Eye For Film >> Movies >> Black Money For White Nights (2026) Film Review
The tone at first glance appears purely to be bleak and absurdist as the previous Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe winners Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (in 2019 for The Father) get into their stride.
Shortly the mood lightens and becomes more empathetic as we follow a senior couple - maternity nurse Marina (Tanya Shahova) and train employee Ghosha (Ivan Savov) as they sign on for a dream trip to Russia to witness the fabled white nights and so that Marina can visit her father’s grave.
Both close to retirement, they have carefully saved up over the years by taking bribes and seem all set for the holiday of a lifetime and a break from their mundane daily existence on the outskirts of Sofia.
Then the news breaks that Russia has invaded Ukraine putting all their hard won plans in jeopardy. The dodgy travel agent informs them that all is well and Martina and Gosha are gullible enough to turn up at a bus station to begin their trip. The reality, however, proves to be rather different with the likelihood of them ever seeing the white nights or any compensation for the cancellation receding into the distance.
Under the pressure of these woes the directors observe the cracks in their relationship. Marina believes that the situation can be ascribed to divine retribution for the double dealing they have employed over the years to build the holiday nest egg, carefully hidden at the back of an unlit wood-burning stove. She takes backhanders from the patients while he ignores the illicit siphoning off of diesel at the station.
The couple discover that they cannot expect to remain untainted by the corruption they devise simply to eke out a living of sorts in a society that also is riven by inequalities and large-scale exploitation.
The directors with their fifth feature take a humane view of the plight of their subjects but spare us any over-sentimentality, partly due to the measured performances of Shahova and Savoy.
The set design provides a superbly atmospheric domestic backdrop to the proceedings with the living room in the rundown abode adorned with a forest wallpaper against which Marina lays out her clothes for the trip from smart jacket for the Pushkin museum to a fake leopard print for high tea. Alas, the best laid schemes …
Reviewed on: 09 Jul 2026
