7.2 /10 1 Votes
3.3/5 Mubi Music by Hristo Namliev Music director Hristo Namliev | 7.8/10 IMDb Bulgarian Слава Initial release 12 April 2017 (USA) Nominations Golden Leopard | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by Kristina Grozeva
Petar Valchanov Produced by Kristina Grozeva
Petar Valchanov Written by Kristina Grozeva
Petar Valchanov
Decho Taralezhkov Starring Stefan Denolyubov
Margita Gosheva Directors Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva Cast Stefan Denolyubov, Margita Gosheva Screenplay Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva, Decho Taralezhkov Similar The Lesson, Godless, Daydreams, Skok, Anna's Life | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Glory trailer film fest gent 2016
Glory (Bulgarian: Слава, translit. Slava) is a 2016 Bulgarian-Greek drama film written and directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov. The second film in the directors' "newspaper-clippings trilogy", the film is a social-realist parable exploring the themes of corruption, class differences, and the rural-urban divide, in contemporary Bulgarian society.
Contents
Plot
Railway trackman Tsanko Petrov discovers a large amount of money in bundles on the tracks, but instead of taking the cash for himself he notifies the authorities. The sophisticated head of PR at Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport, Julia Staykova, takes the opportunity to deflect a brewing corruption scandal by holding a ceremony to hail Tsanko as a working-class hero. Unkempt and dishevelled with a debilitating stutter, Tsanko is ridiculed by Julia's PR team while they parade him for the press as a hero. In order for the Minister to present Tsanko with a new digital watch, Julia removes Tsanko's own Slava-brand watch, an heirloom passed down from his father.
Cast
Development
An event reported in the Bulgarian press inspired the film. One of the film's directors (Petar Valchanov) stated in an interview:
As is the case with The Lesson, the film starts where the news story ends. We read this story about a lineman who found а huge pile of cash on the railway, gave it to the police and was later given this quasi-award for valor, and we thought it was a very fertile premise for a broader and more revealing plot.
In another interview, the directors elaborated that in constructing the screenplay of the film, they take the superficial parts of real-life stories reported in the news media. A separate real-life event that the directors incorporated into Glory was an incident where an architect is forced to apologize.
Production
The film, originally known as The Pledge, was scheduled to film in July-August 2015, in Sofia and surrounding villages. The budget was reported as €260,000, including a €190,000 grant from the Bulgarian National Film Center.
Release
Relying on the strength of the directors' previous film, Italy's I Wonder Pictures bought the film in February 2016, while Glory was in post-production, Distribution rights for the film were later sold to Filmarti (Turkey), Arti Film (Benelux), La Aventura Audiovisual (Spain), JSC Europos Kinas (Lithuania), Bounty Films (Australia and New Zealand), and Film Movement (United States and English-speaking Canada).
The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival (in Switzerland).
Accolades
At the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival, Glory received a special mention from the International Federation of Film Societies (FICC/IFFS) jury.
At the Avvantura Film Festival in Zadar, Croatia, Glory won the Grand Prix (top prize) as well as the Best Actor award (Stefan Denolyubov).
At the Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival in September 2016, Glory won the Special Award of the City of Varna, the Best Screenwriter Award, the Best Cinematographer Award (to Krum Rodriguez for his work on both Glory and Godless), the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers Award, and the Accredited Journalists' Award.
The film won the top prize at the 2016 Hamptons International Film Festival, the HIFF Award for Best Narrative Feature Film, consisting of a film production-services package worth more than $125,000 along with a $3,000 cash prize.
At the 2016 KineNova film festival in Skopje, Glory won the best film award.
At Film Fest Gent in October 2016, Glory was in official competition and received a special mention from the jury, which said it admired the film "for its humor and its political and moral honesty".