Blaga´s Lessons (Stephan Komandarev) Bulgaria/Germany. Official Section |

Blaga´s Lessons
Stephan Komandarev
Bulgaria/Germany. 2023. 114 min

Seventy-year-old retired schoolteacher Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) has recently lost her beloved husband, a former police officer well-known in the austere, small northern Bulgarian town where she still lives. Determined to purchase a substantial gravesite and headstone for the deceased, the stern-minded, no-nonsense widow continues to work, giving Bulgarian language lessons to immigrants. However, Blaga’s already precarious world is overturned when one afternoon she falls prey to a frightening telephone scam. This is merely the beginning of a tautly conceived thriller that skillfully captures the feeling of a bleak post-Communist society beset by corruption—in both criminal and official capacities. Stephan Komandarev’s entirely gripping film rests on the ever-strengthening shoulders of veteran actress Skorcheva, whose remarkable journey from weather-beaten victimhood to aggressive resolve persuasively transforms the film into a provocative story of individual morality in a world gone wrong.

STEPHAN KOMANDAREV

Born in 1966 in Sofia. Stephan graduated in Film & TV directing at the New Bulgarian University (1999). His works include award-wining feature and documentary films. He is a lecturer at the Film Department of the New Bulgarian University, Sofia (since 2008). He is a 2011 EAVE graduate and a Member of the European Film Academy, Bulgarian Film Directors’ Association and Bulgarian Film Producers’ Association.

DIRECTOR´S NOTE

Though BLAGA’S LESSONS is the last installment in our trilogy (following Directions and Rounds), it is vastly different. The story of our main character Blaga holds a mirror up to a number of painful aspects of Bulgarian society such as:
| The Bulgarian pensioners abandoned to a humiliating existence – our mothers and fathers. After working their entire lives, today their life is genocide, agony and misery.
Meagre pensions, no access to basic 21st century “privileges” such as normal food, adequate medication and medical care, heating at home Pensioners are also the main target and the usual victims of the obscene Bulgarian phenomenon known as “phone scams”. The dreams of a decent life have long since been replaced by a struggle for primitive everyday survival.
| The loneliness of the Bulgarian pensioners – most of them are separated from their children and grand-children. Their descendants are far away, searching for a living in the capital or in far-off countries.
| The complete moral crisis our society is caught in. The obscenity of stealing the saving of an elderly person who is barely making ends meet. Making “easy money” with complete disregard for any laws, value systems or morals. The soullessness, corruption and consumerism as the sole “value”. The faithful representation and understanding of reality is the first requirement for its change, the only condition for fruitful action.