Lachenite obuvki na neznayniya voin (1979) - full transcript
A middle-aged Bulgarian is watching the change of the guard in front of the Buckingham Palace. For no apparent reason, while looking, in his mind he gets back to his childhood in the little Bulgarian village, he grew up in. Different rites, different traditions and still he finds something in common. He recalls the people he knew, he feared or admired. He ponders over that life of no brilliance, where people plough, harvest, marry and die, celebrate or grieve. Miracle are also worked, conceived in a unlimited child's imagination. It is the child's perception of the world that helps us to give a meaning to the major questions of human existence.
BULGARIAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BOYANA
FILM STUDIOS
SREDETZ CREATIVE GROUP 1979
THE UNKNOWN
SOLDIER'S
PATENT LEATHER
SHOES
Director of Photography
RADOSLAV SPASOV
Artist
GEORGUI TODOROV
Costume Designer
ELENA DEMYAKOVA
Music
KIRIL DONCHEV
Edited by
ERMA POPOVA
RODEZIA MILINA
Second Unit Director
MALINA PETROVA
Sound
IVAN VENTSISLAVOV
MONE
Borislav Tsankov
GRANDFATHER DOBRIN
Ivan Stoichkov
GRANDMOTHER SLAVAH
Slavka Ankova
BRIDE
Emilia Mirinska
BLACK UNCLE
Nikolai Velichkov
Editors
SVOBODA BACHVAROVA
MICHAIL KIRKOV
Line producers
ZDRAVKO VATEV
HRISTO BUMBOVSKI
Script and director
RANGEL VALCHANOV
The sequence with myself
in front of the Buckingham Palace
was shot last summer.
But it happened 17 years ago.
I stood by the same iron fence then
and watched the changing of the guard,
dazed by the splendor
of that impressive Great Britain,
that seemed eternal with her traditions.
And as I was gaping,
I pressed the wrong button
"Play" instead of "Rec".
And this song popped up,
this harvest song...
Chance? Probably!
A chance but for so many years now
this song incessantly comes back
into my mind
and together with it my long forgotten
aunts. Their distant voices
took me back to my little country.
To my village... a long time ago...
Besides smells the first lasting
memories were the constant questions
about everything.
The plain - why was it so flat?
The grass - why was it green?
Mum - why is she bad
when she isn't good?
Or the sparrow -
Don't stare - jump into this trap?
The first painful lessons too
and the sad conclusions
about the birds in the hand
and in the bush.
Most numerous were the memories
based on exaggerations.
A simple pond was a lake,
the lake was a huge sea.
So after a shower-just and ordinary one-
the village turned into Venice.
And we were stopped from school
for a long time,
because the desks
were swept away by the river.
Later the sea suddenly disappeared
It disappeared just as it has appeared.
The miracle left here
shows that we once had a sea.
These are my relatives - hundreds of them.
That one with the copper is Granny Slavah.
That's her again!
Little Black Uncle.
Grandpa Dobrin's hands
Aunt Vassilka's...
Aunt Vena's, Stana's...
My father.
Now don't be scared!
It's all right.
It's all right, we can eat it!
Don't you see it's all poisoned
and we're to eat it!
Don't you see it's no good!
It's because of the leeches it's bad.
To poison my family! Never!
Don't even think about this!
Throw it!
Throw it away, women..
We spent the whole day catching it!
Why do they throw it in the street?
And as it's a street it has to be a street.
Now Grandma Slavah has stolen a fish!
Dogs don't eat fish. But that moonlit
night they did. And had a feast...
All of us hundred relatives slept
in one room. On top of each other.
After a time they'd push us children
into the middle of the room.
Not to interfere with various things.
So that they could talk...
Grandpa's coughing. Why?
What's he hiding?
They don't talk at the back anyway.
Plague on you!
Who told you to burn the house down?
I ask you... Get out of here!
Granny wants to set the house on fire
and Grandpa's saving it.
We were used to this scene,
it happened every Friday.
We children felt a pleasant fear
knowing that Grandpa would save us.
This memory's linked with "why?".
Why does Granny want to burn the house
so that we all burn?
When you used to come back from
the army - one child and one more...
But you can't any more!
- You dirty bitch!
God, he'll kill me!
I was killed, oh, God, I was killed!
On Fridays Grandma used to go
to the field. She picked various herbs
from under the snow and used to sell
them to Embassies for empty bottles.
Not money, only bottles.
She used to bring them to the village
and exchange them for various coins
of different ages.
She used to say:
"When I grow old
who knows which money will be good?"
Sleep, my baby, sleep!
It was dark because the dog ate my eye.
