I went with my friend G. last night to see one film in a series of classic Bulgarian Films in the park in front of NDK and behind the 1300 years monument.  The films were made during communism and I am told that at the high point the Bulgarian film studios in Bulgaria were making 5-6 films a year.

Last night I saw: Специалист по всичко.  The title translates to something like "specialist of everything."  It is a black and white film made in 1962 and set in Sofia. It's a comedy with a mixed-up love story.

I had no idea what to expect.  But it was great fun.  Well, it might have been more fun for the people sitting around me who are native speakers but that's okay.

I am not a film critic so I won't write a post about this.  Instead, I am going to write about how great it was to see the film outside with a mass of Bulgarian teenagers and twenty-somethings.  They loved it.  They laughed and laughed and laughed.  They oh-ed and ahh-ed at the film and there was even some doubled over knee slapping.

Okay, clearly it helps that the film is a comedy but I think that the Bulgarians just loved watching a Bulgarian film. I've seen a lot of films here in Bulgaria.  Mostly American films with Bulgarian subtitles and while they are good--Bulgarian audiences always seem to lag a little bit when it comes to laughing or they don't laugh because culturally it's not as funny to them.  The perfect example of this might be the movie "Juno."<!--more-->

So last night I was struck by the fact that it was a mix of the Bulgarian culture, language and jokes that let everyone have so much fun.  It's also part of the reason I didn't laugh as hard as everyone else.

The twenty-somethings also got a kick out of the Sofia of the 1960s.  Many of the streets and landmarks are recognizable even today.  I would think: hey, I might know that street and then my Bulgarian friends would be consulting with each other and would say things like Vitosha, Dondunkov and on and on.  There were a lot fewer cars on the streets in the movies which is why I think I had a harder time recognizing the landmarks.  (Okay, that's totally an excuse. I just wasn't as good at it as my Bulgarian friends.  Go figure.)

For those of you unfamiliar with this movie I found a clip on the Bulgarian "youtube" a site called <a href="http://vbox7.com/play:73234ab4&amp;al=1&amp;vid=55346">Vbox</a>. (Gerr, I've been trying to insert the vbox video into the post rather than just share a link but I can't seem to figure it out. But I've got to go to school so I'll have to try again later this afternoon. Sorry.)

The main character has just received a job to paint a house but he's not actually trained to do so.  He's a college graduate.  Well, he goes to paint and hilarity ensues. The clip is pretty long maybe five minutes so if you don't speak to Bulgarian and you want to get to the good part first, I'd start watching at about minute 3.15.  I think that you'll laugh a lot whether or not you speak the language.

Oh and if you want to check out the festival here's information in <a href="http://www.vesti.bg/?tid=40&amp;oid=2406011">Bulgarian</a> and in <a href="http://www.programata.bg/?p=34&amp;l=2&amp;c=1&amp;id=796">English</a>.