Screening of the documentary film “Balkan Black Box”
March 8, 2025, 6:00 PM
The documentary film “Balkan Black Box” by director Tsvetan Dragnev will be shown at the Art Gallery – Ruse. The organizer of the event is Ina Valentinova.
The film is dedicated to Nikola Gruev – Kotarashky, an architect by profession and a musician by vocation. After the screening at 9:30 PM at Max Club there will be a concert by the Kottarashky & The
Preachers formation.
More about the film “Balkan Black Box”
Is it worth being an artist these days, or is it just a waste of time? That’s what the documentary “Balkan Black Box” by director Tsvetan Dragnev
(“Hermitages,” “Passengers”) is all about. In Bulgaria, the life of a musician can be compared to an unpredictable “Balkan black box” because things don’t always go as planned. The film is a road movie, and it follows a year in the life of Nikola Gruev-Kotarashki as he travels and plays with his band. Everyone’s searching for something. Is there a gap in our lives? Something missing? You might find it in the strange freedom of the characters in the Balkan Black Box. “Balkan Black Box” is more than just a contemporary biography—it’s an intriguing look at the universal language of music. It’s a captivating way to look at topics like personal freedom and the price that everyone pays for it, and it’s full of emotion and humor. The character’s reflections alternate with concert performances and meetings with interesting people like the Japanese professor-mathematician and philosopher Ted Katsuo, the hermit bagpiper Vesko Minev from the Rhodope Mountains, and others. Kottarashky is the name on the music that Nikola Gruev, the guy behind it, uses. He was born on September 4, 1979. He’s a musician and composer who mixes original recordings with electronic music, hip-hop, jazz and other musical genres. He calls his style “Balkan psychedelic,” but critics say he’s part of the “Balkan rhythm wave” movement.
The director, Tsvetan Dragnev, also wrote the screenplay for the film. He graduated from the film faculty of York University in Toronto. He’s worked as a director, editor, and cinematographer for short and full-length documentaries in Bulgaria and Canada. His films “Pustinyaci” and “Passengers” have played at a bunch of international film festivals and won awards. Delyan Georgiev was the cinematographer, and the music was by: Nikola Gruev – Kotarashki.
Galina Toneva and Kiril Kirilov are the producers. It’s a Gala Film production, with support from the NFC and Magic Shop, and it’s distributed by Gala Film.
When Charlie Gillett, a legendary BBC music journalist, first heard Kottarashky’s music, he wrote: “His songs sound like fairy tales told by people who have all the time in the world. Time to contemplate, to enjoy, to create and to dream, and to be inspired by the details and vitality of marginal existence.” In November 2009, the German label Asphalt Tango Records released Kottarashky’s debut album, Opa Hey, which was entirely digital. It started out extremely successfully, received strong reviews in the Western media, stayed for five months among the most requested albums and reached third place in the European World Music chart. The Guardian and the Independent wrote about Opa Hey. Awards and Participations of “Balkan Black Box”
24 Sofia International Film Festival 2024 – International Documentary Competition
Rhodope International Documentary Film Fest (RIFE) 2024
28 Golden Rhyton – Festival of Bulgarian Documentary and Animated Film:
Special Award to Director Tsvetan Dragnev; Composer Award to Nikola Gruev – Kotarashki; Cinematography Award to Delyan Georgiev
Art Gallery – Ruse
39 Borisova str.
