THE 34th PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAY 14

"eastern plays," bulgaria, dir. kamen kalev

bulgaria is tough stuff. i passed through sofia on a train from istanbul to budapest once, and the attendant in my car warned me that i should be awake for the stop but not get off the train. so i bought a sandwich through the window. things looked rough for the people hanging around the station. "eastern plays" paints an even bleaker picture of post-soviet life in the capital of bulgaria, a country it presents as nearly bereft of opportunity and smoldering with xenophobia. teenage georgi falls in with a group of neo-fascists that attack arabs on the street at the behest of nationalist politicians. his brother christo is a struggling artist and recovering drug addict who makes his livelihood spray-lacquering furniture in a desolate factory. the estranged brothers are reunited in the street after georgi's gang attacks a family of turkish tourists and christo, stumbling drunk, comes to their unlikely rescue. after the incident, christo finds a renewed motivation for art and action in his reconnection with his brother and the time he spends with isil, the daughter of the family he protected. "eastern plays" smacks of 1990s american arthouse cool (or maybe it was just the nu-metal and the wallet chains that had me in that space of mind), but bulgaria was dealing with too many of its own problems in the nineties to worry about keeping up with the vagaries of western bloc art. there were at least a dozen pensive bus ride sequences. but then, maybe it was just the wallet chains. now i'm thinking that "eastern plays" was more like a combination of fatih akın's "edge of heaven" and matteo garrone's "gamorrah." the film also introduces of a soft thread of religious moralism which, however understated, isn't often to be found in art films from around these parts. faith based salvation? pooh-pooh. but how provincializing of me. how cynical and condescending. maybe that's why i sympathized so much with christo (even laughed) when he repeatedly ignored the sobbing entreaties of his ex-girlfriend to get back together, or at least try to be friends. but had he not pushed her away at that restaurant on her birthday, he never would have gotten blitzed and saved the day. apparently, that's the best of the good fight in bulgaria.