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Glory (2016 film)

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Glory
French theatrical release poster
BulgarianСлава
Directed by
Written by
  • Kristina Grozeva
  • Petar Valchanov
  • Decho Taralezhkov[3]
Produced by
  • Kristina Grozeva
  • Petar Valchanov
Starring
  • Stefan Denolyubov
  • Margita Gosheva
CinematographyKrum Rodriguez
Edited byPetar Valchanov
Music byHristo Namliev[1]
Production
companies
  • Abraxas Film
  • Graal Films
  • Screening Emotions
  • Aporia Filmworks
  • Red Carpet
Distributed byFilm Movement (United States)
Release dates
Running time
101 minutes
Countries
  • Bulgaria
  • Greece[3]
LanguageBulgarian
Box office$92,649[4][5]

Glory (Bulgarian: Слава, translit. Slava) is a 2016 Bulgarian drama film written and directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.[3][6] The second film in the directors' "newspaper-clippings trilogy",[7] the film is a social-realist parable exploring the themes of corruption, class differences, and the rural-urban divide, in contemporary Bulgarian society.[3] It was selected as the Bulgarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[8][9]

Plot

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Railway trackman Tsanko Petrov discovers a large amount of money in bundles on the tracks, but instead of taking the cash for himself he notifies the authorities. The sophisticated head of PR at Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport, Julia Staykova, takes the opportunity to deflect a brewing corruption scandal by holding a ceremony to hail Tsanko as a working-class hero. Unkempt and dishevelled with a debilitating stutter, Tsanko is ridiculed by Julia's PR team while they parade him for the press as a hero. In order for the Minister to present Tsanko with a new digital watch, Julia removes Tsanko's own Slava-brand watch, an heirloom passed down from his father. However, she then loses it, ignores him when he tries to contact her, and finally replaces the watch with a fake.

In anger, Tsanko goes to the press and exposes the corruption and theft that is endemic in the transportation ministry, and the Minister's complicity in the crime.

In an attempt to save the ministry, Julia arranges for Tsanko to be framed for a crime he did not commit. He is then coerced into retracting his earlier accusations, in exchange for release from prison. On his way home, he is accosted by his co-workers, who are angry with him for exposing their crime ring. It is also implied that Tsanko's beloved rabbits had died from neglect, due to his long absence while in prison.

The following day, Julia reads in the newspaper that a trackman had committed suicide. Racked with guilt for her role in causing the death of a good man, she gets drunk and searches her office desperately for the missing watch. The following morning, she both finds the watch, and receives word that the dead trackman is actually not Tsanko. Feeling relieved, she drives to his home to return the watch personally. Whereupon she finds a severely injured Tsanko, furious with her for having triggered the entire chain of events. The movie ends with a glimpse of Tsanko grabbing his wrench and Julia screaming, while her oblivious husband sits in their car nearby listening to music.[10][11][12]

Cast

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  • Stefan Denolyubov [fr] as Tsanko Petrov
  • Margita Gosheva as Julia Staykova
  • Kitodar Todorov [bg] as Valeri
  • Milko Lazarov as Kiril Kolev
  • Georgi Stamenov as Doctor
  • Ivan Savov as Minister Kanchev
  • Mira Iskarova as Galya
  • Hristofor Nedkov as Porter

Development

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An event reported in the Bulgarian press inspired the film. One of the film's directors (Petar Valchanov) stated in an interview:[13]

As is the case with The Lesson, the film starts where the news story ends. We read this story about a lineman who found а huge pile of cash on the railway, gave it to the police and was later given this quasi-award for valor, and we thought it was a very fertile premise for a broader and more revealing plot.

In another interview, the directors elaborated that in constructing the screenplay of the film, they take the superficial parts of real-life stories reported in the news media. A separate real-life event that the directors incorporated into Glory was an incident where an architect is forced to apologize.[14]

Production

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The film, originally known as The Pledge, was scheduled to film in July–August 2015, in Sofia and surrounding villages. The budget was reported as €260,000, including a €190,000 grant from the Bulgarian National Film Center.[15]

Release

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Relying on the strength of the directors' previous film, Italy's I Wonder Pictures bought the film in February 2016, while Glory was in post-production,[16] Distribution rights for the film were later sold to Filmarti (Turkey), Arti Film (Benelux), La Aventura Audiovisual (Spain), JSC Europos Kinas (Lithuania), Bounty Films (Australia and New Zealand),[17] and Film Movement (United States and English-speaking Canada).[18]

