“My Heart is an Octopus or my Father on the Shore of the Black sea” Film Screening
17.01.2018 - 17.01.2018
My Heart is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of the Black Sea
January 17, 2018, Wednesday, 7 pm
A video-art film or autobiographical fiction by Neno Belchev. Based on the Bezmer Bagryanov’s novel “My last abstract painting”
Screening in Bulgarian with English subtitles
Neno Belchev has started working on the full-length punk-movie “My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of the Black Sea” (93 minutes) in the beginning of 2014. It took him around two years and a half, because the project is independent, almost no-budget, all expenses have been covered by the author.
One line synopsis: The attempt of a man, who feels as an immigrant in his own homeland, to make a documentary about his father.
About the movie: The structure of this autobiographical fiction reminds of a postmodern novel: fragmented, plotless and chaotic on first sight. Individual pieces can be rearranged and each one of them has its own life. In terms of genre, the film stands on the border between pseudo-documentary, dark comedy, punk (as an attitude) and video-art. The movie uses the expressive means of the documentary; however, it is not a documentary, and it even contains some phantasmagorical and sci-fi elements and criminal moments, which are skillfully combined with grotesque animation and poetic visual language. It aims to bring to life the author’s understanding regarding art and his innovative position of a man, who works with the moving image.
*65 seats available
Long synopsis: The story runs in a hypothetical Balkan country where the communist regime collapsed at the end of the 80-ties, but after few decades it “reincarnated” itself making a contra-revolution. So, more or less, the movie is about the post-communist mentality, despite that the main characters travel a lot around the globe. “My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of Black Sea” examines the problems of the lost-in-the-transition (The word “transition” is used in its meaning of the period, when from totalitarianism system the society moves to a democratic and civil society) generation through the eyes of one of its representatives, but it also touches problems common to all mankind. The main character (middle-aged man) is an immigrant, who comes from a hypothetical Balkan country, where he has returned illegally to make a documentary about his father (known, but forgotten artist from the recent past), and he returned illegally because in his youth he was involved in a bank robbery. All his life, the son has passionately defended his own artistic and creative position, but he has not reached the popularity and success of his parent, and, at the same time, he failed to find his place in society and to cope with the chaos in his personal life. His voice (a voiceover) leads the narrative as a series of comments over the memories about his father by means of which he unobtrusively sets out his understanding of life, art and death. At the same time, he also presents a personal reading of history from the end of the 20th and early 21st century. Likewise, delicately, but slightly ironically, the story juxtaposes the life of the father with his son’s life and presents their relationship, acquainting us with them through the prism of different cultures and temporal contexts.
Producers: VIDEOHOLICA and Neno Belchev
Directing, camera and editing: Neno Belchev
Scenario: Bezmer Bagrianov and Neno Belchev
Sound and music: Martin Evstatiev
Cast in order of their appearance in the film: Pavel Shanov, Neno Belchev, Petar Atanasov, Tsonka Belcheva, Pavlina Mladenova, Radul, Belcho Belchev, Irena Dimitrova, Polina Miltcheva, Petar Kostadinov, Rumen Rashev, Alexi Ivanov, Emil Yovev, Plamen Dimitrov, Mariana Shieverska, Ivan Barakov, Kalin Belchev, Krasimir K. Kostov, Hèléne Sabatini, Milka Judova, Veselin Nachev, Ilina Slavova, Jakub Shieverski
Screenings:
23 November 2017 – VII CINERAMABC – International Film Festival in Balneário Camboriú, Balneário Camboriú, Brazil
28 October 2017 – VIII Sofia Independent FIlm Festival (So Independent), Sofia, Bulgaria
27 October 2017 – VI Fake Flesh Film Fest – International Film Festival in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada 16 October 2017 – 1st Russian (Russky) Film Festival, FIRST PRIZE in category BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM, Moscow, Russia
24 September 2017 – IV Lisbon International Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
22 September 2017 – Hope Film Awards, Texas, USA
4 September 2017 – 12 Months Film Festival, SECOND PRIZE in category BEST FILM, Cluj-Napoca,Romania
17 July 2017 – XXXVIII (38-th) Durban International Film Festival, Durban, South Africa
29 June – 2 July 2017 – 1st International Film Festival of Sever do Vouga LANDSCAPES, Sever do Vouga, Portugal;
2 May 2017 – IV-th Derby International Film Festival 2017, Derby, UK
18 May 2017 – XXIII (23-rd) DIE OF LAUGHING International Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Gabrovo, Bulgaria
17 May 2017 – Whistle Stop Film Festival, Nashville, TN, USA
25 April 2017 – Bulgarian Film Academy Awards, 2017, Sofia, Bulgaria
11 March 2017 – XXI (21-st) Sofia International Film Festival 2017, Sofia, Bulgaria
25 January 2017 – 7-th Yashwant International Film Festival 2017, Mumbai (Bombay), India
16 January 2017 – at the XV (15-th) Pune International Film Festival 2017, Pune, India
24 September 2016 – the premiere at the XXXIV (34-th) National Festival for Bulgarian Feature Films “Zlatna roza” (“Golden Rose”), Varna, Bulgaria
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