Bubblegum

Only a few great shots, almost no music, zero special effects. However the acting is superb! Casting is spot on. Both children and grown ups deliver a truly convincing and immersive story. Beni's role of the grandmother is fun and witty as cool grandmothers are. Natalya's role is full of micro emotions which could be felt through the screen. The kids play amazingly well. Instead of showing images on the screen, the director was drawing them straight in your head, adding sounds, smells and even tastes from the viewer's childhood. It is both the memories and nostalgia which cause huge waves of emotions throughout the whole movie. Communist Bulgaria was so well detailed, that I did not hesitate to belive it for a second. The only "bug" I found is when the two kids lie on the ground and the girls used the slang "yako" (cool) which became fashionable much later. Viewers, who were born after 1986 missed the communism and I wonder how would they react on this movie. For everyone older, the movie is a perfect ten!

Jesus, this was dull! Everything - directing, acting and scenario. Do not waste your time with this low budget incredibly stupid movie.

It does show nothing from the communist era, the characters are empty as hell and the plot follows the same idiotic line - the past is children trying to pretend they are in the past but they do not even have the idea how to show this past. Even the children comunist clothes or games are ridiculous and nobody tried to make that at least trustworthy. It really feels like a wannabee cinema student with very low budget but who never tried to make the best of it. He did the worst. Avoid at all cost :)

Not gonna lie, the rating is higher(should probably be 7) than what the movie deserves, but that's because I'm pleasantly surprised, by the fact that Bulgarian cinema is finally trying to make something, that's not cookie cutter bulls**t. Highlights are the beautiful cinematography, a few creative pieces of dialog, some nice use of classical music, and the fact that the performances from the actors were realistic, not the usual theater acting. Don't be expecting something amazing, but if you would like to watch something that'll make you feel nostalgic about your childhood, and unrealized love interests, then watch this.

The flashbacks really work in the nostalgia play that Bubblegum adopts to describe the power of longing for one's childhood and the people involved in it and how they can influence the decisions taken later in life. More than a dry comedy film, this is about romance and childhood memories that will make you take a trip down your own memory lane. The lead actors play it well and might just convince you to do a couple of things including popping a strip of bubblegum right now. TN.

(Watched and reviewed at the 24th European Union Film Festival (EUFF India) in Mumbai.)

Being a child of the 80s, born in Bulgaria, I found it easy to relate to the movie setting from communist time. It brought back memories, made me smile when thinking of the things I also used to do or experience. But if that was all to this movie, it would have been merely a successful exploitation of people's memories of times that were drastically different than the current ones (in what way, that is a differents story...). But what actually made me fall in love with this movie and write this comment is the fact that it goes beyond the socialism cliche and actually tells a story that almost anyone of us can relate to. The story of "what if...".