Mother

A film about people as we are and as we can be. Realistic and human. Sad and optimistic at the same time. There are no super heroes. No action is taken. Events line up like a kaleidoscope, but the plot follows natural human logic. A film for those who love real cinema. Closed in our neat and comfortable cities, we don't notice that there is another world. A world that can be quite depressing. Especially for defenseless orphans. Children without parents are children too. They, like everyone else, have dreams and desires that they dare not say. They are clean and bright white sheets on which our attitude leaves indelible marks.

Children are our future. They matter. Each of them. And it is important to treat them with care and love. That's the message.

The latest film by Zornitsa Sophia will certainly not leave you indifferent - it touches you, stimulates reflection, delights with images, it is like a cold shower for the "Western man" staring at the tip of his nose. It is a story about finding your own place on Earth, discovering what is most important, about the boundless poverty and the beauty of a child's smile. Zornitsa Sophia proves the over-ethnicity and over-cultural nature of children's tragedies, once again proving the universalism of love. The postcolonial costume put on by the director adds another semantic field to this extremely rich cinematic patchwork.

I like Zornitsa for being a brave director doing her own independent projects the way she wants to, handling topics which for some might be "not cool" or even "cliche" but still relevant and touching for people with heart and soul. Few directors left like her in poor little state of Bulgaria, not surprisingly mostly women, living up to the expectations of some marginal "intellectuals" like myself, who at the very least have some fair judgement of the state Bulgarian cinema is at. I must stress that I am a man myself and highly disapprove of what male directors are producing in my home country (with a few exceptions of course), not a feminist at all, believe me... Usually movies produced here are either totally dumb and soulless or pretentious slick blockbuster :) kindoff wannabe hollywood copycats, lately the new trend create some mysterious sci-fi antiutopical artsy fartsy stuff... problem is they are not good enough to do it, even when they bring the best cameraman and try to present some technical gimmicks or whatever for effect. Naturally budgets are hard to get, but that doesnt change a thing...

Zornitsa comes from documentary i guess and it is obvious, so the best parts of this movie are partly documentary with real persons acting (GREATLY I would add), you can even see the main actress being at ease in exactly those truly sincere and authentic scenes. A bit of distance probably and lack of true chemistry between her and the croatian guy who played the older lover, anyway the beautiful camerawork and cinematic ideas balanced more or less this minor drawback, although sometimes this could have put the movie on a whole new level, but i guess in this case the goal was different, we dont expect Bergman here :)

It is a simple story about someone that is strong enough not to turn their heads away from a problem that confronts him/her, which most people do, especially when they can easily just return to their safe asylum (literally), very touching at places emotionally, i personally cried a bit and in the very end when the truth was revealed it became even more overwhelming. But thats just me, I like being emotional and am definitely not afraid of it.

Anyway, a bit messy and lazy - my review, just some thoughts

Definitely worth watching, I would say a rare event in Bulgaria's Cinematography.

Good Luck to Zornitsa and the crew for their new projects!

I would really like to ask the people who left such low ratings and the ones that will do in the future to explain why? If you cannot understand the movie or are not interested in the topic, just skip a rating and don't ruin a perfectly fine film.

The story is developing on a personal and a global level, it grows and shows the struggle of the desire and need to be a mother. The plot continues into showing motherhood nevertheless. The cast is great, the visuals as well and the story is engaging, has a meaning, develops naturally, is emotionally charged and so on. What else do you need for a great movie? I imagine many people are just not capable of feeling instead of thinking this journey through and that's why they didn't appreciate it enough.