The hard edges of film noir are filtered through the cynical smirk of French new wave in a setting that deserves cynicismCommunist Bulgaria in the bleak years of the 1960s. Bulgarian director Javor Gardevs extraordinarily strange and fascinating Zift (out on DVD) is the dark comedy of a paroled prisoner with no way out. Filmed in crisp black and white, Zift references DOA, Gilda and other noir classics while placing the action in the confines of a Communist state whose idealism turned to dry rot before the new regime signed its first decree.
Zahory Baharov plays the protagonist and hard-boiled narrator everyone calls Moth. A shaven headed ex-con released because of his pretended political activism, he is searching for his ticket out in the form of a stolen diamond he concealed before his arrest. Naturally, a femme fatale (Tanya Ilieva) lurks amidst an almost surreal rogue's gallery of the grotesque and the unending prattle of political propaganda. Zift won for Best Director at the Moscow International Film Festival.
