Sundance Film Festival
- world cinema documentary competition - 
       

82 min / color / Finland / Bulgaria / 2016 / North American premiere

Screenings TBA

Critical praise for THE GOOD POSTMAN:

Variety: "Tonislav Hristov's superb documentary study of electoral process in a small Bulgarian village pulses with wider-world resonance."

Screen International: "for outsiders to Europe’s issues, a textbook illustration of how poverty and utter decline – the village doesn’t even have internet - can whip-up xenophobic sentiment."

Hot on the heels of his recent run of festival hits, director Tonislav Hristov returns to North America with his sharp eye for the humorous side of every day life that was so prominently on display in LOVE & ENGINEERING (Tribeca 2014). Hristov comes to Park City with THE GOOD POSTMAN (2016), which just premiered in competition at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) to much critical acclaim. THE GOOD POSTMAN is tragicomic portrait of a Bulgarian border village where an ambitious postman runs for mayor with some very creative solutions to the refugee crisis, which takes place on their doorstep. 

A small and stubborn Bulgarian village facing the Turkish border has been resisting foreign invaders since the times of the Roman and Ottoman Empires. Now its electorate of 38 elderly Bulgarians find themselves in a European crisis, with asylum seekers, sometimes desperate families, passing through at night, causing fear, unrest, and pity. Postman Ivan runs for mayor to bring the dying village back to life by welcoming refugees. His opponents want to either close their eyes or close the border and reintroducing communism. Busy on the campaign trail while delivering the mail, Ivan soon learns that while good intentions are not enough, even the smallest deeds matter. 

Born in Bulgaria, Tonislav Hristov (1978) moved to Finland, where he became a filmmaker, and now divides his time between Helsinki and his native Bulgaria: "Since I'm an immigrant myself, this topic is very close to my heart. With THE GOOD POSTMAN I am trying to show the effect immigration has amongst local people; the way it divides us politically and morally, the way it emphasizes our selfishness and goodness. The way it exposes who we really are, while also giving us hope."

Hristov's SOUL FOOD STORIES (2013) was nominated for best documentary in the medium-length competition at IDFA, while LOVE & ENGINEERING (2014) screened at Tribeca and Hot Docs, opened Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland, and won DocPoint's audience award. Tonislav's previous documentary ONCE UPON A DREAM - A JOURNEY TO THE LAST SPAGHETTI WESTERN premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2015.  

One of Finland's leading production companies, Helsinki-based Making Movies (LOVE & ENGINEERING and THE GOOD POSTMAN) has successfully tackled the tough North American market with a recent string of hits such as feature film THE FENCER, which was shortlisted for last year's Academy Awards in the Foreign Film category and nominated for a Golden Globe. Making Movies owners Kaarle Aho and Kai Norberg also produced LITTLE WING (TIFF 2016) by Selma Vilhunen who was nominated for Academy Award in the Live Action Short with DO I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING? in 2015.