Zift

Watching this innovative black and white noir thriller, I kept thinking that Frank Miller must have written it, so perfectly does it fit the sensibility of his Sin City comic book series. Innovative, not exactly original: one can indeed detect the influence of any number of famous noir flicks, most notably D.O.A. But it's executed so perfectly that I wouldn't want to complain. My wife said that the film was rich in allusions to Bulgarian life and culture which went right past me. She is definitely not a genre fan but she really liked this movie. Certainly the best Bulgarian movie I've seen since the magically-realistic anti-communist fable The Well.

" Zift"is a stunning surprise that came from Bulgaria. Black and white noir, dark comedy with a brilliant camera work and lighting. It makes you nostalgic for the old pre-color days, when the directors had to be extra creative, and shadows warmed your heart more than flames ever could. The incredible parody spots wicked sense of humor, especially with the fake Russian songs and surprisingly quite a few homo-erotic images. War and weapons usually get coupled with phallic symbols. Eros and Thanatos in it purest form. It is an immense pleasure to encounter such talented and smart artists, these days of simplicity and proud lack of novelty.Can we have some more, please.

One of the best new Bulgarian films. Dzift is a dark white film with cynicism, a fun sense of humor and a really well developed main character. The moth quotes are really interesting and can connect you to real life. The story at the beginning with the cheating wife that ended with the bigger the feces, the bigger the damage morally rather than materially was really interesting. The acting was good, cinematography was on point and the soundtrack was really good. It wasn't some full blown anti-communnist propaganda. The characters and stories throughout out the movie were really well done. After all it is definitely worth a watch.

Saw this at the Sydney Film Festival and was a little disappointed. Seemed to be a lot of hype surrounding this. Really liked the black and white photography and had high hopes after a nice opening. Unfortunately the movie lost me in the middle and never quite recovered.

I'd have to agree with one of the earlier posts. I think Gardev has definitely borrowed from other films and directors. Apart from that Todorov's screenplay doesn't quite work for me but I would love to read the book (the English translation is released next year). I found the little stories and anecdotes from minor characters to be intrusive and tiresome after a while and I don't know if the voice-over was that effective.

Thought the acting was fine and there were some amusing moments but overall I can't work out if this was supposed to be a thriller or black comedy, heist flick, noir potboiler or a bit of all of these.

In a time where brutality in movies only count when you see tons of blood, sex only count when it looks like porn and the story only count when there are 20 story switches with three parallel stories in it, the Bulgarian cinema brought us a movie which have not any of this in it and although it is ten times better.

I am finished five minutes ago watching this movie. And there is no way for me to describe the reason why i give that flick a ten.

Not one minute of that movie is boring, nothing in it is hyperbolical. Its lyrical without being intellectual.

Just watch it. You will not regret any minute of you're live that you will have spended for watching this movie.