Eastern Plays

It has been quite some time since a film genuinely moved me. This past week or so, I have sat through and enjoyed, to varying degrees, Scorsese's Shutter Island and Polanski's The Ghost Writer. Both were polished, well-made, clever films (the latter perhaps slightly more than the former), but I will soon forget them. I don't think I'm going to forget Eastern Plays anytime soon. This Bulgarian film by Kamen Kalev is, well - why beat around the bush ? - a great work of art. Superbly shot in a Sofia filled with graffiti-covered buildings and vacant lots, Eastern Plays tells the story of Itso, an addict on methadone who has to drink beer more or less constantly to dull his pain. Quite by chance, he intervenes when a family of Turkish tourists gets attacked and beaten by a gang of Neo-Fascist thugs (led by a terrifying Alexander "The Indian" Radanov). This gradually leads to a relationship between Itso and the breathtakingly beautiful Isil (Saadet Isil Askoy), whose innocent, optimistic spirituality gradually begins to lift Itso out of the painful doldrums of his beery existence. I don't know what to praise most about this film : its portrayal of a modern Bulgaria adrift between racist youth gangs and football hooligans, the parents completely out of touch with the world of their children ; the incredibly true-to-life performance by Christo Christov, who died of an overdose before the film was finished shooting ? I think finally it is the luminous presence of Saadet Isil Askoy, who brings a sincerity and optimism to the film's grim context, as she tells Itso that we are all living in a time where people are sick inside, but that she feels a change is coming. This is not just a film about contemporary Bulgaria, although it is that as well. It is a film that captures a certain Zeitgeist of the early 21st century, in which, especially in post-Communist Eastern Europe, a restless youth with nothing more to believe in attempts to fill the gap inside them as best they can : with drugs, alcohol, headbanger rock, neo-fascist thuggery, or, in a few precious, fragile cases, with art and music. I have not recently seen a more deeply moving scene in a film than the one is which a desperate Itso consults his psychiatrist : all he wants to do, he says, is find the goodness within himself. He wishes he could radiate light like a crystal, and love all human beings, but he does not know how.

This is the most honest Bulgarian movie made in the last 20 years. Bravo Itso, Kamen and the rest of the team! It is a movie that resonates on the same wave as the contemporary BG people. It shows the heart...and the really important things in life - hope, love, tolerance, dialogue, the continuity between the generations and freedom - the choice to live your life as you want and to be its real master... Well, it is difficult for me to come up with 10 lines for this movie (as the guidelines indicate) since this is a movie that needs to be seen coz it is a movie to be felt...because it is simple and that's why it is a work of genius!!! It's absolutely worth seeing!

This is probably the best Bulgarian film in a decade. There are a couple of things that must be said about it. 1. “Eastern Plays” is first and foremost a humane story. I cannot underestimate the importance of that fact given the long-standing tradition of Bulgarian movies (and European cinematography in general) to intimidate their characters and to dissect them with horrifying bluntness. 2. More than that, the film is a really, really good contemporary narrative. The story is told in a subtle, calm and compassionate manner. 3. This film is a rare display of the importance of each and every human existence. The idea is presented without the help of complex existential constructions or intellectual roundabouts.

Being a Bulgarian who has all but a few years outside of Bulgaria, I am always interested in watching Bulgarian cinema. Most of the time i am disappointed. Its always the same actors playing more or less the same role in the very cliché Bulgarian way; rigid and straightforward so that you cant buy into their character and you can tell they are acting. Oftentimes the roles of the characters don't change much. Characters are bland, Men are either dopey drunken alcoholics with a sense of humor or far too serious, while women are either whores or overly needy

I watched the movie and I was shocked, The characters were so vibrant and original, in fact a lot reminded me of friends I have in Bulgaria, the acting fluid and I didn't see them acting instead they looked so natural as if they were playing themselves.

The movie is about growing up in Bulgaria. One brother rebels against his parents, starts hanging out with soccer hooligans, and slowly beginning to become detriment to society. The other older brother is emerging from that lifestyle, fighting a drug addiction, and trying to put his life back together with art. Each battles on their own, but maintain an active relationship. The two worlds and brothers meet one fateful night and their paths are altered forever.

So I watched the the entire credits hoping to see a friend or someone I knew in them( as many of my friends work in film studios in Bulgaria), and at the end there was a dedication to Christo, The guy who played the main character also named Christo. Turns out the reason that the actors seemed so natural is that most of them were not actors, including Christo,(the main actor, who died of a drug overdose in the middle of filming) but rather the people in Christos life, including his girlfriend. In fact the movie was more or less based on his life, and when the director couldn't find anyone to play Christo, he just got Christo to play himself.

All in all the movie is really worth watching...whether you are Bulgarian or not.

What I particularly liked (and I know friends of mine who did as well) in this movie is that it is not a movie about a person, or a story, but mostly an aesthetic vision of a city... which happens to be my city. The storyline is almost missing: apart from the sad coincidence that one brother took part in the beating of another, there is not much of a narrative thread and the entire movie is just a sequence of impressions of present-day Sofia, including the people living in it. Hristo Hristov became the focus of the film because he represented a particular type of Sofianites (actually he was born in Burgas but that does not make him less of a Sofianite since this is the city where he painted): artists who have received serious formation, have developed their own style, have reached the level of creators of unquestionably valuable works, and yet have found no chance to live on their art and be successful. Hristo was not the first, and will not be the last of generations of creative persons who had to find various exits from the difficult situation the last twenty years placed us all in. He chose drugs and in the real life passed away even before the movie was finished. But his sad story is one of hope, too, since the real-life Hristo, even posthumously, proved that recognition can come (and we are now expecting the long-postponed exhibition of his art), while the movie-character Hristo showed to his younger brother that there is alternative to violence and hatred, and that there is enough beauty around us to save us from despair.