Maria Bakalova gave a special interview to BNT after the premiere of the movie "Triumph" at the Toronto festival. The title is the Bulgarian proposal for a foreign-language "Oscar", and public television is a co-producer. In it, the actress takes on the role of the psychic Slava, who, together with the military, must solve the mystery of the recent past in Tsarichina.
Hours after the premiere in Toronto, Maria Bakalova is back on the set in Ireland. In addition to "Triumph", one of the most prestigious film festivals also featured "The Intern", which was also in the official Cannes selection.
"Triumph" competes, which is great because it's a platform that gives a boost to films with a particular vision and for directors who should be given extra attention because they're much more artistic. We had an audience that stayed and asked questions - an engaged audience that was excited about the characters, the times being explored, because "Triumph" dealt with 1990-92, "The Intern" deals with the years 1970-80. These are a little more distant years, but they seem to feel in time and now", says Maria Bakalova.
Identifies actors such as Margarita Gosheva, Ivan Burnev and Julian Vergov as friends and associates. This is one of the reasons why Maria Bakalova is proud to be a part of Bulgarian cinema.
"I admire artists who are not limited by their place of residence. I have always maintained that we have extremely valuable personnel.
The isolation we will see in "Triumph" is also indicative of everything we have believed in in recent years.
"There's a group of people in 'Triumph' who are isolated there, with a mission. And when you have no connection with the outside world, even if you actually had more adequate views on things and didn't believe in perhaps cosmic and crazy things, at some point you get into the game," says the actress.
Although she is well known at the Film Academy, Maria Bakalova believes that a good film has more chances of success than famous actors.
"Probably for the wider audience it would bring more viewership because one likes to associate a project with the actor they like because they want to see what he has done. Especially when it's from another territory. This brings an extra color to things. I hope it helps, but what would help best is a robust campaign.
It is still not clear when the Bulgarian audience will see "Triumph" on screen, but the film is already raising questions for those who have seen it. And this is indicative when you are on the border between comedy and tragedy.