That's it! - That was it
but I was proud and bandaged,
and my relatives fainted with horror.
Only little Black Uncle didn't,
but later I any way gouged out
both his eyes for another thing.
The dog ran away ashamed
because he ate me up for no reason.
And so I decided:
I won't talk to you any more!
And if this isn't a lie...!
Now it'll die, it's guilty!
Grandpa used to say:
"Learn from a dog and not from a man".
Of course my eye got well
all of a sudden.
Too bad the dog died of shame,
too bad...
It's a holiday today!
My youngest Black Uncle's getting married.
So Grandpa and Granny
had to seat together.
Grandpa, why didn't you
give Uncle any money?
Who put so much salt?
You all hung around the fire -
it's your doing!
Look, a tear!
Mum! Whenever you're having fun
somebody's bound to box your ears.
God! What happened?
- I died - that's what happened!
If only I could be dead
for the rest of my life!
You're sorry, eh?
Why do you beat me then, why?
I'll grow up and I'll kill you
like a leech.
It came to my mind and I said it.
I'll grow up and I'll kill you
like a leech.
You want some more?
Some more, ah?
But if I die again, then you'll see!
Come on, eat now!
Black Uncle's getting married.
That's why they've forgotten about you.
If you only knew how lovely
and white my new aunt is!
You'll eat here
for they may kill you in the yard!
Mum nearly killed me before.
At a wedding, they fight, kill and eat,
you understand this?
Look! They're shouting
'cause they've had enough.
If only there were a wedding every day!
Yes, but who'd take you out grazing?
I know a wedding can't graze!
What if the wedding could graze...
Granny Slavah
had stolen something again!
This chest's everything for Granny.
She hides money, brandy, sugar in it.
And on this very chest long time ago when
Grandpa used to come back from war...
God! So many children!
Who's going to look after them!?
God's punishment!?
Twenty-two, twenty-three...
What?
What is it?
You're crazy or what?
Go back to your homes.
War is over.
Go back and look after your children!
"And so the war ended
to our great surprise,
that dangerous war.
First World War, European one.
There were many dead... fallen,
dead, dead and wounded
on these battlefields
for seven long years...
Everybody's rejoicing, kissing,
heading for home to see little children,
to wipe a bride's tears,
their bride's tears, and comfort them."
Go to...
You, devil, you've spilt the flour!
Out! Off with you! Get off my way!
I'm not on your way,
I'm on the oven's way!
You still hate me.
I hate you too!
Let it go, you, little devil!
Granny, why do you steal?
Off with you, you, brute!
Thief!
If he's bad and dies
let him turn into a black bird.
If the murderer's bad and they shoot him
let'im turn into two black birds!
One and two makes three.
How strange!
Somebody was murdered, but nobody cried!
See, Granny is laughing...
Strange!
May be this murder took place
some other time, at another wedding!?
I seem to have got mixed up.
Yeah, that's it. I wish that was it.
I wish these
songs and dances never end
and they never stop kissing their hands.
And for auntie to be a bride forever,
with flowers and gold coins on her head.
"Stoyan was taken in the army
at the Turkish border.
But since his bride is still young
he is sorry to leave her.
He's even sorrier to take her along..."
Mone, are you asleep?
No, I was looking at the war.
To your health!
To your health, young man!
Hey man, cheers! Be healthy and strong,
become a man like me!
Have a little!
- I won't.
Let's see whether you're man or not.
Have some, then you'll sing a song.
Cheers!
- Let's see how you drink! Bravo!
Who does he take after?
- I don't know.
Laugh if you want to.
But since I'm a man,
listen carefully.
And three... and four...
"A prisoner's mother is weeping
in front of Sofia's City Prison...
And as she weeps, she laments:
Come out, my son, my son, Dimiter!"
Why aren't you laughing now!
"A voice is heard through the thick walls:
I cannot come out, oh mother, dear.
The damned Director has locked me up!"
I felt sorry and proud, to have made
these old people cry with my song.
You were the soldier in the song!
This wedding has no end,
I'm sick of it!
I had promised to gouge out
both your eyes, remember? Take this!
Where did the wedding disappear?
Has auntie gone too?
Thank God, the wedding's here!
They're drawing water from the well
for auntie,not for uncle,but for auntie!
To water the street for her health,for...
What are you looking at me for?
I gouged out both your eyes.
Auntie! White auntie...
At last Granny set the house on fire
and all my relatives burned with it,
and my white auntie with them.
Grandpa, say something!
Grandpa!
My lovely little auntie burned out!
Auntie...
Grandpa!
Grandpa! Say something!
Say anything you want!
Auntie,is that you? How did you come in?
