Films from Romania and Turkey Awarded at Cannes
Balkan Travellers
Nuri Bilge Ceylan from Turkey was awarded the Best Director Prize, as part of the Feature Films Competion, for his film Three Monkeys, while Megatron, a film by Romanian director Marian Crisan received the Palme d’Or award in the Short Films competition.
In Three Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan explored how a family that ignores the truth and refused to see, hear or talk about it as a way of battling against the odds and staying together.
At the ceremony, Ceylan – who received the award from Faye Dunaway, dedicated the prize to Turkey. “I would like to dedicate the prize to my lovely and beautiful country, which I love passionately," he said and added, “It’s not me only who need such an award. I think my country needs such award also and I’m happy about that.”
The 15-minute Romanian film Megatron, which received the Short Film Cannes d’Or award involves the an eight-year-old who lives with his mother in a village near Bucharest and celebrates his birthday in a McDonald’s and tells the story of their trip to the capital.
The two awards are the latest confirmation of the rise of Balkan cinema and the development of the film industry in the region, after long years of depression during the post-socialist transition in Bulgaria and Romania and the 1990s Yugoslav Wars, which BalkanTravellers.com reported about in March. Romania, in particular, can be proud as the film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, directed by Christian Mungiu, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 2007.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
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