From 22 to 28 June Varna will be hosting the Love is Folly international film festival, opening with the première of Bulgarian Rhapsody by Ivan Nichev.  Produced in Bulgaria and Israel, the film is the final instalment in a Second World War trilogy examining ethnic tolerance and humanity, with almost fifty thousand Bulgarian Jews spared deportation to Nazi concentration camps.  The first two films, After the End of the World and A Journey to Jerusalem, have been shown at more than a hundred international festivals, and were put forward by Bulgaria for the best foreign film Oscar.  They’ve been shown on television in a number of countries and reviewed in renowned magazines like Variety and Screen International.  As Professor Nichev points out, both films have been shown in Bulgarian cultural centres abroad.

But how many people around the world know the story of how the Bulgarian Jews were saved?

“It’s something that people do – and don’t – know about,” says the Professor.  “When I started showing After the End of the World in the US, I was struck by the fact that lots of people didn’t have a clear idea of what had gone on.  I was invited there eight or nine times and visited some very different places.  I travelled around most of the country.  A lot of people had trouble grasping where our small and beautiful country is.  And that’s what spurred me on to make the second film, A Journey to Jerusalem, because those people had a right to know about the positive sides of ethnic tolerance and good neighbourliness, particularly in a region like the Balkans.  All of this was taking place against the backdrop of emerging global conflicts, because I started making the first film, After the End of the World, just as war broke out in Kosovo.  And now, when we’re premièring the third film, Bulgarian Rhapsody, you can see all the terrible things happening in Syria and Iraq.  It’s appalling and it’s up to us in the arts to shine a light and try to convince people that it’s worthwhile getting on with our neighbours, to put it bluntly.”

The final film in the trilogy is the conclusion, paying homage to the Bulgarian people for saving some fifty thousand Jews.  Ivan Nichev notes that the film doesn’t avoid the sensitive and much debated deportation of almost 11,500 Jews from western Thrace and Macedonia, whom the Bulgarians were unable to save.  Bulgarian Rhapsody is in essence a love story about the dreams of Shelly and two boys who are madly in love with her:  Moni, the painter, and Jojo, the musician, from Sofia’s Jewish neighbourhood.  “They’re three young people in the prime of their lives – in love for the first time, there’s jealousy and a longing.  But of course, while all of this is happening, the fate of the Jews in the Second World War is being decided,” adds Ivan Nichev.

“This is the first film jointly made by cinematographers from Bulgaria and Israel.  During filming we continued to be supported financially by one of the largest distributors in Israel, which is why two weeks after the production’s Bulgarian première, it’s also being premièred in Tel Aviv.  Lots of Bulgarian Jews still live there, but of course they’re not getting any younger.  I know from the film’s first screenings and from conversations that I’ve had that there’s a lot of interest in it over there.  I hope that it will also be watched by their extended families, from the very youngest generation, because not everyone is completely aware of what the older generation went through.  These films just might help our Bulgarian Jews to keep in touch with one another.  Israel is one of those places where a lot of good things are said about Bulgaria.  We have good friends there.”

English:  Christopher Pavis