Heights

The movie is based on true events from the Bulgarian history happened in the last (out of nearly 500) years under Turkish occupation. A movement to liberate Bulgaria was organized by a handful of daring and brave men. The movie presents these extremely dramatic times, when many people found their death fighting for freedom, in an unexpected and nontrivial way. The accent is on the simple man more than on the events in general. Congratulations to the entire team behind the movie! Great job! Good quality of picture and sound, amazing actor play, and great sense of humor, but it is NOT a comedy.

This film doesn't know what it wants to be - it lurches between comedy, satire and moments of elegiac drama. It needs about 30 minutes expunging and the storytelling would be more coherent and impactful.

There are some well defined characters and a few that make little useful contribution, but the acting was mostly theatrical, if not bombastic at times. I believe the story would have benefited had the emphasis been placed more on the dramatic and self-sacrificial nature of the events portrayed. The cinematography stands out, as well as the music, but I couldn't help being reminded of The Revenant in respect of both.

IMHO, the English title should be Elevation - there is a scene in which a captured revolutionary is being carted along the street and the camera rests on a plaque outside the school wall where we see the word "Vuzvishenie" deployed to mean the kind of elevation only education brings. This theme wove a thread throughout the whole film.

The scene with in the middle of the film, you can say which one it is, is just great made. Maybe it could've been easy more... but whatever.

Otherwise the movie is well shot, good costumes, good acting on a stable level, in the worst case, just ok. I won't say anything about the directing nor the script, because I find it little disturbing that the script was so light taken and the directing didn't try it's best to fix that little but not so fatal miss.

Oh, and the last around 10-15 minutes lose the good made atmosphere, because it is too messy made and chaotically chopped. You expect the climax and its follow up to be more engaging, not wondering you around the space, just staring at the characters and objects.

It starts philosophically, then switches to light hearth-ed comedy then to history, then satire... It's very hard to define what this movie is. The language used (old Bulgarian) has nothing to do with the language they use these days. It is a mix of both, probably not to burden the viewers too much (but sometimes sounds unnatural and fake).

Voice and sound FX are very good (which is a rare trait for Bulgarian movies), music is decent, but at the same time vaguely used and way louder than the rest of the sound. It is not used properly to emphasize the tense moments, but only to underline heroic and proud moments. Basically, the whole movie is quiet while the main characters narrate through it. The pace is very slow and lacking dynamics. The movie can be 30 minutes shorter easily.

The story is actually a satire. Everything else is enveloped around it. The horrible, simple minded "fun" the rest of the viewers were laughing at, has a nice double meaning. It is revealed later in the movie. It also made me twist my empathy away and towards the filmmakers and the main characters, several times. It is also a story of emotions, which are tracked thoroughly. Acting was okay, but you could easily tell which actors are experienced and which are not.

What I like the most was the scenery and visuals. The director of photography did very good job. Nature shots are great, aerial footage, which is not that expensive nowadays, also brings a lot to the visual variety. Strangely, some of the shots are overexposed.

Final scene was emotional and strong. At the same time - too over-stressed and way-way prolonged. The overemphasized tragedy was misunderstood and many people started laughing at it in the theater. You can tell the film makers put a huge amount of effort to tell the story, but sometimes there are scenes which contribute nothing to the movie. Instead, important scenes and secondary ones have the same screen time. Shortening the movie by 30 min, using better combat shots (sorry, American movies set the bar high). Better use of the music and more of it would bring it to another (higher) level. After I exited the movie theater, my mind was still working on it. After all, it provoked me a lot with a many different feelings, piling up on top of each other with each minute before the end.

Heights from as memorable the beginning of the successful this remains one of the most satisfying films. Screen adventure, hardhitting, fearless, imperturbable, girl loving main characters is an entertaining piece of action, are modest highlights the sea. Perfect screenplay, editors, writers cast and crew and designers creates and marvelous perfomance acting play. Believer of meaningful work with the power to challenge, entertain and performance get ready. Unmistakably the view beyond your painter an ever changing masterpiece the ancient trees that fill your view. The city that has have a world class food scene, plenty of smart hotels, friendly locals and intriguing history. From classic city break destinations to smaller, quieter places striving todeliviring famous peace and the third wish of Aladin freedom.