After many productive years in the world of documentary cinema, several Bulgarian directors are stepping onto the film festival stage with their first feature films. Their work serves as proof of their ability to tell compelling stories about real characters, and it is clearly time for them to show us how they approach fictional ones.
Following the success of documentaries such as Hercules, Family Fortune, Rules of Single Life, Love & Engineering and his latest The Magic Life of V, Helsinki-based Bulgarian director Tonislav Hristov is in the post-production stages with his first feature film, The Good Driver. The story is a "thematic sequel," as Hristov puts it, to his 2016 Sundance-nominated documentary The Good Postman. The protagonist Ivan is a Bulgarian taxi driver who lives and works at the Golden Sands resort, and saves up money because he longs to return to his ex-wife in Finland. The main characters are played by Malin Krastev, Gerasim Georgiev and Slava Doycheva, Orlin Ruevski is the director of photography, and Kaarle Aho and Konstantin Bozhanov are also involved in the script.
The other two directors with a similar trajectory from documentary to feature films are Svetoslav Draganov and Andrey Paounov, and we spoke to the briefly just before the premieres of their new work in front of a Bulgarian audience in March.
Scene from the movie Humble by director Svetoslav Draganov with cameraman Veselin Hristov
After working in documentary film for more than 20 years, director and screenwriter Svetoslav Draganov made his feature debut in 2021 with the movie Humble, in which, however, the protagonist is the documentary genre itself. The title, which premieres on March 13 at 5:30 pm at the Lumiere Cinema as part of the Sofia Film Fest program, follows the story of a forty-year-old documentary filmmaker (played by Hristo Petkov) who has not yet has achieved the success he craves, and turns his back on his own family in order to invest all his energy into his new project. The film within the film is about the broken relationship between a monk and his mother, and when the director learns that the monk is in a psychiatric institution and the mother is about to undergo surgery for cancer, he decides that he must reunite the two to provide an emotional finale for his movie.
Scene from the movie Life almost wonderful with cameraman Veselin Hristov
Draganov's feature film debut comes follows nearly twenty documentaries in which he alternates or combines the roles of producer, director and screenwriter. Some of the highlights are Life Is Wonderful, Isn't It? (Best European Film Award, Doc Leipzig 2001), The Merry Boys (IDFA 2003), Mladi sartza (2003), Samodeytzi (Golden Rhyton 2005), City of Dreams(2011), Life Almost Beautiful (feature film competition, IDFA 2013). Meanwhile, he continues to work on his next documentary Snezha and Franz, which he told us about in the following lines.
On the set of Humble with director Svetoslav Draganov, photographer: Stoyan Nikolaev
When does a documentary filmmaker decide it's time for a feature film?
All my documentaries were about people I like and my goal was to show these people as they are. To get at something beyond the role we all play in front of others. People share or do things that could hurt them later on when others see them in the finished film. I have always felt ethical qualms over "exposing" them in front of the camera and showing their weaknesses and problems along with everything else. My directorial ambitions clash with the feelings I have for the people who have trusted me by taking part in my film. That's where I got the idea to make a feature film about a documentary filmmaker, his family and characters.
What is the biggest difference on the set?
Documentary cinema is a more intimate experience. The set includes me, the cameraman, the sound director and our characters. The crew for a feature film includes around thirty people who are on and around the set. Since most of the actors we filmed in Humble are not professionals, I was worried about how they would feel among so many people. Luckily for me, the film crew was great and the atmosphere they created was casual, like in a documentary.
Scene from Humble with director Svetoslav Draganov, photographer: Stoyan Nikolaev
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to pursue a documentary career?
When I was a student, some of the teachers would tell us that when you're making a documentary, you should keep your distance from your characters. My favorite teacher, Yulia Kancheva, disagreed with that. She advised the opposite approach – you have to shorten the distance and get closer to your characters. I would give similar advice: in order to make a real film about someone else, you need to get to know them better.
Which are the latest (Bulgarian) documentaries that intrigued you?
I am currently writing a doctoral dissertation on Bulgarian documentary cinema from the 1980s and 1990s. I have watched so many good movies that you can't find anywhere because they are not online and they are not shown on TV. I have a great desire for these treasures to become available to a general audience and for others to discover these undeservedly forgotten films.
Scene from Humble with director Svetoslav Draganov, photographer: Stoyan Nikolaev
How do you know when a story is worth telling and what story brought you back to documentary filmmaking?
I don't want to speak with such pathos, but for me, documentary cinema is very similar to the feelings you have when you fall in love. I fall in love with a person and their story and I want to capture it. I am currently making a movie about my aunt Snezha and my uncle Franz. Their love began in Nessebar in 1967. After many hurdles, they got married and Snezha went to live with Franz in Austria. They have three daughters. Their family life stretches from Vienna through Tehran to Cape Verde, where Franz works. In 1987, they bought a house that they need to pay off, and Franz decided to go on a bicycle trip through Tibet. Despite Snezha's admonitions, he left and never came back. Franz left behind a huge archive of photographs, books and 8mm films, in which he documented his life. In this movie, I join Snezha and Franz in exploring the question: Is it possible to find a good balance between individual longings and the shared needs and desires of the family?
Humble premieres on March 13 at 5:30 pm at the Lumiere Cinema as part of the Sofia Film Fest program.
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