Home is Best

“Many people in Bulgaria emigrated to the West. I was very lucky because during the transitional period, I stayed at home.” Speaking at the panel entitled “East or West – Home is Best” on February 13, producer Stefan Kitanov recalled those dramatic days when the Communist regime collapsed in his native Bulgaria. “My family kept asking themselves, what should we do with our life? We were in a total mess.”

The film scene in Bulgaria changed along with the transition of its social system. “Until 1989, people had a clear idea about what to talk about. There was an utterly embarrassing system that depressed the people and gave no opportunity for individual expression. They had to find an oblique, almost metaphorical type of language to describe their existence.” After Communism collapsed, asserts Kitanov, “Bulgarian filmmakers lost their language. Recently, people have begun to find a way to communicate, and so there are more films in production.”

Kitanov remains concerned about the national film market in Bulgaria. “There’s a big decline in the audience. Until 1989 under the Communist regime, cinema was an extremely popular art and people used to go a lot to the movies. Nowadays the interest in Bulgarian film is not that big. The basic reason is that the market has changed rapidly since the beginning of the 1990s.” He believes that the American majors have destroyed people’s interest in European and national cinema, because they wanted to dominate the market. “Now the younger generation is not used to the special language involved in European and national cinema.”

Since 2001, Stefan Kitanov has been heading the Sofia International Film Festival – the biggest such event in South-East Europe. “The Sofia Film Festival is useful for producers. Here you can find partners, your project may arouse interest and you may well be able to get your film off the ground. So come to Sofia!”, he smiles. He would like to invite many guests from Asia, especially from the Far East. “But right now,” he admits, “the festival budget is insufficient for that.”

Wearing his producer hat, Kitanov says that he likes subjects that are authentic. “I’m interested in very sincere stories about real human beings, stories that are emotional and that will touch and reach everyone, irrespective of nationality.” During the panel discussion, he gave a soundtrack CD from a movie he produced called LOST AND FOUND (2005) to a lucky member of the audience. In this year’s Berlinale Panorama, his most recent production GUCHA is being screened.

Speaking of Bulgaria’s recent entry into the EU, and the implications for the domestic film industry, Stefan avoids hasty conclusions. “In filmmaking terms, we were already integrated with the European Union some years ago, because first we joined Eurimages, the film production support fund. In 2002, we joined the MEDIA Programme. Now we have politically joined the EU, which gives us a wider range of opinions for developing in filmmaking and everything else. So we’ll see how it will reflect our life.”

Alice Wang

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2007