Cinema
On a Small Island
На малкия остров
Rangel Vulchanov · 1958
Synopsis
In 1925, forty-three political prisoners, captured after the failed uprising of September 1923, are held on a deserted islet in the Black Sea under the guard of a brutal captain, and await their sentence. Among them are a doctor, a student, a carpenter named Jeko and a colourful, freedom-loving sailor whom everyone calls Costa Rica. The days pass without news, and in secret, among men who distrust one another, an escape is being prepared.
Context
It is its author's first film, released in Bulgaria in May 1958, on a screenplay by the poet Valeri Petrov, with cinematography by Dimo Kolarov and music by Simeon Pironkov. It is inspired by real events that took place on the island of Saint Anastasia and shows prisoners without parade-ground heroism, none of whom has the features of the positive hero that was expected. It was withdrawn from distribution shortly after its release; a recent study links this withdrawal to a resolution of the party's central committee that reproached it for an abstract humanism.
Who it is for
Ninety-four minutes in black and white, almost all of it on a small island; a DVD released in Sofia exists, nothing has been located in French.
Prizes and reception
Long unseen, it is now shown in the cycles devoted to Bulgarian cinema, at Berkeley as at the Melbourne festival.
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