The Foreigner

Ultimate the variety in your life. Inspire your next getaway. Trace the story of the style and culture in the Bulgarian film industry. The early years of the Bulgarian era finally agains the difficult life situations. The director and writer is Niki Iliev. Magnificent screenplay, which will associate with a team of star actors. Striking architecture, grand boulevards, world-class art and classic places to stay from countries all around the world. Traveller and the beauty can join to the mountain town, the rocky islands knowns with theirs black seaside imagination and wildlife. Extraordinary film which includes action scenes, excellent food, French wine and remarkable sound.

As the movie shows, now, I live through something extraordinary. I am making a memory that will worm me when I get old. Because life without memories flies away as the wind does. Or at least in the movie is said so.

At its middle I decided to write because it was a participant in a contest for Bulgarian movies. At its end I decided to wrote about it because of what it was. I do not forget to note that it was recommended to me by a close friend but I haven't the courage to watch home production. I will note also that I am writing on a piece of paper with a pencil because my battery went down. And I miss only the candle.

Because of that contest I wondered why our people do not make movies about foreign countries or at least talking about them. Naturally I throw aside this idea as impossible.

And here! In this movie! Staging is good (on times hand shooting is beyond the measures, but not so much), acting is good, french speech is receiving. The atmosphere can warm your heart. In general, a movie able to give a lesson to most of us. At least I say it. Bravo! A movie that succeeded to change the meaning of songs. In life there are songs and is up to us which will sing - the sad or the cheer ones.

I note: one of the elderly family couples reminds me of the couple in "Shrek" about which I will add what people say. It is not important that you are a monster. It is important to find a monster like you that will love you. The end.

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Not sure why the majority of Bulgarian movies are very sad and depressing. This one makes no difference.

Complicated and pretentious script. If you expect any comedy you will be disappointed. Very sad story - both literally and the movie quality - bad acting and very irritating attempt at local language dialect. Irritating because the main actress in fact has very good Bulgarian language half of time, the other half somehow she has accent? WTF? I am Bulgarian and can say I cannot recognize the weird characters born in the apparently pervert imagination of the script's authors. Completely unrealistic and very irritating story.

One of the worst movies I've ever watched. That is not funny. And I am not laughing. Neither will you if you watch it.

Unfortunately, I will strongly disagree with the current review of this film.

I am disappointed from this movie's script where dialectic-ism is used in a very flat, inappropriate and completely irritating way. The characters are underdeveloped, insufficient and much more work and complexity is needed to ignite someone's feelings. Actors play is on a very low level and inappropriately selected for their images. Some of the good features of the movie are the selected music and camera work. Otherwise, I had a pretty bad time trying to stay focused and watch the film.

I must say that Niki Iliev's movie 'The Foreigner' was a pleasant surprise. Initially, my expectations were quite low as I haven't seen many decent Bulgarian movies recently (at least, not filmed over the last decade). However, I liked its style, tone, the balance between playful lightness and 'depth'. The music was in sync with the scenery and the characters; nice yet unobtrusive background to what was unfolding on the screen. The characters were well presented with a great sense of humour and some uniquely 'typical' (albeit a bit oversimplified) features of the Balkan mentality. The cinematography was absolutely gorgeous! It reminded me of a peculiar but strangely fascinating mixture between Emir Kusturica's masterpieces (e.g. 'Black cat, white cat') and some of Pedro Almodóvar's earlier movies - e.g. 'Kika', 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' ('Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios'), but with a modern feel. I loved the landscape, the vibrant colours and especially the scenes filmed in the Bulgarian countryside, seen through the eyes of a Frenchman ('The Foreigner') who visits Bulgaria and falls in love at first sight (or imagines himself to be in love!) with a local girl. Actually, the actor playing the foreigner is Lubomir Kovatchev, a very talented Bulgarian actor who speaks French fluently. While watching the movie, I felt almost nostalgic, recalling my childhood in Bulgaria. To me, this movie seems like a lovely portrayal of the 'meeting' between two worlds - Eastern and Western Europe, modern and traditional values, the City and the Village, past and present. The emphasis is not so much on the love story than on the collision between these two worlds. We all as human beings sometimes struggle to understand not only each other's differences based on our origin, not only each other's language, but each other's perspective. This led to many comic and at times, tragic situations. However, the beauty of this movie was also in capturing 'moments of meeting' between people of diverse background which transcended language and verbal communication. To quote Exupéry, 'It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye'. The only criticism I have is that some of the characters (for example, Valentin Goshev's character Zlatan) were a bit one-dimensional and too much like the famous literary archetype of the Bulgarian anti-hero Bay Ganyo, created in the late 19th century as an epitome of arrogance and ignorance. I think, however, that by the end of the story this character's personality certainly evolved as well as the others'. I liked how some stereotypes were broken, for example that all Bulgarian people living in villages are 'dumb' and savage. On the contrary, gentleness and sensitivity were evoked even in the hearts of the seemingly rough fathers and brothers of the two rival families. The constant battles between the two brothers and the gossiping of (the supporting character) Magdalena's sisters were a pleasure to behold. The ending was priceless! Overall, I enjoyed this movie very much. Well done to Niki Iliev and the crew!