Cinema
The Peach Thief
Крадецът на праскови
Valo Radev · 1964
Synopsis
1918, the war is coming to an end. In Tarnovo, where prisoners of war are held, the commandant of the town, a hard, cold colonel, leaves his wife Elisaveta alone in a large garden of peach trees. One day, she surprises a Serbian prisoner there stealing fruit. His name is Ivo and he used to be a music teacher; she herself had been a schoolteacher. She lets him come back, and their meetings in the garden become the centre of her life.
Context
The film comes from a short story by Emilian Stanev, published in 1948, which the director adapts himself; it is his first film as director. The cinematography is by Todor Stoyanov, the music by Simeon Pironkov. The prisoner is played by the Serbian actor Rade Marković, the colonel by Mihail Mihaylov and Elisaveta by Nevena Kokanova. The story had appeared in French as early as 1962, from Del Duca, under the title Le Voleur de pêches.
Who it is for
Eighty-four minutes in black and white; a simple love story, which can be followed without knowing anything about the country.
Prizes and reception
Screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which later acquired it; restored by the film archives of Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro.
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