The Drunken ship still Sailing "Away from the Shore"
Penko Gospodinov with a strong role in the new film by Kostadin Bonev
Author: Irina Gigova 11:45, the 12th of September 2019
Cinema in the Theater - this is the fundamental formula that builds the fabric of Kostadin Bonev's new film "Away from the Shore", which after several festival shows in Bulgaria, had its Sofia gala premiere on Wednesday night. Theater life as a miniature model of the world and the world as a theater of the absurd are curious storylines to be told and, at the same time, attractive metaphors to which native seventh art has repeatedly addressed with titles such as "Love's Play" by Janusz Vazov (1980), "Madame Bovary from Sliven", "Rhapsody in White" by Teddy Moskov (2002), "While Aya was sleeping" by Tsvetodar Markov (2016), and probably more...
Compared to them, "Away from the Shore" has the most complex structure (it is no coincidence that the director has worked on it for more than 6 years), however it does not display any mannered pretentious style.
After staging a quite bold play that irritated the strong of the day, Sofia based theater director Zlati Bratoev (in a convincing, absorbed, and without unnecessary exultation performance by Penko Gospodinov) was sent to a "creative" exile for 2 years in a provincial theater. There he continues to struggle to realize the performance of his dreams, in which an impostor captain (Stefan Valdobrev) drives a mystical ship madly, moving it in a circle on the high seas, and within his crew he sows fear, suspicions, a mania for pursuit and a sense of looming danger. A frank allegory of methods of power. Bonev's film develops into three levels: on the one hand, there are relationships in the troupe that are not at all easy with this "set bomb" in the repertoire, and on the other hand, there are the relations between the characters in the play, which, as a third level, at some moments emerge from the conventions of art and are transposed into reality amidst the endless vast expanse of sea. The cameramen Konstantin Zankov and Orlin Ruevski have done a wonderful job visually bringing out these different worlds.
The story, based on motifs from Evgeniy Kuzmanov's novel "Seagulls Away from the Shore" is apparently set in a time of stagnation in the shallows of developed Socialism.
But if we exclude some of the characteristic features of the era, such as the calling of artists for "instructions" in the offices of local party greats, art councils in theaters, forcing the weak and the uncomfortable ones to sign declarations of cooperation with the State Security, the story could be read universally. At times, the demonic absurdity in the movie sounds just like George Orwell's "1984". For example, the requirement not to show unhappy people on the stage. Or, at first glance, the inexplicable considerations and factors that stop and then "release" the play... "My only consolation is that there will be nothing left of us," something like that says the theater manager Mihailina Mihailova, who rediscovered her professional and human dignity and brilliantly played by Joreta Nikolova. However, the manipulations of the rulers and the refusal of freedom from the part of the conformists has remained - this is the "public contract" that is rolling in today's hypocritical world.
Bonev has gathered a remarkable acting team in "Away from the Shore": Mariy Rosen, Yoana Bukovska-Davidova, Louisa Grigorova, Svezhen Mladenov, Nikola Dodov, Tanya Shahova, Blagovest Blagoev and others. Tsvetana Maneva and Maya Novoselska are also among the most spectacular solo arias in the ensemble.
Translated by Elizaria Ruskova