Are you going to bed? Good night, then.
"So the house was burned.
And with it
all my relatives turned to ashes.
Only Mone was left,
poor little orphan,
young and miserable.
All alone he came
to the big city of Sofia
to fetch black shoes,
beautiful patent leather shoes!"
Buy the song-book to read
what happened to the poor orphan.
Take it! Buy this song-book!
"What miracle has happened
in the big city of Sofia
that everyone's so excited?
Everyone's shouting and singing
'cause a new war's beginning,
a war with many bells.
Bells in golden domes.
A general draws his sword...
and asks his army:
"Shall we all go to war?"
"We will, of course we will!"
And again he draws his sword...
Do you want to go to war?
We want, of course we do!
And Mone was very happy that he'd go
to war too, in his patent leather shoes,
lovely patent leather shoes.
Back he went to his village
to tell his Grandpa the story
of the miracle that had happened
in the big city of Sofia."
And what a war it was!
When they started shooting...
And the soldiers from Sofia
shouted ow, ow.
Grandpa, if you'd just seen
the gold church!
Look, eh! And there was a boot as big as
a house, and small ones to fit a mouse.
There were people driving cars,
and the women were with bare backs,
and the men held their hands.
It seems that while I was away Grandpa had
died for he kept quiet with open eyes.
And I had gone nowhere.
And the war was only a song I thought
of, just to bring Grandpa back to life.
To make him say something,
no matter what.
A hundred years must've passed
because Grandpa shrank.
Become as big as I was.
And because he was still silent
I knew that I had to bury him,
even more since today's Sunday.
Look, Granny's still alive,
she surely came to steal Grandpa.
Granny!
Granny!
Granny!
Only the goat and I went to the funeral.
The whole village was at a wedding
and so much the better.
I'd have been ashamed of people
for Grandpa has shrunk so much.
Auntie, is that you?
Grandpa died, that's it.
Take some so that God may let
his soul rest in peace.
I went to Sofia. I went to war too.
But it's a pity Grandpa died!
But... he... was like that for a hundred years.
Auntie! I want to tell you...
Auntie, come back, Auntie!
"Well, there's no mountain
higher than Vitosha.
Well, there's no river
deeper than Iskar.
Well, there's no city
bigger than Sofia.
Well, there's no place
better than ours.
Well, there's no place
better than ours."
There isn't but there isn't Auntie either.
There isn't Grandpa!
I'll wait for them here till I grow old.
Well, that's all. Just a song,
but the past comes and goes,
comes and goes...
The memories of a child,
that wonderful army
I was telling you about.
Always ready to help
when we're threatened.
And what's there
that doesn't threaten us!
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BOYANA
FILM STUDIOS
SREDETZ CREATIVE GROUP 1979
THE UNKNOWN
SOLDIER'S
PATENT LEATHER
SHOES
Director of Photography
RADOSLAV SPASOV
Artist
GEORGUI TODOROV
Costume Designer
ELENA DEMYAKOVA
Music
KIRIL DONCHEV
Edited by
ERMA POPOVA
RODEZIA MILINA
Second Unit Director
MALINA PETROVA
Sound
IVAN VENTSISLAVOV
MONE
Borislav Tsankov
GRANDFATHER DOBRIN
Ivan Stoichkov
GRANDMOTHER SLAVAH
Slavka Ankova
BRIDE
Emilia Mirinska
BLACK UNCLE
Nikolai Velichkov
Editors
SVOBODA BACHVAROVA
MICHAIL KIRKOV
Line producers
ZDRAVKO VATEV
HRISTO BUMBOVSKI
Script and director
RANGEL VALCHANOV
The sequence with myself
in front of the Buckingham Palace
was shot last summer.
But it happened 17 years ago.
I stood by the same iron fence then
and watched the changing of the guard,
dazed by the splendor
of that impressive Great Britain,
that seemed eternal with her traditions.
And as I was gaping,
I pressed the wrong button
"Play" instead of "Rec".
And this song popped up,
this harvest song...
Chance? Probably!
A chance but for so many years now
this song incessantly comes back
into my mind
and together with it my long forgotten
aunts. Their distant voices
took me back to my little country.
To my village... a long time ago...
Besides smells the first lasting
memories were the constant questions
about everything.
The plain - why was it so flat?
The grass - why was it green?
Mum - why is she bad
when she isn't good?
Or the sparrow -
Don't stare - jump into this trap?
The first painful lessons too
and the sad conclusions
about the birds in the hand
and in the bush.
Most numerous were the memories
based on exaggerations.
A simple pond was a lake,
the lake was a huge sea.
So after a shower-just and ordinary one-
the village turned into Venice.