The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival (in Switzerland).[19]

Reception

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Critical response

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Glory has an approval rating of 94% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10.[20] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[21]

Accolades

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At the 2016 Locarno International Film Festival, Glory received a special mention from the International Federation of Film Societies (FICC/IFFS) jury.[22]

At the Avvantura Film Festival [fr] in Zadar, Croatia, Glory won the Grand Prix (top prize) as well as the Best Actor award (Stefan Denolyubov).[23]

At the Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival in September 2016, Glory won the Special Award of the City of Varna, the Best Screenwriter Award, the Best Cinematographer Award (to Krum Rodriguez for his work on both Glory and Godless), the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers Award, and the Accredited Journalists' Award.[24]

The film won the top prize at the 2016 Hamptons International Film Festival, the HIFF Award for Best Narrative Feature Film, consisting of a film production-services package worth more than $125,000 along with a $3,000 cash prize.[25][26]

At the 2016 KineNova film festival in Skopje, Glory won the best film award.[27][28]

At Film Fest Gent in October 2016, Glory was in official competition and received a special mention from the jury, which said it admired the film "for its humor and its political and moral honesty".[29]

In the 15th edition of Tirana International Film Festival, Glory won the Best Feature Film.[30]

Best International Feature Film , Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Slava [programme note]". Festival del film Locarno. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  2. ^ "34th Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival: Competition" (PDF). 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Jay Weissberg (5 August 2016). "Film Review: 'Glory'". Variety. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Glory (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Slava". The Numbers. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  6. ^ ""Слава" на Кристина Грозева и Петър Вълчанов си има американски дистрибутор". cinefish.bg. 14 September 2016. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  7. ^ Ștefan Dobroiu (18 July 2016). "Two Bulgarian films in competition at Locarno". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Филмът "Слава" на Кристина Грозева и Петър Вълчанов е българското предложение за "Оскар" за чуждоезичeн филм". Focus News (in Bulgarian). 13 September 2017. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  9. ^ Holdsworth, Nick (13 September 2017). "Oscars: Bulgaria Selects 'Glory' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  10. ^ Allan Hunter (8 August 2016). "'Glory': Locarno Review". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Glory [programme note]". Vancouver International Film Festival. 2016. Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  12. ^ Ștefan Dobroiu (8 August 2016). "Glory: The two faces of Bulgaria". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 29 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  13. ^ Ștefan Dobroiu (12 August 2016). "Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva • Directors". Cineuropa. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  14. ^ Jeremy Elphick (12 August 2016). "Slava (Glory) – An Interview with Directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov". 4:3. Archived from the original on 29 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  15. ^ Ștefan Dobroiu (29 June 2015). "Glory in pre-production". Cineuropa. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  16. ^ Michael Rosser (16 February 2016). "Wide Management pre-sells 'Glory' from 'The Lesson' duo". Screen Daily. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  17. ^ John Hopewell (25 September 2016). "San Sebastian: Wide Takes 'Pretenders,' Sells 'Glory' and 'Alone,' Ups Latin America Titles (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  18. ^ Diana Lodderhose (13 September 2016). "Film Movement Goes For 'Glory' — Toronto". Deadline. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  19. ^ Andreas Wiseman (13 July 2016). "Locarno reveals 2016 line-up". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  20. ^ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glory_2017
  21. ^ "Glory". Metacritic.
  22. ^ "69º Festival del film Locarno: Palmarès" (PDF). 2016. p. 13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  23. ^ "Avvantura Film Festival Zadar Grandprix festivala pripao je bugarskom filmu Glory". Zadar Danas (in Croatian). 26 August 2016. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  24. ^ "Golden Rose 2016 Awards". Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  25. ^ "HIFF 2016: Awards". Hamptons International Film Festival. 2016. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  26. ^ Pete Hammond (10 October 2016). "'Glory' & 'The Eagle Huntress' Top Hamptons Fest; Shirley MacLaine Set For To LA Film Critics Career Honor – Awards Roundup". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  27. ^ "Bulgarian Film Glory Awarded Best Film at KineNova Festival in Skopje". Seecinema. 13 October 2016. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  28. ^ Marina Lazarevska (11 October 2016). "Festivals: Glory Wins the First KineNova IFF". FilmNewEurope.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  29. ^ "'A Quiet Passion' by Terence Davies and Home' by Fien Troch win at the 43rd Film Fest Gent international competition". Film Fest Gent. 21 October 2016. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  30. ^ "Tirana International Film Festival, triumphs "Glory"". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
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