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University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES School of Film Volume 1 of 1 Transnational Bulgarian Cinema – Pieces of the Past, Present and Future by Maya Nedyalkova Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Film Studies Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy TRANSNATIONAL BULGARIAN CINEMA – PIECES OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Maya Todorova Nedyalkova My thesis investigates issues of sustainability and belonging surrounding the Bulgarian feature film industry. There is a limited body of scholarship on Bulgarian cinema, most of which focuses on film aesthetics and fails to account for the socio-historical and industrial context of local film creation, dissemination and consumption. My work is a continuation of Dina Iordanova’s New Bulgarian Cinema (2008) which promoted the idea of cross-Balkan creative collaborations. In contrast, I see pan-Balkan alliances as simply one part of the transnational co-operation and appropriation practices that have shaped Bulgarian film culture. I reveal that early productions like The Bulgarian Is Gallant (Vassil Gendov, 1915) and Cairn (Alexander Vazov, 1936) sought to reaffirm Bulgaria’s place in European culture and act as a business bridge between the East and the West. During Communism (1944-1989) the Bulgarian Poetic Realist movement and the detective cycle appropriated narrative and aesthetic ideas from, respectively, the Italian Neorealism and British/American spy movies, achieving sustainability not necessarily reliant on state funding. With the shift to an open market economy, I show how the notion of national cinema changed under different legislation as did the balance between state subsidy and private funding. The tension between the art-house canon and contemporary domestic audiences’ idea of Bulgarian cinema is evident in my case-studies of The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Stephan Komandarev, 2008), Mission London (Dimitar Mitovski, 2010) and Love.net (Ilian Djevelekov, 2011). The emergence of the Sofia International Film Festival, digital distribution and piracy further redefined the cinema experience in Bulgaria. The case of Bulgaria illustrates the complexities of describing a small national cinema in an environment of legislative and economic inconsistency. It exposes the need for overcoming stereotypes when examining Eastern Europe and questions the existence of singular definitions when it comes to European film culture. Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i List of Figures ............................................................................................................... v DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................ix Definitions and Abbreviations ....................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 3 1.2 The Value and Limitations of ‘National Cinema’ ..................................................... 8 1.3 From National to Transnational Methodology ...................................................... 10 1.4 The Small (Trans-)National Film Industry in Bulgaria ............................................ 15 1.5 Conceptualising European, Eastern European and Balkan Cinema ...................... 17 1.6 Hollywood in Europe: Interaction, Competition and Appropriation ..................... 26 1.7 Cosmopolitanism or Cultural Imperialism ............................................................. 30 1.8 Place in Existing Literature and Original Contribution to Knowledge ................... 35 1.9 Sources and Methods of Categorisation ............................................................... 42 1.10 Chapter Breakdown ............................................................................................... 45 Chapter 2: A Transnational Past Revisited and Revised ...................................... 49 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 49 2.2 Transnational Roots: The Bulgarian Is Gallant and Cultural Modernisation in Bulgaria .................................................................................................................. 50 2.3 National Legislation and International Collaboration as a Way to Overcome Local Limitations: Cairn ................................................................................................... 56 2.4 The Myth of Communist Isolation in the “Rosy Land of Scent and Honey” .......... 63 2.5 Ideological Censorship and New Film Aesthetics: On a Small Island .................... 67 2.6 Artistic Borrowing and Exposure to Foreign Production: The Attached Balloon .. 70 2.7 Local Sustainability and International Recognition: The Goat Horn ...................... 76 2.8 Crisis, Adaptation and Restructuring in the Conditions of a Free Market Economy ................................................................................................................. 83 i 2.9 I Want America: The Role of Television for Identity-Formation ........................... 91 2.10 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 95 Chapter 3: Adapting to a Transnational Present .................................................. 97 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 97 3.2 Regulation and Development of the Bulgarian Film Market ................................ 98 3.3 The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner – Between the Art-House and the Popular ................................................................................................... 106 3.4 The Setting New Standards in Production, Distribution and Box Office Success with Mission London ............................................................................................ 116 3.5 Love.net: Affirming the Value of Saturation Marketing, Stars and Online Promotion ............................................................................................................ 127 3.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 140 Chapter 4: A Transnational Future Imagined ..................................................... 143 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 143 4.2 Profiling the Sofia International Film Festival ..................................................... 144 4.3 The Business and Cultural Potential of the Sofia International Film Festival ..... 150 4.4 Festivals Gone Digital .......................................................................................... 168 4.5 Love.net: The Influence of New Technologies on Distribution and Audiences... 176 4.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 187 Chapter 5: Conclusion ...................................................................................... 189 5.1 Bulgarian Cinema – Not Unique but Significant .................................................. 189 5.2 The Effect of Film Legislation and Scholarship – A Multiplicity of Discourses on National Cinema .................................................................................................. 191 5.3 The Value of the Bulgarian Market: Important Fields for Further Study ............ 194 Appendices................................................................................................................ 206 Appendix A ................................................................................................................ 207 Appendix B ................................................................................................................ 233 Filmography .............................................................................................................. 237 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 247