Pismo do Amerika

I have seen this film on the festival called The Days of the European film and I was very surprised. This is so powerful, wonderful and amazing film!

It leads us to the small village in the middle of Bulgarian mountains. There is no civilization and traditions are still alive there. It shows Bulgarian grandmothers, who are as beautiful and wise as the Bulgarian mountains and woods all around. It puts the village with the grandmothers and Bulgarian nature in contrast with New York. And it tells us about young people from Bulgaria, who are emigrating to USA and to the West. So there are only old people now. And it asks: Who will lead Bulgaria in the future? Who will look after this old, beautiful and amazing country? Why don´t you in your homeland, young Bulgarian people?

This was my first Bulgarian film and I fell in love with Bulgaria after seeing it.

The very special in this film is the total openness towards us, the sincerity! We see those people in their world and they are not afraid to let us touch to their hearts in a something that to us might seem naivety. This sincerity and welcoming is something typical in the Balkans although it has been spoiled to a varying degree by the drive for modernisation and "Europeanisation" ever since the XIX. century. Yet it still bears its mark on the people here, and, in some spots it is preserved in its purest form! One of these we see in "Letter to America".

Although it is a feature film it feels like a documentary. Only the main characters in this story are actors. It is filmed with real people in real places that the author came upon in her search in the mountains. To a foreigner it might look as a fantasy, and the people we see are indeed living in magic and mysticism - but in their magic they are far more real than our civilisation!

You will see a lot of very old people who live by even older ways. I hope your soul will gain a little bit from experiencing this pagan-orthodox tradition where happiness, life and death are perceived in very different way from what we have become accustomed to.

One of the old heroines says to the main character, a visitor to the village just like the viewer, "I am not afraid of death! Why should I be afraid of death - I have made ready my newest and best dress! Here - come - I will show it to you! ...I am not afraid of death, I am afraid of people. Sometimes there are bad people..." These words reminded me about conversations with my own 92 years old grandmother.

"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...

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. The name of the movie itself has an underlying message. A message, a sincere message to tell, i mean 'before all the bridges are burnt', American people, their government -or whatever it is- that the US should be aware of the life going on, whether they like it or not, on other places of the world, before they decide to bomb again... The scene is Bulgaria for this movie, but one can consider it as anywhere he likes on earth...

Movies are quite efficient communication channels between cultures. And, since the term 'communication' has two ways, i advice this movie especially to the American spectators, in return of the standard Hollywood movies we've been watching for years and years...