“The Lesson” (Bulgarian: Urok), a 2014 Bulgarian-Greek film directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, has won four awards at the 19th Sofia International Film Festival.

“The Lesson snatched four awards at a ceremony on Saturday evening.

The film received three awards by international juries and the audience award.

The first feature-length film of Grozeva and Valchanov received the “Sofia City of Cinema” Grand Prix in an international contest for first and second films, winning a prize of EUR 7000 provided by the Sofia Municipality.

“The Lesson” also won the Best Bulgarian Feature Film award, the FIPRESCI award, and the Audience Award.
“The Lesson” is based on a true story.

The 105-minute drama tells the story of an honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town, who robs a bank with a toy pistol in a bid to save her family’s house from being seized by the bank over a loan.

The film features Margita Gosheva, Ivan Burnev, Ivan Savov and Stefan Denolyubov.

The screenplay was written by the two directors, who also acted as producers together with Magdelena Ilieva, and Krum Rodriguez was DoP.

Grozeva and Valchanov have made four documentaries and short films together, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

“The Lesson” won awards at the 2014 edition of the Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival, as well as at the film festivals in San Sebastian, Goteborg, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Warsaw, and Kiev.

The jury of the International Competition for first and second films gave a special award to “We are young. We are strong”, of German-Afghan director Burhan Qurbani, and a Best Director award to G?bor Reis for “For Some Inexplicable Reason.”
The JAMESON award for Best Bulgarian Short Film went to Antonia Milcheva’s 13-minute “Ginka.”

“Come to My Voice”, a Turkish-French-German co-production of H?seyin Karabey grabbed the award for Best Balkans Film.

The Sofia Municipality awards for overall contribution to world cinema were given to Bulgarian actor Ivan Ivanov, Italian actor Franco Nero, Georgian director Nana Dzhordzhadze, and, posthumously, to German producer Karl Baumgartner.