Cinema is magic, an illusion, a break from reality, a whirlwind of emotions. Yet it is an industry that runs to billions. And it turns out that quite a few of the world’s blockbusters were shot right here, at the foot of Mount Vitosha. Here, a stone’s throw from the Bulgarian capital is where Eastern Europe’s dream factory, otherwise known as Nu Boyana film studios, thrives.

Fasten your seatbelt, take a deep breath and get ready for one more whirlwind adventure. Because in Sofia’s Hollywood anything is possible. For example to travel thousands of years back or forward in time, to watch gladiators fighting in the Roman arena, to find yourself right in the middle of a gangster shoot-out in the streets of New York or to cross the Gobi desert, faint with thirst and hunger in an attempt to escape from one of Stalin’s camps… You can bump into Salma Hayek in some out of the way town in the Middle East or come up against Mel Gibson or Sylvester Stallone, both armed to the teeth.

More than EUR 50 million has been invested in recent years to build studios, props and buy equipment; Sofia’s Hollywood has been the movie set for more than 180 world productions. A host of films have been shot here: 300: Rise of an Empire, The Black Dahlia, Conan the Barbarian, Spartacus, Getaway, The Expendables 1, 2 and 3 and other blockbusters that have brought to Bulgaria the world’s top film stars. And little by little, Sofia turned into a cinema city. Yariv Lerner, CEO of Nu Boyana Film Studios says the facility offers more than props and infrastructure but the entire cycle of technical and creative services that go into the making of a movie. Why is it that nowadays the big names of the film industry opt to make Sofia their movie set?

Obviously, costs are not the only reason. Yariv Lerner:

Extras, assistant directors, stuntmen, makeup artists, special effect experts, technicians and more and more actors – the “Bulgarian connection” has been growing more noticeable in the movies made here. For example, over 2,000 Bulgarian extras were hired for The Expendables 3.

“All special effects are done here – a colossal amount of work that is given exclusively to local experts,” Alexandra Tsvetkova from Nu Boyana says. “For example, The September of Shiraz, starring Adrien Brody is an international project made here from beginning to end – from the script to the screen. Bulgarian crews were hired at all levels in its making. Most productions with Bulgarian involvement avail themselves of the services the studios offer. One such film is Nobody Wants the Night, starring Juliette Binoche – a Bulgaria, Spain, France co-production.”

How far apart the stories are in time and space makes no matter here. A London street, a Greek hamlet, a medieval city or a city in the Middle East exist peacefully side by side right next to a coliseum from antiquity. “We have a New York subway, but I’m sorry to say it has no connection with the Sofia metro,” says Alexandra. The props are so realistic that even though they are made of styrofoam and are hollow, they look like the real thing. Set designers regularly “dress them up” to adapt them to the needs of each production or add visual effects virtually.

By the end of this year Nu Boyana will have completed 12 projects – all of them films starring movie stars we have welcomed to Sofia many times before.

Photographs courtesy of Nu Boyana Film Studios

English version: Milena Daynova