Treta sled slantzeto

I know nothing about the Bulgarian science fiction tradition in film and or literature, if either one exists. Third from the Sun is a science fiction anthology of three, actually four, stories.

The first, "Eden" seems very influenced by the first part of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Aliens arrive on Earth and encounter a couple of man's early relatives. Kubrick wisely chose to never show the aliens. In contrast, Third from the Sun has the aliens, who look humanoid, debate amongst themselves about whether to intervene in mankind's evolution. This episode about put me to sleep.

In the second episode, "The Visitor," a writer going to see a friend who is dying of cancer picks up a strange hitchhiker. The writer eventually figures out the passenger is an alien with superhuman powers, so he tries to convince the alien to save the dying friend. This episode feels like a very slight Twilight Zone episode.

The third episode, "The First Day," actually contains a story within a story, thus bringing the number of episodes to four. The frame story has an alien (a man with red skin) visiting a futuristic earth. The visitor is told a story about time travelling (the fourth story). In this story within a story, a woman becomes obsessed with travelling to one time period. There, she ignores her directive to not get involved, and falls in love with an outsider of a Slavic village in the middle ages. I think this was the best story in the film. Finally, the story within a story ends, and we return to the red skinned alien for a final wrap up.

Third from the Sun is a talky movie that too often bores its audience. I like one of the four stories, and I admire the way the filmmakers are able to use natural locations and keep the effects low-fi. Nonetheless, I would not watch this film a second time.