Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov Probe Corruption and Pro-Russia Nostalgia in ‘Black Money for White Nights’

Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov Probe Corruption and Pro-Russia Nostalgia in ‘Black Money for White Nights’

Bulgarian filmmakers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov discuss ‘Black Money for White Nights,’ corruption, moral collapse and loyalty to Russia.

Black Money for White Nights — Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov [KVIFF '26 Review]

As they so often do, sixtysomething Bulgarian couple Marina (Tanya Shahova) and Gosha (Ivan Savov) spend their evening in front of the television after a long day of blue-collar labor. But tonight the routine flicking of channels is ruptured by the gravest of geopolitical upheavals: Russia, a news report tells them, has launched its full-scale [...] The post Black Money for White Nights — Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov [KVIFF ’26 Review] app…

Black Money for White Nights | 2026 Karlovy Vary Film Festival Review

Steal Big, Steal Little: Grozeva & Valchanov Deliver Just Deserts It’s difficult not to feel a sense of schadenfreude in following the drastic downfall of a long-married Bulgarian couple in Black Money for White Nights, the latest from directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Peter Valchanov, who broke out with a similar tale of ironic economic woe with 2014’s The Lesson. The maxim “karma has no menu, you get what you deserve” hangs like an albatross …

Black Money for White Nights

QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM KARLOVY VARY Gosha (Ivan Savov) works as the train stationmaster in a small Bulgarian town. He sells diesel syphoned from the trains in order to earn some extra money. He’s saving for the journey of his wife’s dream. The couple have no children. Marina (Tanya Shahova) wants to see white nights of Saint Petersburg’s and then travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway all the way to China, in a luxury trip fuelled by caviar and …