Awesome Movie

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

But unfortunately not that fleshed out. Story-wise there is not that much there. And I should have been warned. When the cover states things like a "cross between Tarantino ..." and another statement that states, that this movie might be a contender for an "Oscar for best foreign movie" ... you know something is wrong. You just don't know what that might be. But visually this is a (black/white) treat.It's just a shame, that the story doesn't get that much attention. It's pretty incoherent, not to mention that even the most beautiful cinematography (metaphors) are not working if their sole purpose is to confuse the viewer and not deliver any kind of direct link to what we are seeing. Of course you could argue that I didn't get all the references and that might be true. But this still aims higher than it actually can reach. So while not a bad movie at all, there is still quite a few things to improve with this one.

The opening of the film is hilarious. A man finds out his wife is cheating on him and he uses the septic truck he operates, loaded with three tons of waste, to get even. I don't know what it has to do with the story, but it was funny. There were a lot of funny stories throughout the film.The film moves from there to a prison where Moth (Zahary Baharov) is about to be released after serving time for a crime he did not commit. He enters a world he doesn't know as the Communists are now in power.The film is brilliant in a sharp black and white, which is perfect as it is neo-noir. At the same time, it is a Socialist Art (Sots Art) film, which parodies the Soviet Realism with reverential depictions of workers, peasants living happily in their communes. The shower scene in the prison was particularly funny.It was confusing when he is released from prison and ends up in another one immediately, but in flashbacks we see Moth with his wife Ada (Tanya Ilieva) and partner-in-crime Slug (Vladimir Penev), who is now an official in the new prison, and is looking for a diamond they stole years earlier.He escapes, but not before he is poisoned. He manages to find Ada before he is to die. Things get a little surreal, and weird from here, but they go after the diamond. What happens next was satisfying and sad.There were other great performances: Mihail Mutafov as Van Wurst-the Eye and Djoko Rosic as the priest.

" Zift" is not a film just a horrible cliché . This a deadly born and terrible cliché. What if they have emptied the genre of no ire to pour the cliché's of communism? So miserably and disgusting and in the same time simple and dumb dedicated for idiots. It questions both sentiments and the feeling of endurance to this horrible mixture one can only zap if it was on TV. If it could surprise anyone it would be for it's appalling lack of measurement. The authors use the socialist era as a background of their demonstration of bad taste and gay games based on excrement's and bathroom images. To quote a wonderful Bulgarian film critic Kulezich in a famous newspaper "the authors have grabbed the WC plate in order to serve us disgusting a fraud deprived of everything but their extreme and infinity ambitions. The clichés cover all fields and it is simply a useless feature I can only advise and comment stay away otherwise you'll get stinky and covered with dirt almost fiscally.

I must say I am not a fan of Bulgarian cinema even though I am a Bulgarian myself. All the films I have seen until this point were very disappointing and could only be compared between themselves because films outside Bulgaria had always stood above in terms of cinematography, acting,Direction, Budget etc. Of course many would say this is not true, films during socialism period were many more and much better in terms of quality. While this is true that certainly does not make them foreign standard. The acting is more like theatrical than cinematic and the picture quality has more white spots on it than mount Everest, not to even mention the Sound. Cinema after 1990s had not improved much. I do not remember when I heard about Zift, I think I found it on IMDb, so I decided to check out the Trailer. I was blown away, for the first time in my life I was so excited about seeing a Bulgarian film. Yes It did took me a while since I live in the UK but I did saw it yesterday.After seeing it I felt depressed and had mixed feelings about it.I am going to analyse the film in positives and negatives. Positives: - First Bulgarian neo-noir film - First Bulgarian film successfully presents the Thriller and Action elements in genre. - Very Good acting, especially from the Zahary Baharov and Djoko Rosic - First Bulgarian film to use cgi, I know this could be a negative but in this case it is used very well. - Monologue is absolutely outstanding in some parts. - Unlike most recent Bulgarian films this one is not set around just one location. - For its small Budget, a very good recreation of 1960s Sofia. - Awesome Soundtrack - Good Humor in places. Negatives: - Too short, 85 minutes felt too short to fully achieve its potential. - Many unnecessary scenes involving downgrade humanity and dialogue which focus on 'toilet humour' - Too much nudity, this is something which all Bulgarian films suffer from but this one takes it on another level.(This may not be a negative to all but I generally do not like too much nudity, I believe there is different films for that purpose.)Overall I believe the positives overcome the negatives and In conclusion I must say I liked Zift even though by no means its a masterpiece. It is very likely to be enjoyed by people who are fans of films like, Trainspotting, Irreversible, Requiem for a Dream, The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover and Tarantino's work.