‘Blaga’s Lessons’ Director Stephan Komandarev on Diagnosing the Ills of Contemporary Bulgaria
variety.comAlissa Simon Film Critic Bulgarian multi-hyphenate Stephan Komandarev completes his trilogy on social problems and moral ills in contemporary Bulgaria with “Blaga’s Lessons,” world premiering in Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Crystal Globe competition.
Heretic is the sales agent. After “Directions” (2017), which centers on tough times for some Sofia taxi drivers over a long and eventful night, and “Rounds” (2019), about police officers patrolling the capital, Komandarev and his co-writer Simeon Ventsislavov use an older woman duped by a telephone scam to look at issues afflicting their parents’ generation.
Komandarev says: “The Bulgarian pensioners turned out to be the real victims of the so-called ‘transition’ (the time from 1989 to today.) These people, who have worked and created persistently all their lives, have lost basic safety and security, normal food, adequate medical care, heating, etc.” The protagonist Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a retired Bulgarian language and literature teacher.
A recent widow, she’s worried about how she will pay for her husband’s grave and headstone. Her grown son lives abroad and struggles to make a living himself.
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