And we were stopped from school
for a long time,
because the desks
were swept away by the river.
Later the sea suddenly disappeared
It disappeared just as it has appeared.
The miracle left here
shows that we once had a sea.
These are my relatives - hundreds of them.
That one with the copper is Granny Slavah.
That's her again!
Little Black Uncle.
Grandpa Dobrin's hands
Aunt Vassilka's...
Aunt Vena's, Stana's...
My father.
Now don't be scared!
It's all right.
It's all right, we can eat it!
Don't you see it's all poisoned
and we're to eat it!
Don't you see it's no good!
It's because of the leeches it's bad.
To poison my family! Never!
Don't even think about this!
Throw it!
Throw it away, women..
We spent the whole day catching it!
Why do they throw it in the street?
And as it's a street it has to be a street.
Now Grandma Slavah has stolen a fish!
Dogs don't eat fish. But that moonlit
night they did. And had a feast...
All of us hundred relatives slept
in one room. On top of each other.
After a time they'd push us children
into the middle of the room.
Not to interfere with various things.
So that they could talk...
Grandpa's coughing. Why?
What's he hiding?
They don't talk at the back anyway.
Plague on you!
Who told you to burn the house down?
I ask you... Get out of here!
Granny wants to set the house on fire
and Grandpa's saving it.
We were used to this scene,
it happened every Friday.
We children felt a pleasant fear
knowing that Grandpa would save us.
This memory's linked with "why?".
Why does Granny want to burn the house
so that we all burn?
When you used to come back from
the army - one child and one more...
But you can't any more!
- You dirty bitch!
God, he'll kill me!
I was killed, oh, God, I was killed!
On Fridays Grandma used to go
to the field. She picked various herbs
from under the snow and used to sell
them to Embassies for empty bottles.
Not money, only bottles.
She used to bring them to the village
and exchange them for various coins
of different ages.
She used to say:
"When I grow old
who knows which money will be good?"
Sleep, my baby, sleep!
It was dark because the dog ate my eye.
That's it! - That was it
but I was proud and bandaged,
and my relatives fainted with horror.
Only little Black Uncle didn't,
but later I any way gouged out
both his eyes for another thing.
The dog ran away ashamed
because he ate me up for no reason.
And so I decided:
I won't talk to you any more!
And if this isn't a lie...!
Now it'll die, it's guilty!
Grandpa used to say:
"Learn from a dog and not from a man".
Of course my eye got well
all of a sudden.
Too bad the dog died of shame,
too bad...
It's a holiday today!
My youngest Black Uncle's getting married.
So Grandpa and Granny
had to seat together.
Grandpa, why didn't you
give Uncle any money?
Who put so much salt?
You all hung around the fire -
it's your doing!
Look, a tear!
Mum! Whenever you're having fun
somebody's bound to box your ears.
God! What happened?
- I died - that's what happened!
If only I could be dead
for the rest of my life!
You're sorry, eh?
Why do you beat me then, why?
I'll grow up and I'll kill you
like a leech.
It came to my mind and I said it.
I'll grow up and I'll kill you
like a leech.
You want some more?
Some more, ah?
But if I die again, then you'll see!
Come on, eat now!
Black Uncle's getting married.
That's why they've forgotten about you.
If you only knew how lovely
and white my new aunt is!
You'll eat here
for they may kill you in the yard!
Mum nearly killed me before.
At a wedding, they fight, kill and eat,
you understand this?
Look! They're shouting
'cause they've had enough.
If only there were a wedding every day!
Yes, but who'd take you out grazing?
I know a wedding can't graze!
What if the wedding could graze...
Granny Slavah
had stolen something again!
This chest's everything for Granny.
She hides money, brandy, sugar in it.
And on this very chest long time ago when
Grandpa used to come back from war...
God! So many children!
Who's going to look after them!?
God's punishment!?
Twenty-two, twenty-three...
What?
What is it?
You're crazy or what?
Go back to your homes.
War is over.
Go back and look after your children!
"And so the war ended
to our great surprise,
that dangerous war.
First World War, European one.
There were many dead... fallen,
dead, dead and wounded
on these battlefields
for seven long years...
Everybody's rejoicing, kissing,
heading for home to see little children,
to wipe a bride's tears,
their bride's tears, and comfort them."
Go to...
You, devil, you've spilt the flour!
Out! Off with you! Get off my way!
I'm not on your way,
I'm on the oven's way!
You still hate me.
I hate you too!
Let it go, you, little devil!
Granny, why do you steal?
Off with you, you, brute!
Thief!
If he's bad and dies
let him turn into a black bird.
If the murderer's bad and they shoot him
let'im turn into two black birds!
