(In the today?s issue of the Maritsa newspaper we can read an extensive interview of the journalist Dessislava Hadjieva with the film director Ivan Nichev about his film latest ?Travelling to Jerusalem?)
The film director Ivan Nichev, for the second time in a row, will be among the candidates for the most prestigious film award, The Oscar. The National Selection Committee chose his film ?Travelling to Jerusalem? to be the Bulgarian film to compete for a nomination in the ?Best Foreign-Country Film? Category.
Ivan Nichev, who happens to be the Head of the Screen Arts Faculty at the National Academy of Theatre and Filming, reached out for an Oscar nomination for the first time in 1999. Then, his film ?After the End of the World? was chosen to represent Bulgaria for the Hollywood awards.
The film ?Travelling to Jerusalem? is a co-production of the Bulgarian National TV and the German ARD TV. The shooting took place in Bulgaria (in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna) and in Germany, for the record-high budget for a Bulgarian film of 1,3 million BG leva (approx. 785 000 USD).
In the interview, when asked why in both his latest movies he insisted to have shootings in Plovdiv, Ivan Nichev explains: ?I used to live in Plovdiv as a kid, so I adore its atmosphere. The other reason is that, while shooting my film ?Stars in the hair, tears in the eyes?, I loved the residents of Plovdiv. I met lots of helpful people who offered their apartments and their furniture for the shootings. People came to act as supernumeraries, but they acted with such an ardour as if playing leading roles. This is an artistic city where I feel fine. In 1991, we shot a part of the ?Baj Ganyo? movie in Plovdiv, and I am truly sorry that the budget for its sequel we?re shooting at the moment has not allowed us to work here now, but I am looking forward to do so at the first possible occasion.?
We wish him luck!