Bulgarian schools in Paris and Chisinau earn honours at student film festival

Two Bulgarian schools based overseas were among the winners of the second national "Student Lens" film festival, with awards going to young filmmakers from Paris and Chișinău.

The competition featured documentaries, fiction films and animations and attracted 58 teams from 20 locations in Bulgaria and abroad. Among the participants were Bulgarian schools in Tarragona, Spain, which entered The Apostle's Last Secret; in Paris with the documentary Parizh e Tuy, Ne e Igrachka ("Paris Is No Plaything"); and in Chișinău with the fiction film The Last Moment.

Radio Bulgaria learned from festival organiser Lyudmila Velichkova-Ivanova that two of the schools abroad placed among the top three in their respective categories. Students from the Bulgarian school in Chișinău won second prize in the fiction film category, while the Bulgarian school "Saints Cyril and Methodius" in Paris took third place in the documentary category.

The awards ceremony will be held on 12 June.

The documentary made by students at the Bulgarian school in Paris was inspired by the life and work of Bulgarian writer, artist and local historian Dimitar Chorbadzhiyski, better known by his pen name Chudomir.

"Last year we organised a major forum dedicated to Chudomir and welcomed guests from the Chudomir Literary and Art Museum in Kazanlak," school principal Kamelia Triboulin-Konaktchieva told Radio Bulgaria.

"Together with their teacher, the students followed in Chudomir's footsteps through Paris. They filmed the same places he had sketched during his stay in the city and compared them with what they look like today. That became the basis for both the documentary and a fascinating walk through Paris."