One and two makes three.
How strange!
Somebody was murdered, but nobody cried!
See, Granny is laughing...
Strange!
May be this murder took place
some other time, at another wedding!?
I seem to have got mixed up.
Yeah, that's it. I wish that was it.
I wish these
songs and dances never end
and they never stop kissing their hands.
And for auntie to be a bride forever,
with flowers and gold coins on her head.
"Stoyan was taken in the army
at the Turkish border.
But since his bride is still young
he is sorry to leave her.
He's even sorrier to take her along..."
Mone, are you asleep?
No, I was looking at the war.
To your health!
To your health, young man!
Hey man, cheers! Be healthy and strong,
become a man like me!
Have a little!
- I won't.
Let's see whether you're man or not.
Have some, then you'll sing a song.
Cheers!
- Let's see how you drink! Bravo!
Who does he take after?
- I don't know.
Laugh if you want to.
But since I'm a man,
listen carefully.
And three... and four...
"A prisoner's mother is weeping
in front of Sofia's City Prison...
And as she weeps, she laments:
Come out, my son, my son, Dimiter!"
Why aren't you laughing now!
"A voice is heard through the thick walls:
I cannot come out, oh mother, dear.
The damned Director has locked me up!"
I felt sorry and proud, to have made
these old people cry with my song.
You were the soldier in the song!
This wedding has no end,
I'm sick of it!
I had promised to gouge out
both your eyes, remember? Take this!
Where did the wedding disappear?
Has auntie gone too?
Thank God, the wedding's here!
They're drawing water from the well
for auntie,not for uncle,but for auntie!
To water the street for her health,for...
What are you looking at me for?
I gouged out both your eyes.
Auntie! White auntie...
At last Granny set the house on fire
and all my relatives burned with it,
and my white auntie with them.
Grandpa, say something!
Grandpa!
My lovely little auntie burned out!
Auntie...
Grandpa!
Grandpa! Say something!
Say anything you want!
Auntie,is that you? How did you come in?
Are you going to bed? Good night, then.
"So the house was burned.
And with it
all my relatives turned to ashes.
Only Mone was left,
poor little orphan,
young and miserable.
All alone he came
to the big city of Sofia
to fetch black shoes,
beautiful patent leather shoes!"
Buy the song-book to read
what happened to the poor orphan.
Take it! Buy this song-book!
"What miracle has happened
in the big city of Sofia
that everyone's so excited?
Everyone's shouting and singing
'cause a new war's beginning,
a war with many bells.
Bells in golden domes.
A general draws his sword...
and asks his army:
"Shall we all go to war?"
"We will, of course we will!"
And again he draws his sword...
Do you want to go to war?
We want, of course we do!
And Mone was very happy that he'd go
to war too, in his patent leather shoes,
lovely patent leather shoes.
Back he went to his village
to tell his Grandpa the story
of the miracle that had happened
in the big city of Sofia."
And what a war it was!
When they started shooting...
And the soldiers from Sofia
shouted ow, ow.
Grandpa, if you'd just seen
the gold church!
Look, eh! And there was a boot as big as
a house, and small ones to fit a mouse.
There were people driving cars,
and the women were with bare backs,
and the men held their hands.
It seems that while I was away Grandpa had
died for he kept quiet with open eyes.
And I had gone nowhere.
And the war was only a song I thought
of, just to bring Grandpa back to life.
To make him say something,
no matter what.
A hundred years must've passed
because Grandpa shrank.
Become as big as I was.
And because he was still silent
I knew that I had to bury him,
even more since today's Sunday.
Look, Granny's still alive,
she surely came to steal Grandpa.
Granny!
Granny!
Granny!
Only the goat and I went to the funeral.
The whole village was at a wedding
and so much the better.
I'd have been ashamed of people
for Grandpa has shrunk so much.
Auntie, is that you?
Grandpa died, that's it.
Take some so that God may let
his soul rest in peace.
I went to Sofia. I went to war too.
But it's a pity Grandpa died!
But... he... was like that for a hundred years.
Auntie! I want to tell you...
Auntie, come back, Auntie!
"Well, there's no mountain
higher than Vitosha.
Well, there's no river
deeper than Iskar.
Well, there's no city
bigger than Sofia.
Well, there's no place
better than ours.
Well, there's no place
better than ours."
There isn't but there isn't Auntie either.
There isn't Grandpa!
I'll wait for them here till I grow old.
Well, that's all. Just a song,
but the past comes and goes,
comes and goes...
The memories of a child,
that wonderful army
I was telling you about.
Always ready to help
when we're threatened.
And what's there
that doesn't threaten us!