Bulgarian schoolteacher Nade (Margita Gosheva) is in a bind. Her husband has missed their mortgage payments, and, to avoid foreclosure, she must come up with the money in three days.

Nade becomes desperate over the ways the system is nibbling her to death. Her obstacles — such as merciless, petty bank charges — will be painfully familiar to most. The script’s mordant humor only makes Nade’s situation feel more bleak.

There’s a superficial resemblance to the Dardenne brothers’ “Two Days, One Night,” and like that film it has a strong lead; Gosheva’s Nade is prickly, and no suffering saint. Writers-directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov don’t have the Dardennes’ fluid elegance with the camera, though, and this harsh story could have used it.