A man enters a bar, downs a shot of hot sauce and cool-bloodedly shoots three Bulgarians in the head. Days later, he is somewhere in Central Asia, trying to assassinate an oil minister, also a Bulgarian, while blasts, tanks and machine-gun fire rage around him. Later, he rises to his feet amid the rubble of a bombed out building.

No, this is not an anti-Bulgarian conspiracy. Neither is it a declassified file of a dangerous international terrorist or some Orson Welles-type fantasy. This is one of the latest films shot in Bulgaria, War, Inc., released on May 23 in US cinemas.

Let's rewind the film. The man is Brand Hauser, played by John Cusack; the three men shot in the bar are Bulgarian actors playing German businessmen. The oil minister is played by Bulgarian actor Lyubomir Neikov and the action is set in the fictional country of Turaqistan, taken over by Tamerlane, an oil company belonging to the former US vice president (Dan Ackroyd). Hauser is a hit man, hired by the vice president to assassinate the Turaqi oil minister, Omar Sherif (Neikov), who insists that Turaqistan build a cross-country pipeline on its own, shunning Tamerlane. Somewhere on the way appear Hauser's contact, Marsha Dillon (Joan Cusack), a neurotic reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei) and the Turaqi pop star with the melodious name Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff). The main villain turns out to be Walken (Ben Kingsley), Hauser's former boss, who once tried to kill him. Meanwhile, Natalie is kidnapped and while saving her, she and Hauser witness dozens of unarmed Turaqistanians being executed by Tamerlane soldiers. At the end of the film Tamerlane wins a contract make a preemptive strike against another country in the region, Eujiqistan.

Watch the movie for the rest but we can tell you that John Cusack boxes a poisonous cobra and Hilary Duff agrees to put a real live scorpion in her trousers.

War, Inc., the working title of which was Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens, is a dark political satire partly inspired by Naomi Klein's article Baghdad Year Zero. Klein herself approves: "War, Inc. is one of those rare satires with its danger intact. It cranks up the dial on the state of privatised war just enough for us to see the present clearly. As you're watching it, you can't help wondering: Can these guys really get away with this? Are we all going to get in trouble? It's an extremely good feeling. It's what risk feels like." The movie has also won plaudits from distinguished commentators. Writer Gore Vidal: "War, Inc. is one of those rare films where one listens carefully to the dialogue while laughing and weeping." Oscar winner Tim Robbins: "Reviving the spirit of Catch-22 and Mash, War, Inc. is the kind of movie you see rarely these days, a story with guts, content, laughs and heart."

The film's motto is unambiguous: "When it comes to war… America means business." 

Here is what Les Weldon, one of the film's producers, told The Sofia Echo.
Les Weldon is a producer, writer, actor and production manager. He has lived - on and off - in Bulgaria for the past eight years. At the beginning of his time in Bulgaria he'd make one or two films per year, but over the past three years he's been spending 10 months of the year here.

How did you choose such a controversial topic?
I was shooting a film called The Contract here with John Cusack and Morgan Freeman. Both John and Morgan really enjoyed filming in Bulgaria. John approached me and my partner Danny Lerner and told us he had a story about a fictional country, a break-away Russian republic that would be ideal for shooting in Bulgaria. We read it and concluded it was definitely anti-war but had some really funny stuff and good action. Sometimes, when you're making films, you can make a large-scale commercial film and spend a lot of money, but it's not successful and ends up being a risk in that sense. Sometimes you make a much smaller film and it's a risky topic, but because it's very well contained, it's not as risky as some people think. And, additionally, because we can shoot it in a place like Bulgaria, we can make it look five, six, seven, 10 times bigger that it really is and what we've spent on it.

What will be the fall-out from the film?
I expect it to stir up controversy. I expect a lot of people to get the film, but others will completely miss it. It's just one of those films in which the message is so off-the-wall that it takes time to adjust visually. It's just very bizarre. And a lot of it is down to the writers' sharp humour. John is one of the writers on the project; Mark Leyner, in particular, has a very different slant and ideas. They're all very interesting, but sometimes even I battle to understand the humour. But it's there and it doesn't pull any punches. This is one thing we didn't do. When John said he wanted to make the film he said: "We need to make this film and not make it something that's only half way there. We need to go the whole way." And we said: "OK, let's go for it."

Why Turaqistan? Is there any hint in the name?
Yeah. You know, there's a lot of countries in the area that are "-stan".

Because it sounds like Afghanistan and Iraq…
Yeah, it's basically a fictional country in the area.

So it is like a word game, but it's not hinting anything specific?
Yes.

Tell us about the shooting in Bulgaria.
Basically we took Trimontsium Hotel [in the centre of Plovdiv] and we converted it into a hotel in what is called the Green Zone, at least they have a Green Zone in Iraq. It was a good experience shooting in Plovdiv. When shooting outside of Sofia, it's sometimes easier to get things done. People are very excited about having a movie there. It's really like Sofia in the early days.

