Blaga's Lessons

Stephan Komandarev's Bulgarian film follows Blaga, a recently widowed retired teacher. Telephone fraudsters take the money she had set aside for her husband's gravestone, and after that loss she begins to question her own moral measure. The film's force is that the decision arrives by degrees. Blaga first seeks help, then sees that no one will do anything; the narrative turns her into someone else not through one choice but through a succession of small concessions. Eli Skorcheva leads, returning to cinema after a long absence. The narrative keeps the economic position of pensioners and the organised structure of the fraud in the background; the tone is cold and the close disturbing. Who it's for: those who follow Eastern European social drama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting moral relief; the film does not absolve its protagonist.