Ivan has grand ambitions. As the postman for a dying Bulgarian village situated adjacent to the Turkish border, he takes daily ambles through the wreckage of his town, eyeing the Syrian asylum seekers who routinely sneak around its perimeter on their quest for safe haven. Rather than idly watch his world crumble, he runs for mayor on a bold political platform: invite the refugees to stay, bringing with them fresh hopes and ambitions that will help fill the empty homes and rebuild the dilapidated infrastructure. But over the course of his canvassing, Ivan finds himself confronting his neighbors’ xenophobic ire and their nostalgia for Communism as articulated in his political rival’s campaign rhetoric. Setting its wry observations of the idiosyncrasies of small-town electioneering against the backdrop of global geopolitical and economic crises, The Good Postman maintains a complex emotional tone that balances droll satire with understated melancholy. TAW