''Zift'' (, ''Dzift'') is a 2008

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

Bulgarian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

that combines

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

and

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

with socialist retro motifs; it is based on Vladislav Todorov's 2006 same-named novel and he also wrote the script. ''Zift'' was directed by Javor Gardev and premiered on 27 June 2008 at the

30th Moscow International Film Festival The 30th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 19 to 28 June 2008. The Golden George was awarded to the Iranian film '' As Simple as That'' directed by Reza Mirkarimi. Jury * Liv Ullmann (Norway – Chairman of the Jury) * Michael ...

, where it won a Silver George for Best Director and the Best Film Prize of the Russian Film Clubs Federation. The film stars

Zachary Baharov Zahari Emilov Baharov (; born August 12, 1980) is a Bulgarian actor, best known for portraying the roles of Moth in '' Zift'' (2008), Ivo Andonov in the BNT series ''Undercover'' (2011–2016), and Loboda in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' ...

as Moth, the main character who organizes a robbery out of love and money and is imprisoned before the 9 September coup d'état for a murder he did not commit. Moth is released from jail in the 1960s to meet the new and unfamiliar reality of socialist

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

. ''Zifts name is derived from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

loanword ''zift'' or ''dzift'', meaning "asphalt", "

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

" or " black pitch", once a popular chewing substance among the gangs in Sofia's asphalt jungle; the word is also said to be urban

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

for

shit ''Shit'' is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British and Irish English. As a slang ...

Plot

''Zifts plot unfolds non-linearly: although the main story after Moth's release from prison is told chronologically, the events leading to his imprisonment are revealed by means of numerous relatively long and not necessarily chronological flashbacks. The story is presented chronologically here. Moth is an ordinary guy from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. At school, he falls in love with the beautiful Ada ( Tanya Ilieva), later nicknamed "Mantis". Out of a desire for money, he agrees to work for a shady neighbour known as Slug ( Vladimir Penev). The two plot the theft of a black diamond from the

white émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik com ...

jeweller A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmithing, goldsmithing, stone setting, engraving, ...

Vlad the Bijou's house. The robbery ends in failure as Moth is wounded by The Bijou and captured by the police; Slug manages to escape and is never charged. There is no trace of the diamond, and as Vlad is killed by Slug during the robbery, the police never get to know of its existence. In the Sofia prison, Moth, besides working out to patriotic

Soviet music The music of the Soviet Union varied in many genres and epochs. The majority of it was considered to be part of the Russian culture, but other national cultures from the Republics of the Soviet Union made significant contributions as well. The S ...

, also befriends his older roommate Van Wurst the Eye ( Mihail Mutafov), so nicknamed because he has been wearing an

ocular prosthesis An ocular prosthesis, artificial eye or glass eye is a type of craniofacial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye following an enucleation, evisceration, or orbital exenteration. Someone with an ocular prosthesis is altogether blin ...

after losing one of his eyes during a robbery in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Besides being an avid

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

and arm wrestler, Van Wurst also has his

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

views on life, such as a theory about the destructive power of

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

, which he shares with Moth. Shortly before being released, Van Wurst hangs himself, claiming "there is no hope outside". While in prison, Moth is informed by Ada that his son Leonid was born and died of lockjaw while still very young. As Moth is released from prison afterwards, he picks up his civil clothes and his year-old ball of chewing bitumen from the cloakroom and does not miss the chance to swear at an obnoxious guard, who

headbutt A headbutt or butt is a targeted strike (attack), strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's Skull#Humans, cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of ...

s him to unconsciousness. Outside, Moth is picked by a warrant officer and a younger soldier who drive him in a Chaika to

the Baths The Baths is a beach area on the island of Virgin Gorda among the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Geography The Baths is situated about south off Spanish Town, British Virgin Islands, Spanish Town at the southern tip of the island betw ...

. In the damp basement of the Baths, he is interrogated and tortured by Slug, now a locally influential member of the communist ''

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...

'', who believes Moth knows the location of the black diamond. Moth denies and even doubts the diamond ever existed; he later manages to escape, but not before he consumes

iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

-poisoned wine offered to him by Slug. Wandering drunk and intoxicated around Sofia and seeking his old girlfriend Ada, Moth gets to witness the new socialist reality he had only heard about on the prison radio: the look of the city has changed with The Largo and the Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum, but the nature of the people has remained essentially the same. The protagonist meets a variety of bizarre characters, such as drug-doing medics, weird patients and local drunks. He ends up in the Saint Nicholas Church, where he meets the priest who had baptized him (

Đoko Rosić Đorđe "Đoko" Rosić (, sr-Cyrl, Ђоко Росић; 28 February 1932 – 21 February 2014) was a Serbian-Bulgarian actor who was also well known in Hungary. Biography Early Life, Education and Career Rosić was born in Krupanj, Kingdom o ...

); the priest points him to Ada's current whereabouts as a performer in a

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

under the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

Gilda (a reference to '' Gilda'', as Ada also performs a Bulgarian-language version of ''Put the Blame on Mame''). Moth finds Ada, who is now living with Slug, and has

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

with her. He later reveals to Ada that he is aware of the diamond's location: in Vlad the Bijou's

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

. The two go to the graveyard, where Moth first insists to visit the grave of his son. However, he realizes that it is another Leonid's grave (his mother had been buried in the same grave very recently) and that he never actually had a son. At the same time he notices Slug standing behind him with Ada, who had apparently betrayed him. The three head to The Bijou's grave; while digging, Moth kills Slug with his

pickaxe A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for Leverage (mechanics), prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly ...

, but is fatally wounded and stunned by Ada a moment later. Moth wakes up in the gravediggers' shed. Realizing his impending death, he asks for his bitumen in order not to die with a foul breath. Tearing the bitumen apart, Moth reveals the black diamond had been stashed within it for all those years. He swallows the diamond and dies.

Cast and characters

as Lev Kaludov Zhelyazkov, better known as Moth (Молеца, ''Moletsa'') or Leo * Tanya Ilieva as Ada or Mantis (Богомолката, ''Bogomolkata''), Moth's ''

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

'' pre-prison girlfriend * Vladimir Penev as Slug (Плужека, ''Pluzheka''), Moth's accomplice in the failed diamond theft and Mantis' later lover * Mihail Mutafov as Van Wurst the Eye (Ванвурст Окото, ''Vanvurst Okoto''), Moth's prison roommate *

as The Priest * Jordan Mutafov as Vlad the Bijou

Awards

2008 – Moscow International Film Festival * Won – “Silver St. George” for Best Director in Main Competition – Javor Gardev * Won – The prize of the Russian Film Clubs Federation for *Best Film in Main Competition 2008 – Toronto International Film Festival * Nominated – Discovery Competition 2008 – Bulgarian Feature Film Festival Golden Rose * Won – Best Film Award “Golden rose” * Won – Best Leading Actor Award – Mihail Mutafov * Won – Best Director of Photography Award – Emil Christov (b.a.c.) * Won – Best Editor – Kevork Aslanyan * Won – Special Prize of the Film Critics Association * Won – Best Producers Special Prize bestowed by New Boyana Film 2009 – Sofia International Film Festival * Won – Special Award of the International Jury * Won – Kodak Award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film 2009 – Vilnius International Film Festival "Cinema Spring" * Won – Best Director Award (Special Mention) – Javor Gardev

Broadcasts

In May 2009, the film's producers announced

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

had bought the broadcast rights for the film. The film was the first Bulgarian film to be broadcast on HBO.

References

External links