Survival of beauty
What is time?
There is never a single time, not even a single passage of it. Which is the
time we live? This question always emerges as if we were at the mercy of
circumstance, as if we couldn’t act on it in any way. But circumstance is never
the time we live but the way the people around us acts, hiding behind the
common minimum majority, always simpleton, sometimes even cruel.
The recent
edition of L' Alternativa, Festival de
Cinema Independent de Barcelona, thanks to the time and circumstances of
many people, comes each year benefactor and timely as autumn to the blessed CCCB , Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona,
as well as to other spaces such as the Filmoteca de Catalunya and the Institut
Français of Barcelona, led me to memorize a bunch of great cinematographic ways,
although I admit a predilection for the documentary Tzvetanka / Цветанка (Bulgaria / Sweden , 2012) written and directed
by Bulgarian Youlian Tabakov. Many times, own and alien, beautiful the first
ones and mean the second ones, appear on this film which shows the becoming of a
Bulgarian woman, Tzvetanka, who survived three political regimes, from monarchy
to democracy through the dictatorial socialism in its Soviet side, war world
through with its devastating proceeding.
Tzvetanka is a
lively, imaginative, steady, strong woman, whose essence should bring down many
masks of shame, although it is well known that such circumstance does not exist
in our times. She is actually the director's grandmother, born in 1926 into a
bourgeois family which allowed her to attend a privileged school. But her
fortunate condition became a tragedy once the World War ended with the Soviet
occupation of Bulgaria. Her parents were accused of being enemies of the party
and finally imprisoned. Still, she got permission to study medicine at
university. Her working life was tortuous, full of humiliation, but she remained
in the country despite having the opportunity to leave. Her last day of work
was the very day that the dictator fell. The arrival of democracy also brings
new corruption, according to her due to politicians corroded by greed, and
while the new freedom rots she is losing her sight gradually, like fades her
own vital flame.
Her dream was to
be an actress and the movie has finally given her the chance to fulfill it. Her
presence is absolutely fantastic, almost the greatest merit of the film. Filmed
with archival footage and new scenes recorded with Tzvetanka interwoven through
animated sequences, the work gets a lively breath despite its great dramatic
content: a beautiful life trapped in the cruelty of passage of time through times
marked by the fanaticism of many and stupidity of almost everyone.
Tzvetanka / Цветанка | Trailer here
L'Alternativa 2013 | Stills selection exhibition here
Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Youlian Tabakov website www.youliantabakov.com
Photo courtesy of Tabakov Films
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