02/04/2014 - The independent feature is directed by newcomers Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva

After receiving awards last year for their project The Lesson at the Berlinale Talent Project Market, Sofia Meetings and the Sarajevo Talent Pack & Pitch Program, first-time directors Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva are now in post-production with their film, the first feature produced by their own company, Abraxas Film.

Shot over 19 days near Sofia on a very small budget, The Lesson tells the story of Nadezhda, a young teacher who is shocked to find out that there is a robber in her class, stealing from his classmates. The teacher is determined to find out who the culprit is and teach him a lesson about right and wrong, but she will soon realise that things can look quite different from another perspective.

The film stars Margita Gosheva, Ivan Burnev, Ivan Savov and Stefan Denolyubov. The screenplay was written by the two directors, who also act as producers together with Magdalena Ilieva. The DoP is Krum Rodriguez.

The Lesson is the first feature in a planned trilogy. Valchanov told Cineuropa that the common ground of the three stories is “the quiet rebellion of the little person against the mercantile, soulless and cynical world we live in”. While editing The Lesson together with Grozeva, Valchanov developed the second part of the trilogy, about a railway worker who finds a significant amount of money on the train tracks and turns it in to the police.

In 2012, Grozeva and Valchanov directed Jump, a short film that received the Best Short Film Award from the Bulgarian Film Academy and was nominated at last year's European Film Awards after competing at Clermont-Ferrand IFF.