ONCE UPON A WAR

ONCE UPON A WAR
feature 119’ ©2020

Is a war big or small for someone who has lost his life in it? In an unprecedented march the forty thousand strong Bulgarian Army, crossing from the southern to the western frontier of the country, covers the distance in less than two days and two nights with no roads, railway or other means of transport available… and wins the war. The film has the atmosphere of a Jacques Callot’s etching – a throng of ant-like characters at the feet of Cruel Fate. But this seemingly chaotic whirl of events will clearly follow the path of a young woman from the grave of her child to the death of her husband. And there will be the Cripple – a boy with his romantic urge to die for his Fatherland dying in the most important battle in life – for human dignity. There are also the bodies of two men clinging to each other in Death’s grip among the reeds in the mud. The war has made them enemies but they are more like bleeding Atlas Telamons with a peaceful sky steady on their shoulders.

production KOULEV FILM PRODUCTION
coproduction 
SHIBUYA PRODUCTIONS
NU BOYANA FILM
DOLI MEDIA STUDIO
MAGICSHOP
BULGARIAN NATIONAL TELEVISION
with the support of BULGARIAN NATIONAL FILM CENTER

script VLADI KIROV
director ANRI  KOULEV
director of photography SVETLA GANEVA
music LUBOMIR DENEV
art director ANASTAS YANAKIEV 
costumes MARTA MIRONSKA
sound BORIS TRAYANOV;  MOMCHIL BOJKOV
make-up artist SNEZHINA MERDZHANOVA 
edit BOIKA POPOVA
song performer DIANA DAFOVSKA

cast 
BEN CROSS
LUIZA GRIGOROVA
SAMUEL FINZI
VOLFRAM COH
SOFIA SKAYA
SEVAR IVANOV
LYUBOMIR PETKASHEV
VALERI MARKOV
TSVETAN ALEKSIEV
EMIL KOTEV
IVAN BURNEV
PHILIP AVRAMOV
ZDRAVKO MOSKOV
PLAMEN VELIKOV
SAVA PIPEROV
WLADISLAW VIOLIN
TSVETAN PEYCHEV
KRASIMIR DOKOV
ASEN KUKUSHEV