LONDON — Stephan Komandarev’s “The Judgment” has been selected as Bulgaria’s entry in the foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards. The decision was made by the National Council for Cinema.
It is the second time that a film from Komandarev has been chosen to represent the country at the Oscars. In 2009 his film “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner” was one of the nine films to be shortlisted for the foreign-language Oscar.
“The Judgment” is about Mityo and his son Vasko, who live in a poor area, near the Bulgarian-Turkish-Greek border. Finding himself at a dead end, Mityo agrees to work for his former commander from his time in the military: His job is to smuggle illegal immigrants from Syria across the border and into the European Union.
Mityo has lost everything that has mattered to him: his wife, his work, and his son’s trust. In order to gain Vasko’s trust again, Mityo has to seek forgiveness for a sin he committed 25 years earlier.
The film was produced by Komandarev and Katia Trichkova at Argo Film.
