Zift (2008)

Such a frustrating disappointment

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The opening of the film is hilarious. A man finds out his wife is cheating on him and he uses the septic truck he operates, loaded with three tons of waste, to get even. I don't know what it has to do with the story, but it was funny. There were a lot of funny stories throughout the film.The film moves from there to a prison where Moth (Zahary Baharov) is about to be released after serving time for a crime he did not commit. He enters a world he doesn't know as the Communists are now in power.The film is brilliant in a sharp black and white, which is perfect as it is neo-noir. At the same time, it is a Socialist Art (Sots Art) film, which parodies the Soviet Realism with reverential depictions of workers, peasants living happily in their communes. The shower scene in the prison was particularly funny.It was confusing when he is released from prison and ends up in another one immediately, but in flashbacks we see Moth with his wife Ada (Tanya Ilieva) and partner-in-crime Slug (Vladimir Penev), who is now an official in the new prison, and is looking for a diamond they stole years earlier.He escapes, but not before he is poisoned. He manages to find Ada before he is to die. Things get a little surreal, and weird from here, but they go after the diamond. What happens next was satisfying and sad.There were other great performances: Mihail Mutafov as Van Wurst-the Eye and Djoko Rosic as the priest.

In fact, a sociological research can be done about Bulgaria along those pages here. Some people say "it is the worst movie ever" and give it 1 star, some say it is "the best Bulgarian movie" and give it 8-10 stars. Well, the truth is somewhere in between. (I hate that "this movie is horrible" people say "too much profanity"... what? This movie is FAR LESS profane than ANY meeting in Bulgaria, where men are present...)-The acting... is bad. Or, there is not any. Only Moth is kinda okay, the rest is in the mediocre-horrible range (Ada being the bottom).-Characters... are horrible. Firstly, NOBODY swears... Undertakers, drunkards, military people, prisoners... WHAT? I don't know if non-balkan guys know how is it here, but HELL, even most intelligent of our guys swear like hell... when you listen to angry security guard for example, you can laugh your ass from the swears you will hear... In this movie- "f!ck, sh!t". Hell, Americans swear that way, bulgarians... DON'T. Besides, all characters speak in PERFECT Bulgarian, which makes them totally frigid and unrealistic (imagine a movie about a ghetto, where all black guys talk like Barrack Obama). -The storyline- is utterly messed at the end. The motives of some major characters remain unclear when the lights are up. -The Balkan humor- is missing and that is just insane. All we have to offer IS THAT, not make some high-budget movie rip-offs- because they won't work. -The dialogue- is most of the time bad. So is the narrator text- yeah, it is from a book... SO WHAT? There are bad books too- and this one is one of them. -The scene when they run at the women public bath and there are numerous naked women- is POINTLESS. I don't hold anything against nudity, but I HATE pointless nudity. Yeah, with so much "bads", someone will ask where are the "goods". Well, there are some. The movie is nicely shot, from my point of view- this is the big +. There were some nice moments too. But that's about it. Yes, the dialogue, story, acting weren't insanely bad, they weren't Epic/Disaster movie bad, they just weren't any good. I would give that movie 3 or 4 for the effort- it is not so bad to deserve 1, but it ain't deserving 8-10 too... not by a long shot.

I remember when I first heard about "Zift" some months before it was released and I couldn't believe what I had just heard and then I watched the trailer and I couldn't believe what I saw and when I finally saw the film back in early October I remember leaving the theatre with a big grin on my face, thinking how I just saw something I thought would never happen. Wonderful so very wonderful, I don't know if it can revive Bulgarian cinema, I think it's too far gone already, but I'll be definitely following Javor Gardev's career from this point on. The man shows promise as a director who thinks outside the box. Compared to that meatwagon of stale films that get made here from time to time, Zift is revolutionary in it's visual style, narrative and plot.Opening with a reference to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, "Zift" is the story of a man nicknamed Moth, no real name is ever mentioned. Right now Moth is a prisoner and it's the 1960s which in Bulgaria meant hardcore Communist regime, Moth was in prison before that regime came to power, but that's beside the point for now. What matters is that he's getting released today and he's all to keen in getting as far away as possible, but not before paying last respect to some prison guard he didn't really like. Result, Moth gets punched, knocked down, guards throw him out of the prison, then a car with some military officer comes along and they take Moth to some crummy place and they start torturing him. Apparently they are looking for some diamond... and it's going to be one hell of a long day for Moth and that's all I'm going to say about the story.From the start "Zift" tells you how this is going to play out, I don't mean that it's predictable or anything, what I'm talking about is style. The dialogue, the characters, the film has a quirky pitch black sense of humor, like the zift Moth likes chewing, it's not something that can appeal to everyone, and it might seem vulgar or profane or whatever, but it has it's lyrical value, it just adds up. Every story told by a character, however humorous or shallow it might seem, has it's own kind of wisdom to it, though not necessarily connected to the storyline. The film feels both distinctly western and distinctly Bulgarian, or Balkan to be more general, because it uses a storyline similar to that of the American Pulp novels (Zift itself is an adaptation of a pulp novel), film noirs and then the character stereotypes (femme fatales, anti hero protagonist) and all these elements get mixed together with Bulgarian culture and stereotypes, resulting in what I dare say, a quite original and refreshing piece of cinematic wonder.Visually speaking "Zift" is all high contrast black and white goodness, a tasty treat for anyone who values the classic two color scheme. Essential for it's narrative structure is a series of flashbacks explaining, character relationships and background stories and depending on the flashback (a 1930s something maybe, 1940s, or modern time in the film's time frame 1960s) we get a scene shot on different film. So for example the 1960s part of the film is shot on 35mm while the earliest on 8mm, thus giving "Zift" a substantially different look for each time segment. I have to mention something about the acting and while I liked Zahary Bahalov as Moth, he played him with a lot of bravado, my hat goes down to the supporting cast, including the great Djoko Rosic as a priest who consoles Moth, and a whole lot of other actors who gave the film a strong energy boost.And while it does have its own share of flaws(the ending felt rushed) and it might seems as if it's going nowhere, and some scenes might seem pointless to the overall plot, Zift is, nevertheless, high quality entertainment, an example in genre film-making, stylish and sharp-edged. The least to say about Javor Gardev's debut is that it's an opening to a promising career.

This movie has given back to me the hope that Bulgarian cinema is going upward! Tha last few bg titles that i've seen all seemed to have a problem - they were weird (in terms of plot, acting, locations, camera angles). And just because a movie is tragic, strange, original and twisted doesn't mean it's good. Yes, maybe it can move you. Maybe. Maybe one can admit that the movie is totally genuine. But that still doesn't mean it's a masterpiece. Something is just missing for the movie to be enjoyable and moving while you're in the theater and mind blowing when you get out and think it over. The missing parts probably are the perfect storyline of Zift, the look of Zift, the action of Zift, the soundtrack of Zift, the grotesque humor of Zift! That's what makes the film of Yavor Gardev so successful - perfection itself!