The 14th Sofia International Film Festival is on this month. I've been checking out <a href="http://www.sofiaiff.com/index.php?lang=en">the program</a> online. It looks like there's some really great stuff playing.<img class="alignnone" title="Sofia Film Festival: Eastern Plays" src="http://sofiaecho.com/shimg/zx500y290_867960.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="290" />

I am planning on watching out at least one film this weekend. My one complaint is that online I can't seem to figure out which movies are playing with Bulgarian subtitles and which films have both English and Bulgarian subtitles.  This is pretty important for me--I mean watching a Polish film with Bulgarian subtitles for me would be, um, impossible because my vocabulary is pretty limited and it takes me too long to sound out subtitles in my head.  I would never know what anyone was saying.  Luckily for me the print material makes it clear which language or language the subtitles of each film are in.

Reading the movie listings has made me feel like I've been living under a rock for the last year. I only recognize a handful of the titles.  This makes picking a film or two out especially difficult.  It's also really exciting because I more or less want to see everything.<!--more-->

This said, there seems to be a pretty good showing of Bulgarian films:
<ul>
	<li>If Somebody Loves You...</li>
	<li>Voice Over</li>
	<li>Nina and Mariyan (the Holy Family)</li>
	<li>The Glass River</li>
	<li>Eastern Plays</li>
	<li>Hunting Park</li>
	<li>The Forecast</li>
	<li>Crayfish</li>
	<li>Moon Lake</li>
</ul>
And there's an even longer list of Bulgarian Documentaries.

In fact there's a whole article in the <a href="http://sofiaecho.com/2010/03/05/867959_sofia-film-feast">Sofia Echo</a> giving the festival a shot out  and giving pretty enthusiastic reviews of Eastern Plays, Voice Over, Glass River and If Somebody Loves You... I mean you could read the article yourself if you want but basically the Sofia Echo says that there's no better time for a festival to focus on Bulgarian films seeing as there's been a transformation of Bulgarian film over the last few year. The language that the Sofia Echo uses is actually a little bit over the top but still kind:
<blockquote>As Bulgarian cinema undergoes a revival of sorts – see Dzift, Eastern Plays and The World is Big – the 2010 Sofia International Film Festival can justifiably focus on Bulgarian filmmakers without the danger of appearing parochial.</blockquote>
The problem for me seems to be that there are more movies than time. This coupled with the fact that I am not very picky when it comes to watching movies makes the task of picking a movie pretty overwhelming. Generally, for me, if it's a good story the rest doesn't matter much.  As a result, I usually have an impossibly hard time picking out movies and I prefer to defer to my more opinionated movie going friends. I am not really sure what this says about me--that I am a passive movie goer--but I assume that it's something negative.

So now I have to try to make up my mind which movie I am going to see.  I am overwhelmed by choice and to top of this off, I just spent a better part of my night moving back and forth between the program website and their print material and now my head is spinning. There's something pretty funny about my inability to make a choice--I mean it's not like I am buying a house, a car or even a new computer. I am trying to pick out a movie.  Heck, I can order a coffee without even thinking about it, I know what I want to wear each morning without much contemplation and I can make travel plans without second guessing myself but I can't pick out a movie. <em>Ahh</em>.

This said, because  I am beginning to drive myself crazy with all of this back and forth over movies and because I do have an audience who might be able to help me out with this (that's you!).  I am now begging you for your input, insight and movie advice: has anyone been to see any of these movies? which did you like best?  any movie that you're dying to see but haven't made it to yet?