BLACK MONEY FOR WHITE NIGHTS
(director/writer: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov; screenwriter: Decho Taralezhkov; cinematographer: Alexander Stanishev; editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis; music: Theodore Oikonomou; cast: Tanya Shahova (Marina), Ivan Savov (Gosha), Margita Gosheva (Lucy), Ivan Barnev (Kosyo, Lucy’s taxi driver husband); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Konstantina Stavrianou, Irini Vougioukalou, Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov; An Abraxas Film; 2026-Bulgaria/Greece, in Bulgarian & Russian)
“The bleak story plays out as a moralistic one.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The Bulgarian filmmakers Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov (“The Father”/”Urok”) are a married couple, who co-write the mannered satire with Decho Taralezhkov.
The Bulgarian couple, in their late 60s, Marina (Tanya Shahova), a maternity ward nurse, and her husband Gosha (Ivan Savov), a railway dispatcher, have over the years saved up enough money to finance a dream vacation to St. Petersburg to experience the “White Nights” of summer, by taking small bribes on their jobs. He looks the other way while thieves siphon off gasoline on the parked cargo trains and she gives her maternity patients special treatment for unauthorized fees.
But Russia invades Ukraine when they go their dream vacation and the travel agency sponsoring their trip disappears with all their money, which makes things go kaput. As a result, they become vics of a scam and are stranded in a bus parking lot in Sofia. There’s no help from the authorities or anyone else, but the couple despite the unwarranted invasion still idolizes Russia.
The bleak story plays out as a moralistic one (of not doing the right thing and through karma paying the price), of the viewer possibly receiving pleasure from another person’s suffering, and of exposing world-wide corruption as something real.
The film should be praised for its rich visual style, its compelling story about those caring only about themselves, and the superb performances by Shahova and Savov.
It played at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 7/20/2026 GRADE: B+
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