Новини

The coproduction of Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, a project of Sofia Meetings, makes the first big present for the 100th anniversary of Bulgarian cinema. AŞKOLSUN, RADU!

The Romanian-Bulgarian-Czech co-production "Aferim!" directed by Radu Jude won the "Silver Bear" for Best Director in Berlin. The award was shared with the Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska for her film "Body". The "Golden Bear" for Best Film was awarded to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for his film "Taxi".

"Affair" took part as a project at the 10th edition of Sofia Meetings in 2013. Producers are Ada Solomon of "HiFilm" Romania, winner of "Golden Bear" for “The Child’s Pose”, and Eurimages Award for Producer of the Year at the European Film Academy, Rositsa Valkanova - CLASS Film, Bulgaria, and Jiri Konecny of "Endorfilm", Czech Republic. The film is co-produced by Nu Boyana Film and is made with the support of the National Film Centre (NFC).

"Aferim!" will have a premiere in Bulgaria as part of the Balkan competition at the upcoming 19th Sofia Film Fest.
"Aferim!" tells the story that takes place in Wallachia in the 19th century: the local police constable Kostadin and his adolescent son Yonitsa are sent to recapture a fugitive Gypsy-slave. The film calls into question the so-called objectively historical truth and highlights the ways in which values and habits are transmitted from one generation to another, how the "zeitgeist" and the mentality create reality, and how today's issues (almost karmically inherited) are result of actions and behavior that took place in the past.

“Aferim!” is an Ottoman Turkish expression meaning “bravo!,” a word used with deep irony in the film but one that can equally be directed, without any irony, at the director Radu Jude. A great deal of the freshness lies in the way Jude dispenses with traditional historical-film trappings even while cleaving to the classic structure of fugitive-hunting Westerns. While its tone is occasionally overly strident, “Aferim!” is an exceptional, deeply intelligent gaze into a key historical period, done with wit as well as anger.
 „Variety”

"Handsomely shot in luminous monochrome on 35mm film, director Radu Jude's third feature premiers in the main competition section in Berlin today. Jude's two previous features, The Happiest Girl in the World and Everybody in our Family, were darkly funny satires about the strained economic and social fabric of contemporary Romania. Both picked up multiple awards at Sundance, Berlin, Sarajevo and other festivals. His new film shares the same sardonic tone but brings a more ambitious scope and more explicitly political resonance. Aferim! opens domestically next month, with further festival bookings likely to follow. It will be a tough sell for overseas distributors, but smart niche players may be swayed by the prospect of releasing Romania's answer to 12 Years a Slave. Aferim! digs deeper into the historical roots of this timely subject as Jude and his co-writer, novelist Florin Lazarescu, draw on real accounts of gypsy slavery for inspiration. Crucially, they also manage to make this grim topic both funny and personal, not a dour social-realist sermon."
„The Hollywood Reporter”

"Aferim!" is stylish, full of nuance and commentary; set up as a Western with a hard-scrabble journey on horseback through an almost-forgotten time and place. The art feeds naturally into the piece, though, and the attractive atmospherics, vistas and unusual sets are dressing on a stark tale of cruel, institutionalised slavery."
„Screen Daily”

“Aferim!” is a great success for the Bulgarian cinema and a proof that the participation of Bulgarian national funding, services, creative, technical and organizational team in the international co-productions, is one of the most successful forms of realization of our national cinema on worldwide scale.

Let this be a glamorous beginning of an unforgettable and extremely successful year for the Bulgarian cinema!

CONGRATULATIONS to Rositsa Valkanova and the film crew!