Underplayed Gems

The Tied Up Balloon (1967)

The Tied Up Balloon poster
Original title
Привързаният балон
Directed by
Binka Zhelyazkova
Genre
comedy drama
Country
People's Republic of Bulgaria
Runtime
1h 38m
Rating
5.8 of 10 from 12 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

During World War Two, a British barrage balloon drifts into the sky above a small Bulgarian village. The peasants become obsessed with the mysterious object, leading to wild guesses and arguments among them.

satiricalwrysuspensefulreflectsplayfulthought-provokingeveryday lifelow-key

What happens

The Tied Up Balloon (Bulgarian: Привързаният балон, romanized: Privarzaniyat balon) is a Bulgarian satirical comedy-drama film released in 1967, directed by Binka Zhelyazkova, starring Georgi Partsalev, Grigor Vachkov, Georgi Kaloyanchev, Konstantin Kotsev and Georgi Georgiev-Getz. The screenplay, written by Yordan Radichkov is based on his play Bustle. During the Second World War, a barrage balloon appears out of nowhere in the sky above a Bulgarian village. This shakes the imagination of the peasants and causes endless speculations, assumptions and contentions. Almost immediately after the premiere, the film was stopped by the communist authority because of the direct display of the actual reality in the Bulgarian villages as well as for the hints about the origin of many of the communist leaders. After the restoration of the democracy in 1990, the movie came into a broad view and was recognized as one of the masterpieces of the Bulgarian cinematography from that time. In 2021, the film was digitized and restored. The digitally restored version premiered on March 16, 2021 at the Lumiere Cinema in Sofia. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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