The choice of Bulgaria to illustrate the processes taking place in the cinemas of new Europe's smaller countries is not obvious at first blush. All former socialist countries suffered a drop in film production in the early 1990s, but after the initial disarray previous output levels were restored in some places and the production cycle stabilised, reinforced by the introduction of new legislation and well-regulated funding mechanisms. Bulgaria, however, is nowhere near recovering and the crisis persists.

The overall political atmosphere in Bulgaria since 1989 has been one of general political instability and persistent economic crisis. Governments have kept changing and most of them have stood accused of corruption at some point. Most importantly, whereas many other Eastern bloc countries joined the European Union in 2004, Bulgaria's entry has been postponed, as the country is still deemed ‘unfit’ for Europe.

While these processes represent the worst aspects of volatility, bad management and misguided privatisation, they are widespread across the former Eastern bloc and the example of Bulgarian cinema can also stand in for the situation in other small and persistently failing film industries in countries that continue to suffer the repercussions of isolation and timid provincialism. These industries are rarely written about and part of the interest in considering Bulgaria is the way in which this will extricate the specifics of a national cinema that is not only small but also provincial.