Eastern Plays – Iztochni piesi (2009)

Directed by: Kamen Kalev | 89 minutes | drama | Actors: Christo Christov, Ovanes Torosian, Saadet Aksoy, Nikolina Iancheva, Ivan Nalbantov, Krasimira Demirova, Hatice Aslan, Kerem Atabeyoglu, Alexander Radanov, Angela Nedialkova, Kaloyan Lenkov, Velislav Pavlov, Ivan Penchev

How tragic can life be.

‘Eastern Plays’ revolves around the adventures of the Bulgarian brothers George and Christo. The latter is based on Christo Christov, a childhood friend of director Kamen Kalev. Unable to find a better actor to play Christov’s role, Kalev let his childhood friend play himself. For Christov, the debut immediately turned out to be a swan song; he died in an accident shortly after shooting. He never got to see the movie.

Fortunately for the relatives, Christov left a beautiful debut. In ‘Eastern Plays’ we see how a number of young people are tormented by current and age-old problems: heartbreak, globalization, unemployment, family breakdown and much more. We see how young people deal with these problems and what solutions they come up with. Sometimes those solutions are obvious (the flight into alcohol or right-wing extremism), sometimes a lot less (seeing yourself as a robot that needs to be deprogrammed). Because the characters are not lacking in authenticity, it takes little effort to empathize with them.

The plot construction is less successful. As a panoramic sketch of life in modern Sofia, the film is more than adequate. Then it is a pity that all kinds of plot elements show up that are not worked out. A love story, the birth of an artists’ collective, a football match that gets out of hand, a racist attack, a secret negotiation between a politician and a right-wing extremist activist. While the intent is clear – Kalev uses these events to introduce characters who are yet another piece of the Bulgarian puzzle – it’s frustrating to see a dead end plotline.

‘Eastern Plays’ could have taken an hour longer to finish these plots, because in all other respects it is a successful film. The images of the charming and repulsive Sofia are always atmospheric. The music – original alternative pop music interspersed with grave noise from Bulgarian metal bands – is charming and repulsive at the same time. The acting is decent, with Alexander Radanov making an impression as the creepy Drega and the beautiful Nikolina Iancheva providing (overacted) tragi-comic accents as Christov’s sex buddy Niki. And to emphasize once again how tragic life can be: Lancheva was Christov’s girlfriend at the time of shooting. In that respect ‘Eastern Plays’ should have been called ‘Eastern Tragedies’.