The festival of Bulgarian cinema, which takes place from September 10 to 13 in Paris, will continue in Sofia. The French Cultural Institute in the Bulgarian capital will present to the Francophone audience in this country films from the festival selection over the years. The screenings will be subtitled in French, as on September 13, the two events will bridge Paris and Sofia by overlapping their programs.

"At our closing on the 13th of September we will show the film Liuben and before that we are to screen the film that won the Palme d'Or this year at Cannes for best short film ("The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent"), which is also a co-production with Bulgaria. On the same date in the French Institute in Sofia, 6 screenings of our old and current films begin, as "Liuben" will also be screened on September 13," Rumena Ivanova, who is part of the team that organized the first and only independent festival dedicated to Bulgarian cinema in France, told us.

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"This initiative helped us a lot to promote the festival in Bulgaria. I am very grateful to the French Institute in Sofia. They also assisted us with the subtitles of the films in French and will present these 6 screenings in the period September 13 to 28^th,” Rumena says.

"Stronger Together" is the motto that unites the screenings of Bulgarian films in Paris and Sofia. Taking up the baton, the French Cultural Institute in Sofia opens the series of screenings on September 13 with the first full-length Bulgarian LGBT film by director Venci D. Kostov. "We continue on September 14th at 19:00 with another film from this year's program - 'January' by Andrey Paunov - a co-production of Bulgaria, Portugal and Luxembourg, inspired by the play of the great Bulgarian writer and playwright Yordan Radichkov," the Institute reports and specifies that all films are shown in the original version and are subtitled in French.

The screenings continue on September 20, 21, 27 and 28, and among the titles we also see "Face Down" by Bulgarian director Kamen Kalev, as well as the film "The Infinite Garden" by theatre director Galin Stoev, who is currently artistic director of the Théâtre de la Cité in Toulouse.

Before each screening, viewers will also see a short Bulgarian film from the competition selection of this year's edition of the Festival of Bulgarian Cinema in Paris.

"Welcome to the Slaveykov Hall, to get acquainted with this selection, in which we have tried to weave the entire diversity of Bulgarian cinema creativity," reads the invitation of the French Cultural Institute in Sofia, which will open its doors to welcome movie goers in a unique cultural space in the heart of the capital city.

Publication in English: Al. Markov

Photos: French Cultural Institute in Sofia