Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I liked it. I have to say that I expected something more thrilling. I find it as decent try to reveal the history (and the present days) in almost all post communist countries. (Especially the fact the the National Security Agents are ruling these countries or are at managerial position at big companies.) OK lets focus now. I assume it could be done better with more details what was the communist regime, but I see that this is not the plot. I also assume this movie is targeted to post communist Europe, others can hardly understand it. Congrats for the crew once again and all movies makers from the region. I can see the the last several years they have been revived from the dead and their movies go to theaters.

I think that Bulgarian cinema is the one I'm the least familiar with; I'm not sure I've seen more than a couple of films from Bulgaria. And yet, here you have this movie practically no one knows and it's a masterpiece. Everything about it is just so breathtakingly beautiful. The characters are so frank it's unbelievable, they find themselves gradually, and at the end you hold your breath expecting to see what is going to happen.If this were a Hollywood film, I'm pretty certain it would be awful. There are elements in this film that are clichés - but this is where powerful film-making comes into play; you can exploit a cliché in such a way so as to make it a staggeringly original statement.And even if many times for many of us, it doesn't really seem as though the world is big salvation lurks around the corner, this movie effortlessly makes you believe it does, and that's enough of a reason to watch it.

I just saw "Eastern plays" (also Bulgarian movie) and was really disappointed and gave it really bad comment. But, this movie is even worse. It is just terrible copy of some Kusturica works, mixed with completely naive direction. I don't know if this director ever saw any movie that is done in 21st century. It is full of big words, fake artism and - well, maybe I am stupid, but this movie is about nothing. Movie is so pretentious, making audience burst into laughter aloud. Almost all the shots, dialogue, scenes were seen at least billion times in other, better movies. I can not believe somebody takes this movie serious. I saw the list of awards this movie received - and I just don't know what the other movies competing with this one were like. Anyway, I don't want to be a bore - skip this movie, you will save some money and more important, some time.

I went to the theater with low expectations of another boring post-totalitarian Bulgarian movie and was pleasantly surprised - it had an actual story which was told consistently, the characters were lively, there were no irritating protracted shots in silence (trademark to many, many other Bulgarian movies) and the dialogue was real. While based on a novel the movie elegantly manages to stay focused and the plot is not overstretched.Things I didn't like: the one-sided densely evil picture of the totalitarian oppressors that rendered them preposterously inhuman, the clichéd camera (e.g. yellowish retrospectives, rotation around characters while they played backgammon) and superfluous didacticism in some scenes.All in all it's worth watching, but eight years of script rewriting could yield a bit better result.