Iztochni piesi

What I particularly liked (and I know friends of mine who did as well) in this movie is that it is not a movie about a person, or a story, but mostly an aesthetic vision of a city... which happens to be my city. The storyline is almost missing: apart from the sad coincidence that one brother took part in the beating of another, there is not much of a narrative thread and the entire movie is just a sequence of impressions of present-day Sofia, including the people living in it. Hristo Hristov became the focus of the film because he represented a particular type of Sofianites (actually he was born in Burgas but that does not make him less of a Sofianite since this is the city where he painted): artists who have received serious formation, have developed their own style, have reached the level of creators of unquestionably valuable works, and yet have found no chance to live on their art and be successful. Hristo was not the first, and will not be the last of generations of creative persons who had to find various exits from the difficult situation the last twenty years placed us all in. He chose drugs and in the real life passed away even before the movie was finished. But his sad story is one of hope, too, since the real-life Hristo, even posthumously, proved that recognition can come (and we are now expecting the long-postponed exhibition of his art), while the movie-character Hristo showed to his younger brother that there is alternative to violence and hatred, and that there is enough beauty around us to save us from despair.

Being a Bulgarian who has all but a few years outside of Bulgaria, I am always interested in watching Bulgarian cinema. Most of the time i am disappointed. Its always the same actors playing more or less the same role in the very cliché Bulgarian way; rigid and straightforward so that you cant buy into their character and you can tell they are acting. Oftentimes the roles of the characters don't change much. Characters are bland, Men are either dopey drunken alcoholics with a sense of humor or far too serious, while women are either whores or overly needy

I watched the movie and I was shocked, The characters were so vibrant and original, in fact a lot reminded me of friends I have in Bulgaria, the acting fluid and I didn't see them acting instead they looked so natural as if they were playing themselves.

The movie is about growing up in Bulgaria. One brother rebels against his parents, starts hanging out with soccer hooligans, and slowly beginning to become detriment to society. The other older brother is emerging from that lifestyle, fighting a drug addiction, and trying to put his life back together with art. Each battles on their own, but maintain an active relationship. The two worlds and brothers meet one fateful night and their paths are altered forever.

So I watched the the entire credits hoping to see a friend or someone I knew in them( as many of my friends work in film studios in Bulgaria), and at the end there was a dedication to Christo, The guy who played the main character also named Christo. Turns out the reason that the actors seemed so natural is that most of them were not actors, including Christo,(the main actor, who died of a drug overdose in the middle of filming) but rather the people in Christos life, including his girlfriend. In fact the movie was more or less based on his life, and when the director couldn't find anyone to play Christo, he just got Christo to play himself.

All in all the movie is really worth watching...whether you are Bulgarian or not.

This is the most honest Bulgarian movie made in the last 20 years. Bravo Itso, Kamen and the rest of the team! It is a movie that resonates on the same wave as the contemporary BG people. It shows the heart...and the really important things in life - hope, love, tolerance, dialogue, the continuity between the generations and freedom - the choice to live your life as you want and to be its real master... Well, it is difficult for me to come up with 10 lines for this movie (as the guidelines indicate) since this is a movie that needs to be seen coz it is a movie to be felt...because it is simple and that's why it is a work of genius!!! It's absolutely worth seeing!

Staged in current day Sofia this film portrays the effects of an all too known and all too frightening blind hatred toward anyone that is different. Two brothers, one an artistic drug addict on the mend, the other a racist. Once divided now brought back together by a single event that forever changes the lives of all.

Dark and dreary, scary and painful. Films that tangle with racism in the way this film does always are like that. It settles like a huge weight on the stomach and doesn't lighten for many long moments. It never gets too heavy though - it's just right.

The acting work is fitting, the characters displayed are real. And this makes it all the more scary. It's all too easy to feel a form of compassion for all of them, which adds a lot to the film.

8 out of 10 life altering choices

This film is real, touchable; and at the same time poetic, touching! It reveals the condition of a lost soul of Sofia (the city), a young man who is leaving narcotics behind but there is nothing else in our modern life here to replace them. Boredom, inertia, dissatisfaction, pointlessness, emotional routine plague the souls in Sofia of all generations, young or old. Only love might give hope...

The character is looking for this one little piece of love, maybe hidden somewhere in his heel...

The film makes keen and exact observations at people, at the cityscape, at the relations in Bulgaria. Although it tells about drug addiction, about skinhead groups, it felt like it is coming from my own life! I could recognise friends, parents, the apartments i've lived in. The details are 100% there. The actor play is very very strong (with the exception of Stefan Danailov's student, maybe on purpose?). The young man is himself, not an actor. He is showing his own life, his guts, which makes 'Eastern plays' even more dramatic.

The camera work is incredible - its an art photographer's capture of Sofia. Some will say it is ugly, for me it is ravishingly beautiful, dignified. Sofia becomes a serene participant in the story. The music is a participant as well! 'Inject me love' was not composed for the film yet it fits it perfectly. Maybe the movie will put the "underground" Bulgarian electroacoustic group Nassekomix on the world stage?