By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kristina Grozeva | Petar Valchanov
Starring: Ivan Barnev | Ivan Savov | Ivanka Bratoeva | Margita Gosheva | Stefan Denolyubov
Original language title: Urok
Country: bulgaria, greece
Year: 2015
Running time: 111
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3958072/
Thom says: “I had a lot of mixed feelings about this laconic film. It’s obscure, dim, pastel color palette somehow melds well with its depressing, austere style that features an enormous number of obnoxious, repellent characters. An appealing teacher takes her class to task for a stolen wallet from another of her students. She tries one desperate attempt after another to remedy the situation over the coming days. Alarmingly her ne’er-do-well husband hasn’t paid the family loan over the past few months and they are about to be evicted from their home where they live with their adorable daughter (spoiled rotten).
“To make matters worse the parcel translation work she does for a snarky firm comes-a-cropper and she never receives a large sum of money she’s due. She could borrow from her wealthy father but she finds it impossible to be gracious to her dad’s ditsy trophy wife. Her loan shark is disgustingly lewd & piggish. She’s really up shit’s creek without a paddle. Her final solution is very surprising but one never gets the feeling that much has been really resolved. The acting is authentic with the major characters but her students could have had more spark. 4 cats”