THE SINNER AND THE SAINT

By Boris DESPODOV

ARTHOUSE BLOCKBUSTERS - as PROD

Social issues - Post-Production 2023

While he was searching for the Light, he was suddenly drawn into the Darkness.

Festivals
& Awards

Dok Munich 2018
German Composition Funding Award
    • Year of production
    • 2023
    • Genres
    • Social issues, Thriller, Documentary
    • Countries
    • GERMANY, BULGARIA, SERBIA
    • Languages
    • BULGARIAN, ENGLISH
    • Budget
    • 0 - 0.3 M$
    • Duration
    • 97 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Boris DESPODOV
    • Writer(s)
    • Boris DESPODOV, Plamen BONTCHEV
    • Producer(s)
    • Boris DESPODOV (Arthouse Blockbusters), Nina FRESE (Pandora Film), Milos LJUBOMIROVIC (Servia Film)
    • Synopsis
    • The documentary tells the story of 37 y.o. Bulgarian Petar Nizamov, the former youth boxing champion whose life is full of breathtaking turns and twists. Besides being a successful businessman, he is also a lawyer and the head of an NGO, which provides people with free of charge legal assistance. For helping an unemployed mother to regain custody of her children, doubtfully taken away by the state, he's awarded Lawyer of the Year.
      His public criticism of the corrupt Bulgarian government rewards him with thousands of supporters on social media. He claims the government tries to cancel him and one evening two men attempt an armed assassination. After the police stop the investigation due to lack of evidence, furiously he decides to run for city council in his hometown. But, he fails to enter the world of politics.
      In the months to follow Peter radicalized. He patrols the border between Bulgaria and Turkey in response to the growing refugee crisis. During a routine tour, he and his peers encounter a group of Afghan refugees and brutally arrest them. Petar films and publishes the video on Facebook, which went viral and turned him overnight into a celebrity. As a result, he connects with leaders of far-right movements in Europe, but soon realizes they share the same agenda as the greedy Bulgarian politicians he's been opposing.
      When the war in Ukraine starts Petar decides to go a different path and volunteers to help the storming refugees from the country with what he can.