Yesterday I saw <a href="http://www.sofiaiff.com/index.php?page=movies&amp;id=57">Eastern Plays (Източни пиеси)</a> directed by Kamen Kalev at the Cinema House in Sofia. It's a part of the Sofia Film Festival.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="Itso in Eastern Plays "]<a href="http://www.programata.bg/?p=30&amp;c=1&amp;id=54917&amp;l=2"><img title="Eastern Plays Film Fest 2010" src="http://www.programata.bg/img/gallery/gallery_27078.jpg?845330736" alt="" width="460" height="250" /></a>[/caption]

The film struck me as haunting and at the same time, completely engaging. I didn't really know what to expect.  The summary of the film on the festival website describes the film this way:
<blockquote>Two brothers who have lost all contact are suddenly brought together  when they have opposite roles in a racist beating. While Georgi, who’s  recently joined a neonazi group participates in the violence, Itso  witnesses and rescues the Turkish family. Georgi, now being asked to  participate in larger events, starts to question his implication in the  movement and Itso wonders if the beautiful Turkish girl he saved could  be his ticket out from his sad life in Sofia. Only by reuniting will  the two brothers be able to assess what they really want from life.</blockquote>
I went to see the film based on the summary above and while the summary is 100% correct it doesn't seem to do the film justice. I left the movie sad and confused. <!--more-->For good reason, it turns out the main character Christo--Itso--has a real life inspiration and what's more his real life counter part died last year.  As it turns out much of the film is real.  But because I apparently don't like to read past summaries of films I didn't catch this when I decided to see this film.

Had I read a little bit further on the film festival website I'd have learned this:
<blockquote>While both brothers are floundering in existential solitude, Itso  projects a far deeper sense of being both lost and trapped. Perhaps it's  because tyro thesp Christov, an old friend of Kalev's, was the basis  for the script, and many details are taken directly from his life.  Kalev's sensitivity, combined with dialogue as truthful as it is  natural, leaves no room for vampiric verisimilitude; while it comes as a  shock to discover, in the end credits, that Christov tragically died  last year, the entire film is suffused with poignant respect.</blockquote>
I am not sure that it makes much of a difference if you know background of the film--if you know the story is steeped in real life before you see it. For me didn't, it just made the ending that much more surprising--hopeful and at once heartbreaking.

The other thing the reviews don't spend much time on is the setting, Sofia. The film opens with the concrete gray and crumbling block apartment buildings found in the outskirts of the city and then moves into the city center. Many scenes were shot just blocks from my apartment last year in a neighborhood park and the outdoor cafe there. A cafe that I've grown to think of as <em>mine</em>--an extension of my apartment.

I was surprised by the visceral feeling that this is my city and not.  I know the neighborhoods, I know the cafes--hell I've spent a lot of hours sitting outside in that cafe drinking coffee or beer, I recognize the streets but not the story.

I don't know this story about hate, loss, dissatisfaction and youth.  This is a story on the edge of my consciousness.  I see graffiti on walls, I know that there is little propelling many teenagers to school, I hear racists jokes that make my skin crawl from well meaning friends, I scared by the nationalist political parties and I know that my Bulgarian peers struggle to find meaningful work but none of these things are central in my life. My Sofia is not the Sofia which appears in the film.

This contrast between my existence here and the film made me feel as if I am floating through my life in Sofia. Or that I am somehow a butterfly and I flit from flower to flower or tree to tree skipping over the dirt, the garbage--everything in between the flowers. This film however said: hold still, you're going to get a good look at life in Bulgaria--a life that you unwittingly look over.

<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/spanish/unwittingly">Unwittingly </a>seems to be the perfect word to describe my relationship to this film.  I haven't done this on purpose. It's been inadvertent.  I haven't purposefully overlooked this part of Sofia--I've just never had access to it. And at least for me, this is part of what is so powerful about this film.

<a href="http://www.programata.bg/?p=30&amp;c=1&amp;id=54917&amp;l=2">Programata</a> started their review of the film with this: Eastern Plays stabs you deep right in the heart. And I think they are exactly right.

This said, if you're living in Sofia and feel like you'd like to be stabbed in the heart the film will be playing nearly everyday this next week as part of the film festival.  If you're elsewhere, I guess I am leaving you to your own devices--sorry.