16-01-2023

Bulgarian National Television Releases Two Top Domestic Series Simultaneously

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    Mihail Bilalov in Grapes of Guilt by Viktor Bojinov Mihail Bilalov in Grapes of Guilt by Viktor Bojinov photo courtesy of BNT

    SOFIA: Bulgarian 12-part TV series Grapes of Guilt and War of Letters have their premiere on the Bulgarian National Television in January 2023. Instead of having one series wait for the other, the national broadcaster chose to offer the audience of millions two top Bulgarian TV productions during three full months.

    Written by Vania Nikolova, Nelly Dimitrova and Ekaterina Nikolova, and directed by Viktor Bojinov, the contemporary family drama Grapes of Guilt revolves around the wine industry. The series premiered on 5 January 2023 and will be broadcast every Thursday.

    DoPs Kaloyan Bozhilov and Georgy Gvozdev shot Grapes of Guilt in April 2022. The executive producer Brod Film received approximately 650,000 EUR from the Bulgarian National Television and together with Viktor Bojinov (who is also a creative producer) assured a number of product placements for famous Bulgarian wine brands. The team decided to name each episode of the series after a specific variety of wine.

    Mihail Bilalov, Elena Telbis, Paraskeva Djukelova and Vladimir Zombori are the main stars of the cast. Teodora Duhovnikova and Zachary Baharov in War of Letters by Zoran Petrovski and Viktor Chouchkov, photo courtesy of BNT

    The ambitious medieval mystery drama War of Letters directed by Zoran Petrovski and Viktor Chouchkov premiered on 15 January 2023 and it will air every Sunday. The series about the birth of the Cyrillic alphabet is based on Ludmila Filipova’s 2014 eponym novel and is creatively adapted by Teodora Markova, Nevena Kertova and Georgi Ivanov.

    The executive producer Midwest received approximately 900,000 EUR from the Bulgarian National Television.

    The shooting of the series started on 6 July 2022 and lasted three months. According to scriptwriter Teodora Markova “the whole team was strongly motivated and together with DoP Boris Slavkov contributed for the successful completion of this first mega period series in 40 years”.

    Over 20 top theatre actors including Teodora Duhovnikova, Zachary Baharov, Deyan Donkov, Valentin Tanev and newcomers Daniel Varbanov and Nencho Kostov were cast as the fictional characters from the 10th century.