Headlining the focus on British films at the 13th Sofia International Film Festival will be the presence of British actor and TV presenter Michael Palin, and special projections of his films and television programmes, festival director Stefan Kitanov said at a festival press conference on January 28. The festival takes place from March 5 to 15 2009 in Sofia, with extensions until the 22nd in Sofia, Plovdiv and Bourgas.

Kozelut (Козелът/The Hegoat), the most recent film of director Georgi Djulgerov, will open the festival with its world premiere on March 5, with a screening in hall 1 of NDK (National Palace of Culture). Based on a tale by Nikolai Haitov, Kozelut tells the story of wisdom- and insight-granted animals; the billy goat is the narrator and main character in the story, which sees him descending from heaven with the mission of preventing people from finding treasure buried near an ancient Thracian temple.

Djulgerov and producer Vladimir Andreev have been working on the film since March 2006, when they talked about it in an interview with The Sofia Echo.

Kozelut will close the Bourgas edition of the festival, what is being called Sofia Film Festival on the Shore, on March 22.

At the Sofia festival, Palin will receive the Sofia Award for overall contribution to cinema and television. Productions of his to be shown include Eastern Delight, part of his BBC documentary series Michael Palin's New Europe, and, of course, Monty Python, along with Around the World in 80 Days, Sahara, and Life of Brian, among others.

This British focus comes as part of the British Council's 75th birthday, celebrated in 2009, and because of the fact that the British Council has been a major player in the Sofia Film Festival since its origins in 1993.

The international programme will highlight, apart from the UK, films by Jim Jarmusch (producer Jim Stark is expected to be present at the festival), and will see an "opening of geographical bounds", Kitanov said, with movies being shown from India (The Firm Land, by Chapour Haghighat), Argentina (Las Vidas posibles, by Sandra Gugliotta), Mexico (Cumbria callera, by René Villarreal), Romania (Cea mai fericita fata din lume, by Radu Jude), Turkey (Sonbahar, by Özcan Alper) and Russia/Kazakhstan (Baksy, by Gulshat Omarova).

A projection of Svetoslav Ovtcharov's latest film Единствената любовна история, която Хемингуей не описа/A Farewell to Hemingway will see the presence of American actor Chris Heuisler, who plays the young war correspondent Hemingway.

At an evening entitled Gala of Tolerance, Gus Van Sant's film Milk, starring Sean Penn, will be shown; no word at the press conference was said about special guests.

A full programme of the about 100 feature films, 30 documentaries and 50 short films will be available at a later time.

Partners in Sofia International Film Festival include the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, the National Film Centre, Bulgarian National Television, NDK and Sofia municipality.