09-05-2010

Mission London becomes a Bulgarian box office hit

By Pavlina Jeleva

    Alek Popov's and Dimitar Mitovski's €1,350,000 Bulgarian feature Mission London (www.mission-london.com) surpassed 143,000 admissions in its second week in distribution.

    With 46,291 admissions during the opening weekend (April 16 - 18), growing to 55,224 during the second weekend (April 23 - 25), the eccentric comedy has good chances to become Bulgaria's new national box office grosser. The success is the result of a long term advertising campaign by distributor A Plus and the involvement of the national channel BTV as media partner.

    Supported by Eurimages in 2008 Mission London is based on Popov's satirical novel of the same name. The writer, who was Bulgaria's cultural attache in London in 1997-1998, created the plot with the help of Bulgarian and British political prototypes. Translated into 13 languages, Popov's story (in which a freshly appointed ambassador in London is obliged to fulfill the ambition of Bulgaria's First Lady to bring the Queen of England to a splashy diplomatic party on the eve of Bulgaria's EU membership) was shot in summer 2009 in London and Sofia.

    The film started as a simple co-production between Mitovski's SIA Advertising (www.sia.bg) and László Kantor's ÚJ Budapest Filmstudio (www.ujbudapestfilmstudio.hu) and turned into a multilateral co-production with UK Fidelity Films (www.fidelity-films.com), Swedish Repub Film AB (www.swfab.se) and Macedonian Dream Factory (www.dream.com.mk) attached. According to the producer some 18 doubles of famous political personalities, including Queen Elizabeth II and Bulgaria's previous First Lady, appear in the film. British actor Alan Ford (My Almost Famous Family), American Tomas Arana (Gladiator), and Bulgarians Julian Vergov, Ernestina Shinova, Anna Papadopoulou, Orlin Goranov, Georgy Stoiakov, Malin Krastev, and other popular faces from the entertainment industry take part in the film.

    Mitovski, who makes his feature film directing debut with Mission London, is a director of commercials and one Big Brother episode, and co-director (together with Kamen Kalev) of two shorts selected by the Critics Week in Cannes: Get the Rabbit Back in 2005 and Rabbit Troubles in 2007.

    Mission London will be screened at the forthcoming Cannes Film Market.

    {mosimage}Production Company

    SIA Advertising

    48, Shipka str.

    1504, Sofia

    Bulgaria

    + 359 2 946 3865 / 66

    http://This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Published in Bulgaria
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