Now, having said that, I still think Sofia is probably one of the best places in the world in which to film. It's very friendly and you can do things in and around Sofia and people are very receptive. I've filmed in about 11 countries and this is still the best place to shoot. And we have a lot here in Sofia that we can utilise, not only as Sofia, Bulgaria, or some Eastern European country, but we've even doubled America here in Sofia. I just did a film with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas last year, The Code, and we shot only one week out of seven weeks in New York. The rest we did here. It just goes to show you we did the exteriors here. So, we're able to do a lot of the stuff here in Sofia, even if it is America.

Some of the sequences were done here, in Nu Boyana, some of them were done in other places like Novi Iskar, but it's not unusual for us to have tanks and BTR [wheeled armoured personnel carrier] and what not even in downtown Sofia. Again, because Sofia is growing, it's not like the old days a decade ago when you could just roll out a tank in front of Parliament. I think those days are gone simply because of traffic congestion. But we can still do a lot around the city centre. It's one of the few places where you can really bring in a tank with very little paperwork and bureaucracy. The environment is great because there are no unions. The film business in America has been hijacked by the unions and their inflexibility. All the rules and regulations have made the idea of shooting in America much less attractive.

The only real reason production is returning to America is that the dollar is weak and secondly, many states are desperate to get production in there and hence they're offering big incentives. In my opinion, that's the natural next step for Bulgaria. Now, there are many film productions coming here, but that could flourish further with proper incentives.

So Bulgarian bureaucracy is not really as damaging as we imagine?
Well, we've been making movies here for 10 years, so we've grown accustomed to it. I don't mean in any illegal or under-the-table way, but we understand that for certain locations you can't just pick up the phone and get a location the following day. Things take time. We need to plan films carefully. But bureaucracy certainly doesn't prevent us filming.

You said that here you can make a film look much bigger than it really is. Do you make films just because it's just a lot cheaper and does "cheap" here mean less professional?
No, in this case cheaper definitely doesn't mean less professional. In fact, I think that crews here are tops in the world, they really are. But, definitely, cost is a factor. Labour and salaries are less than in Western Europe or America. If they weren't, we wouldn't be shooting here.

How do you rate the talents of the Bulgarian cast members?
I think Bulgarian actors are very talented. We always try to use as many Bulgarian actors as we can, not only because they're local but also because they're very gifted. The biggest obstacle is the language barrier. They speak English, but often with an accent. Many of our characters, on the other hand, should speak with American accents. In many instances we have excellent actors giving fine performances, so that we will choose to cast that actor and later on, if we need to, we can re-dub his voice so that the accent's fine.

Can you name one who is really outstanding?
We've used probably a 100 different Bulgarian actors and actresses. To single out one of them would be unfair. There are so many more fine actors out there that we try to reach out to and, often, we don't get to see them. I like exploring new talents. I think the newer generation will speak English to a higher standard.

What was the ratio between Bulgarian and foreign actors in War, Inc.?
Only the five lead actors were foreigners. The other cast - and some in prominent roles - were Bulgarians. We cast Lyubo [Neikov], he had a very good role.

Did you use Bulgarian staff for the computer-generated imaging (CGI)?
Yeah, here in Boyana we have Worldwide FX, which employees maybe 270 people for CGI, so all the work is done by Bulgarians in special effects and they are very good. They compare very favourably to the US. The only difference is that, when you're talking about special effects, they have a much bigger budget in America. So, generally speaking, if we're looking at the newest Spielberg or George Lucas film, it's a matter of just several months until the technology reaches here. But we've done special effects for some very big films. We just did Rambo 4's special effects and in that movie there were lots of them! All the special effects on War, Inc. were done here, so the Bulgarians are doing theatrical films special effects. Of course, we can't really compete with George Lucas but we can gradually catch up. But for the rest of the market, the work that we do here with CGI is very good.

Will we see War, Inc. here in Bulgaria?
It was released on May 23 in America and I believe there are plans to show it here.

 Will it get a cinematic release?
A movie like that will have a cinema run here. A couple of the other films that have had runs in cinemas in America have had runs here. So I imagine War, Inc. will be here. I don't know how soon.

Did Bulgarian culture and lifestyle have any impact on the film?
I wouldn't say so. The Bulgarians have a great culture, but current developments in Bulgaria remind me of what War, Inc. is really about, the globalisation of a country. I made my first film here eight years ago. Back then the roads were littered with Ladas and a few black Mercedes that we all know about. It was much simpler and you could really get a sense of Bulgarian culture and its people. But what's happened in War, Inc - and I see parallels here - is that many Bulgarians are embracing Western values and its culture. I hate to see them lose their identity, but I think it's part of globalisation. The only question is whether these choices are voluntary or forced on them. And in War, Inc. the message is that we're destroying a country and then forcing wholesale Western-style re-construction on them. So, I see parallels there. Obviously, no tanks are invading Bulgaria, but there is corporate colonisation, so to speak. And the influence now, because Bulgaria is very open, comes from so many different quarters.