Past, Present, and Atmospheric Weather in Because I Love Bad Weather by Yana Lekarska

The Ministry of Nostalgia warns: this product may contain roasted peppers.

Just as bad weather passes and is an inseparable part of nature, so too are the bad moments from the past an important part of life. According to Because I Love Bad Weather, painful memories should not be ignored and buried deep inside, because doing so makes us stuck and hinders growth—and ultimately, happiness.

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Writer-director Yana Lekarska has created a film with a very sunny outlook, leaning toward an infectious radical optimism. The disarmingly sincere Because I Love… doesn’t care if it’s cringe, which is exactly why it isn’t. It has a distinctive spirit and boldly follows it into the not-so-predictable late scenes.

Neda Spasova and Vladimir Mihaylov in Because I Love Bad Weather

Technically very strong and polished from every angle (even the sound!) under impressively confident direction, the film is simple and unpretentious on the surface, yet piercing and beautiful not only visually. It’s stitched together with sharp touches, like the jab at male stoicism and the transition from braids to loose hair. It flows with an imperceptible smooth edit, except for the fragmented shoreline sketch—which actually fits perfectly.

Beach time after the rain ends

One of the examples of Bulgarian cinema free from the shackles of hopeless and screaming predecessors, it doesn’t feel like a “Bulgarian film.” And I probably wouldn’t have watched it if Andronika Martonova hadn’t introduced me to the global work of Yana Lekarska even before this airy feature debut.

Something like an epiphany or a small miracle for these geographic latitudes, available to rent at gledam.bg https://gledam.bg/programs/because-i-love-bad-weather