laveol

Quite an interesting phenomenon in Bulgarian cinema by itself, the film is in no way pretentious or hard to follow. It offers the viewer a look into the world of a couple boys and girls nearly out of their teen years, bearing the thought that they have their whole lives in front of them. At the mean time it also tells of a (possibly) former criminal who, in his turn, does not seem to have a real reason to live anymore. All he sees and finds is only trouble.

The pace of the film changes on a couple of times and finally comes to a pretty unexpected end. It has a couple of other twists which are quite different from most Bulgarian films. Not only that, but Hunting Down Small Predators manages in some way to avoid the topics that have haunted the country's scene for the past 15 years now. And for topics it simply cannot omit, it has in store a nice perspective. I was really impressed by the scene where the old mobster got out of the car, went to a Roma boy and paid him 10 levs or so for his glue pouch. It looked so real. Only later did I understood that it was actually Hristo Shopov's own idea to do that and was not a part of the script. He said he just felt it was right to do it. And it felt right in the flow of the movie.

The film has nothing superfluous about it and is hardly a contender for any award or something, but it is different and really enjoyable. As a Bulgarian I loved it and liked it even more because of its distinctive spirit.