Bulgarian Participation in Cambodia European Film Festival
Between February 24 and March 1, 2022, Cambodia hosted the European Film Festival with screenings at four of the main film centers in the capital Phnom Penh. 21 films from a number of European countries were screened, as well as 18 short films in the genres of drama, comedy, family and documentary. The film festival passed with great interest among the Cambodian audience and ranks among the most important European events in the cultural calendar in the country for 2022.
The festival was held for the first time since 2015 with the ambition to resume its annual holding in Cambodia. The conscious choice of a variety of topics, aimed primarily at younger audiences, helped to achieve significant attendance by viewers of different tastes and contributed to the establishment of interest in the event.
Bulgaria participated with a screening of the film "The Foreigner" by director Nikolai Iliev, which was broadcast on February 26, 2022 at the French Institute in Phnom Penh. The film is a romantic comedy about the love between a Bulgarian girl with a violent temper and a French youth, leading to a clash of cultures and a series of comic situations in Bulgaria and France. The cheerful content of the film, the meeting between the traditional and the modern, the village and the city, the past and the present, as well as the wonderful cinematography predisposed the viewers to pleasant emotions and were a reason to reflect on shared values that can connect each of us.
Bulgaria's participation in the European Film Festival in Cambodia, which was provided with the kind assistance of the State Institute for Culture under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has significantly contributed to the promotion of the image of our country among the general Cambodian public, while helping to establish us as an integral part of the European cultural space.