The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner
Encyclopedia
The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner is a 2008
Bulgaria
n drama film
, co-produced with Slovenia
, Germany
and Hungary
. Its original Bulgarian title is Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде (transliterated
as Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakade), literally meaning The World is Big and Salvation Prowls on All Sides.
The film is directed by Stefan Komandarev and stars Miki Manojlović
, Carlo Ljubek
, Hristo Mutafchiev and Ana Papadopulu. It is based on the eponymous autobiographic
novel by Bulgarian-German writer Ilija Trojanow
.
The film has received generally favorable reviews from film critics and audiences around the world, having received more than 20 festival awards. On January 20, 2010 it was revealed that the film had been selected among the nine films that will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film
category for the 82nd Academy Awards
.
during the 1980s. In a small provincial town the factory worker Vasil 'Vasko' Georgiev (Hristo Mutafchiev) has problems with the local communist
agent (Nikolai Urumov) who wants Vasko to spy on his father-in-law Bai Dan's activities and report them. Bai Dan (Miki Manojlović
) is the local King of Backgammon
and is accused by the local authorities as having an illegal business of producing hand-made backgammon sets. Facing a moral dilemma, Vasko decides to emigrate beyond the Iron Curtain
to Western Europe with his wife Yana (Ana Papadopulu) and his son Aleksander 'Sashko' (played as a child by Blagovest Mutafchiev).
Germany
, year 2007. Sashko (played as an adult by Carlo Ljubek
) and his parents are on their way to Bulgaria for the first time after they have emigrated. But they suffer a severe car accident in which Vasko and Yana die. Sashko is taken to a hospital with amnesia
. His grandfather Bai Dan decides to go to Germany and try to help Sashko restore his past. He starts teaching him play backgammon. After refusing to play, Sashko is forced by his grandfather to leave the hospital and to start a journey with him on a tandem bicycle
. A journey that takes them back to Bulgaria and back to Sashko's past.
- Best Director Award, SIGNIS Award, Audience Award Duress International Film Festival - Best Director Award Sevastopol Film Festival - Best Actor Award for Miki Manojlović Taipei International Film Festival - Audience Award Almaty International Film Festival - Best Actor Award for Miki Manojlović Vilnius International Film Festival - Grand Prix for Best Film, Special Jury Award for Acting to Miki Manojlović
- Jury Special Award Bergen International Film Festival
- Main Jury Award „Cinema Extraordinaire” Sofia International Film Festival
- Best Bulgarian Film, Audience Award
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, co-produced with Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Its original Bulgarian title is Светът е голям и спасение дебне отвсякъде (transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
as Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakade), literally meaning The World is Big and Salvation Prowls on All Sides.
The film is directed by Stefan Komandarev and stars Miki Manojlović
Miki Manojlovic
Predrag "Miki" Manojlović is a Serbian actor, famous for his starring roles in some of the most important films of former Yugoslav cinema. Since the early 1990s, he successfully branched out into movies made outside the Balkans, meaning that he's currently active in productions all over Europe...
, Carlo Ljubek
Carlo Ljubek
Carlo Ljubek is a German actor.- Life :Carlo Ljubek was born as a son of Croatian migrants in Bocholt, Germany. He graduated after his actor's training 2002 in Munich, Germany at the Otto-Falckenberg-School...
, Hristo Mutafchiev and Ana Papadopulu. It is based on the eponymous autobiographic
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
novel by Bulgarian-German writer Ilija Trojanow
Ilija Trojanow
thumb|Ilija Trojanow Ilija Trojanow , is a Bulgarian-German writer, translator and publisher.-Life:...
.
The film has received generally favorable reviews from film critics and audiences around the world, having received more than 20 festival awards. On January 20, 2010 it was revealed that the film had been selected among the nine films that will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
category for the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
.
Plot
BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
during the 1980s. In a small provincial town the factory worker Vasil 'Vasko' Georgiev (Hristo Mutafchiev) has problems with the local communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
agent (Nikolai Urumov) who wants Vasko to spy on his father-in-law Bai Dan's activities and report them. Bai Dan (Miki Manojlović
Miki Manojlovic
Predrag "Miki" Manojlović is a Serbian actor, famous for his starring roles in some of the most important films of former Yugoslav cinema. Since the early 1990s, he successfully branched out into movies made outside the Balkans, meaning that he's currently active in productions all over Europe...
