Blaga's Lessons

Original title: Urotsite na Blaga

Directed by: Stephan Komandarev

Length: 114 min.

Country: Bulgaria

Year: 2023

Premiere: Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2023

Synopsis: when a recently widowed retired lady gets scammed and loses all her savings, she decides to get back her lost money, no matter the cost.

RATING: 4/5

REVIEW

On the surface, Blaga's Lessons is a thematic film, a work focusing on a social issue to raise awareness. Often such films result being devoid of a formal touch, end up being "basic", but not the film directed by Stephan Komandarev: Blaga's Lessons is a film that stands as a fully artistic endeavour, not flawless but no less striking and shocking either. It is the conclusion of a trilogy by Komandarev that depicts the difficulties of contemporary bulgarian society.

The social issue that is central to the film is elderly scams, of which we witness a very extreme form. Blaga, a retired teacher and recent widow, falls for a phone scam in which a caller identifies as a cop and asks her to help catch a non-existent scammer. Few films focus on the matter, therefore Blaga's lessons necessarily dedicated part of its runtime for didactic purposes.
Blaga's Lessons is obviously aimed at portraying the solitude and abandonment the elderly might feel, and the first half is filled with scenes that depict the main issue in a not tiresomely expositional way.

The second half clarifies that all these moments were integral to the plot, have a direct connection with the actions Blaga undertakes for her comeback. The film is best seen as a character study. Blaga could remind character-wise of the more severe, heartless teachers anyone has had during their school years, as it is shown in an interaction she has with an ex student. Eli Skorcheva's minimalist performance slowly unveils her less empathic traits, which lead to truly shocking consequences, almost as a female and bulgarian Walter White (although obviously Blaga's Lessons is less stylish and its story is more brief).

Formally, Blaga's Lessons doesn't differ much from s specific kind of festival-going east european cinema that employs long takes, a slow pace, intense minimalism. It does however play with aspect ratio, shifting between 4:3 for the prologue and epilogue, 2.35:1 widescreen before the scam occurs and a 1.85:1 frame that exemplifies the sudden difference in the protagonist's life.

Blaga's Lessons stands out as an outstanding work in a year that sees a shortage of excellent east european cinema. It is not exactly the most elevated or non-conformist work ever, but it has its moments of grandeur.