Rositsa Valkanova: Romanian Movies Took Bulgarians on Their Teams to Berlin and Cannes

Novinite is offering an English-language version of an interview with the Bulgarian co-producer of Aferim!, a movie awarded with a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2015.

Rositsa Valkanova talks with Vladimir Mitev, a Bulgarian journalist who runs the bilingual Bridge of Friendship blog, about Romanian-Bulgarian cooperation in cinema which brought about international recognition for Romanians and Bulgarians.

Bridge of Friendship is dedicated to helping Bulgarians and Romanians know each other. Its publications are always out in both Romanian and Bulgarian.

Over the past years Romanian and Bulgarian filmmakers have been cooperating actively, with their joint effort bringing about high-quality movies and international recognition. One of the fruits of this partnership - Aferim, which was awarded a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2015 - was presented at the Dohodno Zdanie edifice [a landmark neoclassical building] in Ruse within the Sofia Film Fest on the Road mini festival.

The film tells a story of the wild times of the 1930s, when Romanian policeman Constandin receives an assignment from local boyar Iordache to find Carfin, a Roma slave who fled after an affair with Iordache's wife, Sultana. As they are searching for Carfin, later nabbing and bringing him back to his owner, Costandin and his son run into the Wallachian realities at the time when the Romanian identity is being affirmed among its citizens and emancipates itself from Ottoman and Phanariot influence.

In a conversation with the audience after the movie's screening, Radu Jude said the story represented a historic...