everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I have a huge problem with the authenticity of this film.I understand that it tries to show the chauvinistic aspects of the so called "Balkan Syndrome", the painful and sometimes even violent quest for identity. I guess the movie really pushes a button here but its scale is horribly exaggerated and it creates a lie, a myth.Such a racist crime against Turkish citizens or any sort of tourists has never happened in Bulgaria. I haven't heard of anything like that in my whole life and I was born here.So what does this movie actually try to show? That Bulgarian thugs beat up Turkish tourists? Ridiculous, I think one can't be so careless and arbitrary when it comes to something so serious, in which more than one country is involved. I guess the story could have had much bigger effect if it showed the antagonisms between Neonazi gangs and Roma people 'cause these conflicts happen on a daily basis and are really fundamental in terms of racist crimes being committed in Bulgaria.

Eastern Plays, directed and written by Kamen Kalev a young and rising director, is set in Sofia the capital city of Bulgaria. The main character is a former drug addict Christo played by Christo Christov. Christo confronts many problems in his life as he is searching for some meaning in a strange and unfriendly world. The main characters Christo and his brother Georgi worry about their umeaningful lives. Christo finds resort in alcohol and his art on the other hand Georgi joins a fascist skinhead gang because he just wants to belong somewhere. Obviously the two brothers have very much in common and they are trying to find a meaning in a world that seems so volatile and sometimes hostile too. The film shows to us that human beings deserve a better way of life without hostilities between men, a life where love and respect will reign and this can be achieved only by young people such as Christo, Georgi and Ishil because most of the adults are lost in their problems and totally compromised with this unfriendly way of life.Eastern Plays covers many of the problems young people face in society today. Drug addiction, racist gangs, generation gap, the need to belong somewhere. This is all done in a realistic way with which most of us can identify. Christo Christov and the other actors too are brilliant in their roles and convincing in the emotions they portray throughout. Of course there are some flaws in the film. Moreover the absence of a concrete and stable scenario. To a certain extent the film is predictable and it doesn't surprise you with sudden changes. The dialogs also could be better and more extensive in ideas. Overall the film was good and it's a pity that many of s don't know about the Balkan cinema scene and particularly the Bulgarian cinema scene. I think and I hope that job such as that film will encourage new directors from Bulgaria to express their ideas and their feelings through filming.

What I particularly liked (and I know friends of mine who did as well) in this movie is that it is not a movie about a person, or a story, but mostly an aesthetic vision of a city... which happens to be my city. The storyline is almost missing: apart from the sad coincidence that one brother took part in the beating of another, there is not much of a narrative thread and the entire movie is just a sequence of impressions of present-day Sofia, including the people living in it. Hristo Hristov became the focus of the film because he represented a particular type of Sofianites (actually he was born in Burgas but that does not make him less of a Sofianite since this is the city where he painted): artists who have received serious formation, have developed their own style, have reached the level of creators of unquestionably valuable works, and yet have found no chance to live on their art and be successful. Hristo was not the first, and will not be the last of generations of creative persons who had to find various exits from the difficult situation the last twenty years placed us all in. He chose drugs and in the real life passed away even before the movie was finished. But his sad story is one of hope, too, since the real-life Hristo, even posthumously, proved that recognition can come (and we are now expecting the long-postponed exhibition of his art), while the movie-character Hristo showed to his younger brother that there is alternative to violence and hatred, and that there is enough beauty around us to save us from despair.

This is probably the best Bulgarian film in a decade. There are a couple of things that must be said about it. 1. “Eastern Plays” is first and foremost a humane story. I cannot underestimate the importance of that fact given the long-standing tradition of Bulgarian movies (and European cinematography in general) to intimidate their characters and to dissect them with horrifying bluntness. 2. More than that, the film is a really, really good contemporary narrative. The story is told in a subtle, calm and compassionate manner. 3. This film is a rare display of the importance of each and every human existence. The idea is presented without the help of complex existential constructions or intellectual roundabouts.