Blaga’s Lessons
Blaga’s Lessons
After Directions (2017), which centered on tough times for some Sofia taxi drivers over a long and eventful night, and Rounds (2019), about police officers patrolling the capital, director-writer Stephan Komandarev and his co-writer complete their trilogy on social problems and moral ills in contemporary Bulgaria with this cautionary drama about an older woman duped by a telephone scam aimed at the country’s pensioners. Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a retired Bulgarian language and literature teacher. A recent widow, she’s worried about how she will pay for her husband’s grave and headstone. She supplements her meager pension by giving private language lessons. At first it looks as if she can stretch her finances, but then she is swindled out of almost all her money. The film provides a fitting showcase for the expressive lead Skorcheva, an ‘80’s star, who turns in a performance that is both vulnerable and steely.