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Bulgarian actor Izko Finzi at 91 – a life that continues to surprise every day

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Photo: БТА

April 25 is the birth date of Izko Finzi, part of the so-called "golden generation" of Bulgarian actors. For his 91-year earthly journey until now, Izko Finzi is drawing a lasting mark in the Bulgarian theatrical, film and cultural life.‎

He was born in Sofia, but his family originates from Sarajevo. Being an actor seems to have been predestined, as his father, Samuel, was also an actor, reciter and director of improvised theater productions. Thus, Itzhak ended up on stage in kindergarten, where he took part in a play based on the fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". The path to the love of the audience goes through VITIZ (now the National Academy of Theater and Film Art), where he became part of the class of the prominent Bulgarian theater teacher Prof. Stefan Sarchadzhiev and studied together with a galaxy of future stars of the Bulgarian stage:


"You asked me about my admission to VITIZ and about the people I met there. People who later became famous actors and I saw most of them in the Satirical Theater, where I went in 1960. In VITIZ I was in the same class with Tatyana Lolova, Hindo Kasimov, Tsako Dachev, Nikola Anastasov, Dosyo Dosev, Grigor Vachkov", the actor recalls in an interview for Radio Bulgaria and shares a series of curious moments with them: "With Tatyana Lolova, I remember well, we were in the same troupe that went on tour around Bulgaria, which lasted 30-40 days. We were in various cities with an entertainment program. Tatyana was singing, and I played the accordion and also played in a dramatization of a story by Chekhov."‎


About his first role in the Satirical Theater - the play "Darvenitsa" by the director and then head of the theatre company Boyan Danovski - Izko Finzi says:

"This show, it seems to me, had already been played for one season and was recognized as very interesting, and Georgi Kaloyanchev himself had become famous with his role as Presipkin. We had beards, moustaches and long hair. That was our first participation in the Satirical Theater, and I ended up there because of my friendship with the director Metodi Andonov", remembers Finzi.

One of the emblematic incarnations of the actor is his role as a musician in the legendary April Fool's concert, which he organized together with his colleagues Rashko Mladenov, Nikolay Binev and Todor Kolev.


‎"On the poster it said "Masterpieces of the World Classics". We are ‎amateurs, but we treat music as a sacred thing. ‎Our technical abilities are weak, but our feeling for music is strong, but that's who we are. Surely we are funny, but we took part in it with a lot of passion - as it should be," says Finzi firmly.

Today, at the age of 91, Izko Finzi lives far from the hectic rhythm of the Bulgarian capital city, but continues to be strongly connected with cultural life in Bulgaria. In the autumn of life, when many people stop making plans, fate presents Finzi with wonderful surprises. In 2017, 51 years after the birth of his son - the actor Samuel Finzi, who is building a stellar career in Germany - Itzhak became a father again, this time to the little girl Matilda, born by his wife - the director Lisa Boeva. ‎The love between them gives birth to another "child", albeit a digital one - the online platform "Filizi 33", about which the actor talks with special excitement at every opportunity:‎
Izko Finzi with Lisa Boeva
‎"I participate in the activity of a platform that places on its ‎page studies of Lisa Boeva related to the history of art - ‎painting, sculpture, literary analyses. All this from a modern ‎point of view. I am the reader who presents the excerpts. It's an art history learning platform, for kids and adults, and we imagine that families can sit in front of the computer and look, listen and reflect on it."


The soft, velvety voice of Izko Finzi can also be heard in dozens of radio plays, as well as radio dramatizations of children's stories. His creative biography includes dozens of memorable incarnations on the theater stage, in television productions, as well as in some of the emblematic Bulgarian film productions. And his contribution is honored with a panel on the "Wall of Fame" in front of the capital's Theater 199, where he writes:
‎"What an honour! Long live! Thank you!"‎

Radio Bulgaria's team heartily congratulates the remarkable Izko Finzi on his personal holiday. We wish him good health to support the fire of life and art that warms our souls!‎


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Photos: BTA



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