) is the local King of Backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
and is accused by the local authorities as having an illegal business of producing hand-made backgammon sets. Facing a moral dilemma, Vasko decides to emigrate beyond the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
to Western Europe with his wife Yana (Ana Papadopulu) and his son Aleksander 'Sashko' (played as a child by Blagovest Mutafchiev).
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, year 2007. Sashko (played as an adult by Carlo Ljubek
Carlo Ljubek
Carlo Ljubek is a German actor.- Life :Carlo Ljubek was born as a son of Croatian migrants in Bocholt, Germany. He graduated after his actor's training 2002 in Munich, Germany at the Otto-Falckenberg-School...
) and his parents are on their way to Bulgaria for the first time after they have emigrated. But they suffer a severe car accident in which Vasko and Yana die. Sashko is taken to a hospital with amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
. His grandfather Bai Dan decides to go to Germany and try to help Sashko restore his past. He starts teaching him play backgammon. After refusing to play, Sashko is forced by his grandfather to leave the hospital and to start a journey with him on a tandem bicycle
Tandem bicycle
The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement , not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side-by-side is called a sociable.-History:Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the late 19th...
. A journey that takes them back to Bulgaria and back to Sashko's past.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Miki Manojlović Miki Manojlovic Predrag "Miki" Manojlović is a Serbian actor, famous for his starring roles in some of the most important films of former Yugoslav cinema. Since the early 1990s, he successfully branched out into movies made outside the Balkans, meaning that he's currently active in productions all over Europe... |
Bai Dan |
| Carlo Ljubek Carlo Ljubek Carlo Ljubek is a German actor.- Life :Carlo Ljubek was born as a son of Croatian migrants in Bocholt, Germany. He graduated after his actor's training 2002 in Munich, Germany at the Otto-Falckenberg-School... |
Aleksander 'Sashko' Georgiev |
| Hristo Mutafchiev | Vasil 'Vasko' Georgiev |
| Ana Papadopulu | Yana Georgieva |
| Lyudmila Cheshmedzhieva | Baba Sladka |
| Nikolai Urumov | Agent |
| Vasil Vasilev-Zueka | Ivo Chikagoto |
| Dorka Gryllus | Maria |
| Heinz Josef Braun | Dr. Schreiber |
| Stefan Valdobrev Stefan Valdobrev Stefan Valdobrev is a Bulgarian singer, composer, theatre and cinema actor.- Biography :Stefan Valdobrev was born in Stara Zagora. In 1993 he graduated Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in the acting class of professor Krikor Azaryan and Todor Kolev... |
Stoyan |
2009
Saturno International Film Festival - Saturno d’Oro for Best Film, Best Actor Award for Miki Manojlović Minsk International Film Festival - Golden Listopad for Best Film Festival of European Cinema - Audience Award Benalmadena International Film Festival - Best Film Award, Jury Award Festroia International Film FestivalFestroia International Film Festival
The Festróia Festival Internacional de Cinema de Tróia is an annual film festival that takes place in Setúbal, Portugal since 1985.The festival's competitive section is open to films from countries producing less than 30 features per year...
- Best Director Award, SIGNIS Award, Audience Award Duress International Film Festival - Best Director Award Sevastopol Film Festival - Best Actor Award for Miki Manojlović Taipei International Film Festival - Audience Award Almaty International Film Festival - Best Actor Award for Miki Manojlović Vilnius International Film Festival - Grand Prix for Best Film, Special Jury Award for Acting to Miki Manojlović
2008
Black Nights International Film Festival - Jury Special Mention, ‘Don Quijote Award’ of the International Association of the Film Clubs Film and the City Film Festival - Best Film Award Zurich International Film Festival - Audience Award Golden Rose National Feature Film Festival - Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer Warsaw International Film FestivalWarsaw International Film Festival
Warsaw International Film Festival , also known as the Warsaw FilmFest, is a film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland. The festival has been held every year since 1985....
- Jury Special Award Bergen International Film Festival
Bergen International Film Festival
The Bergen International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in October in Bergen, Norway since 2000, and is the largest film festival in the nation in number of films. The 11th edition of the festival in 2010 featured 150 films in the program, a new record...
- Main Jury Award „Cinema Extraordinaire” Sofia International Film Festival
Sofia International Film Festival
Sofia International Film Festival gathers together in Sofia films, guests, stars, journalists and cinema fans. Featured in Variety’s Top 50 of cinema festivals, the event presents Bulgaria to the world as the host one of the important film festivals in Europe and takes place annually in March...
- Best Bulgarian Film, Audience Award