film. And I didn't even try to count the plot holes. I hope the next one is better!

The plot line is similar to The Green mile movie, but the performance is under this level. And it's not up to the actor's play. It's about the scenario. Could have been more intriguing and a bit faster, because it reminded me of a soap series, especially in the last 40 minutes.

Kind of boring in the end.