Last-Modified: July 17, 2000 Posting-Frequency: Monthly Version: 4.11 URL:: bulgaria-faq/part6 =============================================================================== CHAPTER 12: ART AND CULTURE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12-1 Bulgarian Cinema (by Val Todorov) THE BULGARIAN CINEMA - CONSTANTS AND VARIABLES Copyright (c) 1993 by Val Todorov, all rights reserved. This text may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author. 'The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.'

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This Mark Twain quotation, which in the given context refers to the new Bulgarian cinema as a whole, opens a review on one of the most recent films released in the country. It is symptomatic that the movie is a debut. It is also symptomatic that this is a debut by a professional with more than 20 years experience in the industry. 'Shrove Sunday' (Sirna nedelja) is written and directed by Radoslav Spassov, a veteran in the cameramen's guild.

However, before examining particular trees in the changing film flora of the new political, cultural and economic climate, let's throw a quick glance at the whole wood. Rumors of the death of the Bulgarian cinema, although exaggerated, are not groundless at all. After the fall of the socialist rule in November 1989 and the first free elections in June 1990, not only was Georgi Dimitrov's mummy taken out of his Stalinist Mausoleum and burned to ashes, but the whole film industry -- with its totalitarian structure based exclusively on the state support and control -- virtually collapsed.

It did not happen in a day. The process was long and painful, as if in slow motion, and its last shot of total distraction was taken somewhere in the beginning of 1992, although other chain-reactions of disintegration still linger on. After the clouds of dust settled, the aftermath was found to be a rather mournful and devastating sight.

Ten years ago Ronald Holloway in his book 'The Bulgarian Cinema' wrote: 'The Boyana Studios at the foot of Mount Vitosha turn out a feature film a week for cinemas or television. The annual breakdown is about equal: twenty-five for movie screens and the same for the TV tube.

This is in addition to another twenty-five animated films, and over two hundred shorts and documentaries.' Now: In the last year only five feature films were released. In total, the films produced in 1992 are 12.8 times less than in 1987. Ten years ago: 'There are approximately thirty-six hundred cinemas in the country.' Now: There are 319 cinemas in the country. Rusifikator teksta dlya far cry 3 uplay. Over the last five years, the number of the cinemas has decreased 8.6 times, which is particularly tragic in the villages and small towns where the decrease is up to 29 times. Even in the capital Sofia only 18 cinemas remain open.

Ten years ago: 'Each moviegoer is reckoned to attend the movies on an average of ten to thirteen times a year.' Now: For the last five years, the attendance has been reduced 4.2 times -- each moviegoer attended an average of nine movies in 1987, and only two in 1992. Ten years ago: 'A sprawling complex, the Boyana Studios are referred to as 'film city' by the local population.

Nearly all of the technical facilities are housed under one roof, the staff including over nine thousand qualified employees.' Now: 'In the transitional period the staff has been reduced to 250 compared with the 1,500 who were formerly employed,' says Mikhail Kirkov. 'The result of our financial reconstruction, from a government institution to a private company, is still unknown.' Ten years ago: 'When one considers that as late as 1953 only one feature film was produced a year, the growth of the Bulgarian film industry is astonishing, to say the least.'

Especially, keeping in mind that this is a country smaller than Pennsylvania with a population less than nine million. Now: When one considers that as recent as 1988 seventy-two full-length films (20 features, 26 for TV and 26 documentaries), fifty-seven animated and more than four hundred other shorts were produced, the collapse of the Bulgarian film industry is astonishing, to say the least. When I was trying to do a research for this paper, the answer to my question, what was the current situation of the Bulgarian cinema, more often than not was, 'What Bulgarian cinema?'