Cineworld, February 22, 4pm;
February 23, 6.45pm
Set against the background of Bulgaria's 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Chouchkov brothers' film turns on the relationship between streetsmart skateboarder Stash and Becky, daughter of a high-ranking policeman. The title refers to a pinball-playing technique. It's also the name Stash plans to give the bar he wants to open with friends Angel, Gogo and B-Gum. But when the gang are caught distributing porn films, they flee Sofia for newly accessible West Germany. Not B-Gum, though: seeing a chance for influence he turns informer, and Becky is stopped at the border. But life in the west is squalid and Stash returns to Sofia to find Becky – and B-Gum, who has opened the fabled bar and fallen in with a mafia gang now headed by Becky's father - Though its historical setting sometimes gives it the air of socio-politlcal commentary, TILT is essentially a love-across-the-tracks story infused with a little wry nostalgia for the bad old days of Communism. Stylish, sure, but about as deep as a puddle.
