Black Money for White Nights
DUTCH PREMIERE
A couple in their sixties secretly save bribe money to fulfil their lifelong dream, but when a travel scam wipes out their savings, buried family conflicts and moral compromises rise to the surface.
Sixty-year-old Marina and her husband, Gosha, have spent years saving money from small bribes to fund their dream pilgrimage to St. Petersburg to witness the White Nights of Dostoevsky. When Russia invades Ukraine and their travel agency vanishes with their savings, their dream collapses. Gosha ends up in hospital after being beaten while trying to recover the money. Long-buried betrayals surface, forcing the couple to confront the lies on which their life has been built and to search, among the ruins, for a trace of dignity and grace. A sharply observed tragicomedy about ordinary people in Bulgaria trapped between corruption, family loyalty and the collapse of moral certainty.
SCREENINGS
Saturday 7 November 19:15
Sunday 8 November 14:45
Programme section(s): Cinema Current
Original title: Черни пари за бели нощи | Year: 2026 | Runtime: 95′
Country: Bulgaria, Greece | Language: Bulgarian | Subtitles: English
Cast: Tanya Shahova, Ivan Savov, Margita Gosheva, Ivan Barnev, Sibila Petrova
Director: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov | Production: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov – Abraxas Film; Konstantina Stavrianou, Irini Vougioukalou – Graal Films; BNT, ERT, Greek Film Centre, NFC, Eurimages | Screenplay: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov, Decho Taralezhkov | Cinematography: Alexander Stanishev | Editing: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2026 – World Premiere (Crystal Globe Competition) | European Film Festival Palić, 2026 | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2026
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov are Bulgarian writer-directors who have been working together since film school. Their films The Lesson (2014), Glory (2016), The Father (2019) and Triumph (2023) have screened at major festivals including Toronto, San Sebastián, Locarno, Karlovy Vary and many others. They focus on intimate stories told with realism, subtle humour and empathy.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Our film was born out of a moment when words lost their meaning and moral gravity seemed to collapse – when cynicism passed for patriotism, and lies were called faith. In Bulgaria, a generation that once carried the promise of change became an echo of propaganda, renaming corruption “survival” and submission “tradition”. The film is not a protest, but an attempt to understand how this distortion feels from the inside. Marina and Gosha are neither villains nor heroes. They pray, love, and dream, yet live in a world where deceit has become a way of breathing. Caught between survival and complicity, their quiet downfall mirrors a broader moral erosion shaping private lives and entire societies.
