Glory

How can one maintain one's integrity in a corrupt society? The Bulgarian satire Glory has a simple premise: railroad worker Tsanko comes across a pile of money by the railroad tracks, and being an honest citizen, he immediately notifies his supervisors. But for the workaholic publicity executive in the Ministry of Transport, the bag of money becomes a perfect PR opportunity for her boss, the hard-pressed Minister of Transport. Thus Tsanko becomes both a national hero and a pawn in a cynical political game. Glory is made in the naturalistic style that the Belgian Dardenne brothers have spent their whole careers perfecting. Directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov has added a dark, satirical edge, and a suspense that persist until the very last frame. A tragi-comic moral tale about how a society corrupts its citizens. MWV

Kristina Grozeva (b. 1976) and Petar Valchanov (b. 1982) started their collaboration in 2009 with the documentary Parable of Life (2009), and followed up with the TV movie Forced Landing (2010). The short film they made after this, Life (2013), was well-received at festivals around the world. Their full-length feature film debut The Lesson (2014) was shown at Toronto International Film Festival.