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Movies & TV

>>> Godless

DISC D: Ralitza Petrova. Bulgaria/Denmark/France. 99 min. Sep 8, 8:30 pm, Scotiabank 14 Sep 9, 3:45 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 Sep 17, 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4. Rating: NNNN


You can call Godless misery porn. Its bleak immersion into Bulgarian crime, corruption and malaise certainly earns that distinction. And the film’s contention that these problems are hereditary, passed on from one generation to the next, doesn’t offer much hope.

Amidst all that is an incredibly measured performance by Irena Ivanova as Gana, a geriatric nurse with a morphine-addiction who steals patient ID cards to sell on the black market. Gana doesn’t wince when someone passes away because she’s already dead inside, until a patient whose resistance to the status quo awakens her.

Debut filmmaker Petrova latches on to that faint stirring of compassion, like the needle on a barometer nudged just a little bit, and she makes it ring powerfully.

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