On the way up the stairs to the office of Sofilm, French film producer Patrick Sandrin’s offices in the capital, I notice a poster of a movie called Druids, featuring Christopher Lambert. "A terrible film," says Sandrin cheerfully when I raise it during our interview.

He says it with the air of a mildly disappointed father who still loves a wayward child. And why not? His movies are, after all, his babies.
Not that, I hasten to add, Druids is representative of Sandrin’s oeuvre. In fact, he is one of the most successful French film producers, the man behind East-West with Catherine Deneuve (1999) and The Last Bey on the Balkans - a popular four-part mini-series set in the Balkans, filmed in 2005. He has also been involved in some more unusual art house collaborations, working with directors from Portugal and South America.

Two of his recent TV movies - An Amour a Taire (Love to Hide - 2005) and Marie Marmaile (2002), were set in occupied France during World War 2. Both were about persecution, a subject that Sandrin, with his hatred of totalitarianism - both Left and Right - can relate to. In the former, a young Jewish girl on the run from the Nazis is sheltered by an old gay friend. In the second movie, a young woman, Marie, finds a young Jewish boy in front of her door. Marie decides to hide him - secretly of course. Both films were highly acclaimed.

No segregation
Sandrin moved to Bulgaria at the beginning of the 1990s as part of a foreign commission to help Eastern European films.
"Our mission was to support Eastern European cinematographers’ co-productions with French production companies during a time when the countries were facing a growing economic crisis."

He says his role was not to dictate how movies in Bulgaria should be made.
"It was not traditional colonialism, but, rather, collaboration with Bulgarian filmmakers," he says.  

He admits those early days were tough.
"People used to have to wake up at 5am to get basic commodities such as milk. I detested the communist totalitarian system. But capitalism proved difficult for people too," he says.

Sandrin has now been involved in producing 30 films in Bulgaria. He is currently producing a movie called Ao - Le Dernier Neanderthal with Jean-Jacques Annaud, the French director of the Sean Connery blockbuster, The Name of the Rose (1986), and Quest For Fire (1981).

Does he find it easy to secure financing for his films?
"It’s very difficult, but I think cinema, like life, is very diverse. I don’t say my films are the best but they are certainly different. This is what I chose to do. It’s difficult to make a living but it’s my choice."

When filmmakers comes to Bulgaria, Sandrin rents out a studio in Nu Image. Despite his somewhat intellectual aura and office attic filled with voluminous tones about film and literature, he’s always hoping for a big commercial hit.

"I don’t have a strict segregation between commercial and artistic films," he says.  
He cites John Ford, Billy Wilder, Tim Burton, David Cronenberg and Clint Eastwood as his favourite filmmakers. "And, if Tarantino comes here, I’ll certainly help him," he says.  
Stranger things have certainly happened in the world of film.