AllMovie

Director Ivanka Grabcheva has created an interesting, psychologically varied look at the villagers in a small Bulgarian town already affected by encroaching social changes as modernization spreads from the cities outward. Based on Georgi Bogdanov's lengthy novel, archetypes are developed, such as the singing village lothario who entertains everyone at the local watering hole and womanizes as an avocation. Along with the skirt-chaser is a suicidal railroad worker, a constable who knows everyone, a philosopher, and a kindly old man who runs his own private homeless shelter -- all men, interestingly enough. The lives of these people weave in and out of the story about a young man forced to leave the village for the large urban center not far away because of an accidental death at a wedding celebration. Overall, the film presents an informative picture of a vanishing lifestyle in rural Bulgaria.