THE PETROV FILE (Bulgaria/Germany)
directed by Georgi Balabanov (screenplay: Georgi Balabanov, Jean-Claude Carriere)
A prominent stage actor makes his return after the fall of the communist regime. Soon after, he gets an offer to lead a new political party. Can art and politics be separated under the "new" regime?
Balabanov’s clever approach to his story and characters created a piece that immediately captures the viewer's attention, where most other movies on the same subject from the Balkans have failed in recent years. Despite of the Balabanov theater and documentary background, the filmmaker skillfully succeeded in telling a very complex story in a cinematic way. Dealing with some basic human flaws like hypocrisy – betrayal – greed... in a single word corruption, Balabanov clearly points out that all of the above are not conditioned by any particular regime nowadays. Most powerful bad guys from the previous regime, has successfully traded their jerseys for new ones – of the liberal capitalism; collateral damage - always honest and decent people, good guys that naively believe in righteousness and freedom.
The Petrov File offers an exciting political thriller for the audience not familiar with eastern bloctransition, while all the others should easily recognize very truthful take on still ongoing painful experience, without author’s dishonest sentimentality or feverishness.
2 NIGHTS TILL MIDNIGHT (Finland/Luthania)
written and directed by Mikko Kuparinen
A one-night stand stand between two strangers in Lithuania takes an unexpected turn after an ash cloud from a volcano prevents all flights from taking off.
Mikko Kuparinen skillfully created a subtle, very profound, and stylish two-character driven melodrama, which begins with a high concept hook – 2 people accidentally meet somewhere abroad, get immediately attracted to each other, only to learn that they don’t speak the language of the other. Beside the script particularly focusing on character development (with which Kuparinen did a great job!), this type of movie has to rely heavily on the actors, and the two leads gave superb performance; arguably internationally acclaimed French Canadian Marie-Josee Croze, and especially Mikko Nousiainen, a Finish actor who carried out a very delicate role with an unusual easiness. Hopefully, Nousiainen’s talent will be recognized, insomuch so we’ll start seeing him more in various future productions worldwide. A highly sophisticated piece that brings us a really promising filmmaker.