 
For almost a year now, official Sofia and Bulgarian journalists complained about a movie (recently became Macedonian candidate for Oscar). The cast for the film had been barely completed and Sofia had already filed an official complaint in Brussels, alleging Macedonia is producing an Anti-Bulgarian movie... which of course is 'bad neighborly relations'.
Sofia's complaint in Brussels was seen as childish by official Skopje, so much so, to this day no Macedonian politician had issued a statement on it. It wasn't the complaint that surprised official Skopje, it was the fact that the complaint was made at a time when the movie hadn't been filmed yet and most importantly the film is a private production based on a true story, about a Holocaust survivor Neta Koen who told her story back in 1998 for the Shoa Foundation. The movie, of course is "The Third Half" - which tells a story of a football club named "Macedonia" who won the then Fascist football league managed by Bulgaria and Germany. The Third Half was directed by up and coming Macedonian director Darko Mitrevski, produced by Kino Oko Production. Can I complain in Brussels about "Love Guru"? During the past four decades, there are literally over 500 movies that were made with more to come regarding the Third Reich and Nazi Germany. Not once did official Berlin file a protest in Brussels trying to stop some of the movies from being shown in cinema. Because the Germans know what's art, what is a movie and what is entertainment. They also know, they can not get away from their history. So why is Bulgaria hysterical about a movie? Some of you rightly believe it is because they have been hanging around Greeks. Although plausable, the most likely reason is because official Sofia is not used to being portrayed in a movie, ever, and wouldn't want to be portrayed in any negative light. Once Sofia heard a movie is coming out from Macedonia which discusses WW2, they went in overdrive. Official Sofia believes the world has no idea about their involvement in the extermination of Jews from Macedonia and present northern Greece. Darko Mitrevski was relentlessly attacked by Bulgarian journalists, not realizing they are doing him a favor and are advertizing his film, for free. Darko was asked why did he put the Bulgarian flag next to the flag of the Third Reich in his movie! In all seriousness, this was the first question he was asked! His answer -because they were always flown together in Macedonia. Mitrevski showed a 1942 photo of the two flags flying together. The photo came from two separate sources. The Macedonian and the Bulgarian national archives. Priceless! Mitrevski was accused of framing stories of "executed children", only for him to read the names of Macedonian children executed by Bulgarian soldiers, citing multiple sources.
The questions stopped coming.
Deafening silence from official Sofia and their media. This past weekend the movie premiered in Bitola to a standing ovation. Over 30 Bulgarian journalists were accredited to be at the premiere. Not a single one of them had a comment after watching the movie. //Marija Sazdovska
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