Tobacco

Tobacco is a 1962 Bulgarian drama film written and directed by Nikola Korabov, and based on Dimitar Dimov's 1951 novel of the same name. The film deals with the conflicts and contradictions in Bulgarian society during a period stretching from the early thirties to the end of World War II, and stars Nevena Kokanova as Irina, an aspiring medicine student, and Yordan Matev as Boris, an ambitious man from a working class background. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Background {{quote box | width = 22em | align = left | bgcolor = #E0E6F8 | quote = "Dimitar Dimov was called an "erotic" and a "Freudian". He was crushed by criticism. And what did I feel when I had to turn 1500 pages of this novel into a screenplay of 150? It was no less dramatic. I perceived this as a challenge and a kind of adventure that was like "playing with fire"."|source=—Korabov on working on Tobacco'''s film adaptation}} In August 1951, the publishing house Narodna Kultura received an internal review of Dimitar Dimov's novel Tobacco from the literary critic Pantelei Zarev. In his review, Zarev made recommendations for corrections in the novel, so that it could be accurate to the principles of socialist realism. However, the novel was printed without the recommended corrections. In the late autumn of the same year, the book was already on the market. Reader interest in Dimov's work exceeded expectations and the book was sold out within days. In January 1952, Dimov was personally congratulated with a letter from Prime Minister Valko Chervenkov. This did not become public knowledge, but word of mouth spread in literary circles, and in the same month, the Union of Bulgarian Writers nominated Tobacco for the Dimitrov Prize.