Dr Maya Nedyalkova

Research into Bulgarian film audiences is still limited, with little scholarly attention paid to real film viewers, their choices, motivations and habits. Comparative research into the memories and experiences of different generations of spectators is also underdeveloped. This article seeks to address these gaps, in line with New Cinema History’s call for a “zoomable” historiography. It highlights the value of qualitative explorations, reflecting critically on the changing local distribution and exhibition landscape in Bulgaria through the prism of remembered experiences of different generations.

This article focuses on issues of representation and belonging, in an attempt to uncover how contemporary popular cinema in Bulgaria, shaped by recent cultural legislation, caters to national sensitivities while at the same time making the link with the global film industries. The Bulgarian popular feature Love.net (Ilian Djevelekov, 2011) focuses on the role of the Internet as facilitating love, relations and communication in the contemporary world. On a textual level, and similarly to Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), it explores the six degrees of separation theory, implicitly advocating for a world of interconnectedness. While reflecting on universal challenges in human relationships, the film also highlights particularly local issues linked to self-colonisation, Eastern cultural influences, moral disillusionment and increased consumerism post-communism. Contextually, Love.net is an example of the shift towards treating filmmaking in Bulgaria as a business as much as a cultural venture. It emerged as part of broader European trends, which put an emphasis on film development, marketing and stars, with the aim to counter Hollywood’s dominant market position. Love.net created a sense of virtual belonging among the local online community, allowing them to participate in the film’s development and engage with its interactive marketing. Transnational stars provided a further point of contact and involvement. Through its mixed cast featuring home-grown and locally popular foreign actors, Love.net both channelled and challenged Hollywood, positioning European cinema as similar in glamour and attraction but different in identity. The text and the context of the film’s creation highlight questions of onscreen representation and anxieties over cultural belonging, transcending the mere commercial imperatives of local popular cinema.