I AM so sorry that I have offended some small minded people with my column about `Bulgarisation', especially since it was meant as an encouragement to improve this land of opportunistic optimism...

After a week of desperately trying to avoid more confrontations with representatives of the boring class, my week took a turn for the better since I had the pleasure of meeting a man I had wanted to talk to for a long time.

Having a coffee with David Varod was one of the most invigorating experiences I have had in a long time. Especially since I had seriously criticised the Nu Image Studios in the past for not producing the sort of movies I enjoy, it came as a pleasant surprise to be invited for a chat.

Besides all the obvious stuff about the privatisation of Boyana Studios, which in my mind has become to look more and more like a dance of bureaucrat pigs fighting for the contents of a trough, Varod mainly spoke about his visions for the future of the Bulgarian film industry and his love for the country.

As David and I arrived in Bulgaria at the same time, about seven years ago, I could definitely sympathise with most of the issues that plagued his company through these years.

He explained about the challenges he had getting his VAT returned and how he finally won his case against the government after a four-year court battle.

What was never properly explained in the press was the fact that it was not Nu Image that approached Boyana Studios, but that it was mayor Stefan Sofianski who convinced them to look at this opportunity, as Sofianski didn't want to lose Nu Image to Pancherevo where they had already found land to build their own studios.

Although Nu Image is still committed to their offer, they feel that they have lost four years of waiting, in which time they could have built a new modern studio complex in Pancherevo.

During the past seven years, Varod said, Nu Image has become the employer of about 400 people and is currently responsible for about  70 per cent of the Bulgarian film industry. It does make you wonder who those other people are who claim to speak on behalf of the industry. Based on these figures, Varod bluntly describes himself as "The Bulgarian Film Industry" and claims that many of his friends and employees have come to him to ask why other people are speaking on their behalf and about their future.

According to Varod, his studio staff is the most highly educated in the world, with the studio having its own internal education system and with most of the talent not coming into the business through traditional channels, but mostly from totally different educational backgrounds. He is truly proud of his labour force who he describes as: "Bright kids that want to learn much and work hard".

When I asked him about Bulgarian movies of the past, he praised their photography and excellent acting. "Often you can understand the story without understanding the language". Great stories, well told.

On the topic of local movies, he took obvious pleasure in telling me about Ivan Ninchev's latest movie made by Nu Image.

Varod transformed himself from a designer to a director/producer in an effort to have more influence over movies. He was fed up with making rubbish movies with rubbish directors, as he put it. He added that he believes in small European movies rather then the usual Hollywood stuff, comparing Hollywood as saccharine with Europe as sugar.

He also announced that Bulgarian producers would get discounts of 50 per cent and up on equipment and stages from the Nu Image/Boyana Studios, something which has never happened before in the past, making it clear that Nu Image does not need to make a profit out of the Bulgarian Industry. In the future he would like to start producing movies together with the Government at enormous discounts just to prove his good feelings towards his local colleagues.

 When I pressed him a little more on education he also disclosed that there is currently an English School in the studio, which is now used only by actors, but which will become a real accredited English School in Boyana.

 After looking at the building plans of an additional 25 000sq m of stage space in the new Boyana I left to visit the Nu Image-owned WorldwideFX digital studio. Here I found about 120 Bulgarian specialists at work on many different aspects of movie-related media. As I own a much smaller studio myself, I was truly humbled. The in-house education that Varod had told me about at the studios was also fully implemented in WorldwideFX by its local boss Scott Coulter.

 I wish both David and Scott good luck in their future endeavours and am absolutely convinced that either at Boyana or at their own custom built studios they will be the leaders in the Bulgarian film industry for many years to come!

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