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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
Honestly, only if you have a weirdly specific interest in how Bulgarian farmers flirted in 1930. If you are looking for fast-paced drama, you are going to be staring at your phone within ten minutes.
People who love dusty archives and seeing how 'honor' used to be a real plot point will dig it. If you hate slow, silent-era acting where every emotion is a whole body event, you will probably want to skip this one. 🌾
I found myself watching this on a Tuesday night when the internet was acting up. It feels like stepping into a very old, very faded postcard that someone found in a basement.
The story is so simple it almost hurts. You have Lina, who is the local beauty, and then you have Goran and Kosan who are basically the good guy and the bad guy tropes before they were even tropes.
Lina mostly just stands near trees or looks at the ground. I think she has about three facial expressions in the whole movie, but maybe that was the style back then.
Goran is the 'virtuous' one. He is so nice it actually gets a bit annoying after a while.
You want him to do something wild, but he just keeps being a stand-up citizen. It is very different from the darker vibes in Guilt where things feel a bit more heavy-handed.
Kosan, on the other hand, has that classic 'I am the villain' look. He has these eyes that make you think he’s constantly planning to steal someone's lunch or a goat. 🐐
There is this one scene where they are competing for her attention, and the camera just lingers on a patch of grass for way too long. I think the cameraman might have fallen asleep, or maybe they just really liked that grass.
The scenery is actually the best part. You get these wide shots of the Bulgarian countryside that look totally untouched by anything modern.
It reminds me a bit of the rural settings in Rivals, though the drama here feels a bit more grounded in dirt and tradition.
I noticed that the costumes look heavy. Like, really heavy wool that probably smelled terrible after a day of filming in the sun.
There is a lot of walking. So much walking from one side of the frame to the other for no apparent reason.
One guy in the background of a village scene is just holding a chicken. He isn't part of the plot, he just has a chicken and he looks very proud of it. 🐓
The script by Dimitar Hristotodorov doesn't try to be clever. It’s just 'here is a good man, here is a bad man, watch them fight for a lady.'
It’s a bit like The Pied Piper in how it treats its moral lessons. It wants you to leave the theater (or your laptop) knowing exactly who you should be cheering for.
I did find the lighting to be super inconsistent. In some shots, Lina looks like an angel, and in the next, she’s almost completely in the dark because a cloud probably moved.
It adds to the charm, I guess. It feels human and messy, not like the over-polished stuff we get now.
There’s a moment where Goran looks at the sunset and you can almost feel the movie begging you to think he is deep. It’s a bit much, but I laughed.
If you’ve seen Das Wunder, you know how these European films from that era love their long, silent stares. This movie is about 40% staring.
I also kept thinking about the director, Vasil Bakardzhiev. He was also in the cast, which usually means the director wanted to make sure his best side was on camera.
The ending isn't a surprise. The virtuous guy wins because that’s how 1930 worked.
It’s not as explosive as something like Bomben, but it has a quiet sort of energy. Like a slow river that doesn't really go anywhere but is nice to look at for a bit.
I wouldn't say this is a masterpiece. It’s just a relic.
Sometimes you just want to see how people used to tell stories before everything had to have a twist or a sequel. This is just a story about a girl, two guys, and a lot of Bulgarian dirt.
If you can handle the graininess and the slow pace, give it a look. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything. 📺
IMDb 4
1928
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