"Klas Film" " Sofia, Budapest Filmstúdió" " Budapest, ...and Phanta Vision Film International B.V." " Amsterdam" "present" "a film by Iglika Trifonova" "a European coproduction with the support of" "Eurimages, National Film Centre, Hungarian Fund for Motion Picture, ZDF/arte" "in a coproduction with" "Boyana Film Bulgarian National Television" "In memory of my grandmother" "United States of America, New York, Time Square 12 September, 1998" "3 minutes to 9pm" "I'm here, I stepped on this land." "I'm here for 63 days already." "Travelling, immigration office, everything went fine." "I arrived in New York at dawn." "I had no idea where I'm going to sleep." "But I was relaxed, it's a great feeling." "I didn't call before I came here, because I don't like to be seen off." "Moreover, I know you don't like to see off either." "So don't swear at me, Ivan." "Filip Avramov" "Ana Papadopulu" "Petar Antonov" "Smile!" "Where did you take that from?" "Kamen sent it for you." "The guy's wondering how are you doing." "You don't answer him, you don't write to him..." "Now I'm filming you and I'll send it to America." "Say hello?" "!" "Come on..." "A LETTER to America" "Hello?" "It's for you." "Hello?" "The guy's talking to me in English." "Can you turn on the lights, please?" "producers:" "Rositsa Valkanova, Petra Goedings, and László Kántor" "Kamen was knocked down by a car, he's in coma." "A woman knocked him down while he was going home from rehearsals yesterday." "His neighbour called, he said you are his best friend and should go immediately." "I think that was all, he left his phone number." "writer and director Iglika Trifonova" "Maybe you should go..." "Seichi... or Seiji, Seiji Dakamato." "This man called, I'm sure." "I want to know..." "I need to know..." "Especially now..." "Do you still love him?" "That was your decision, wasn't it?" "I'd like to introduce you to some people." "Evaua, peech..." "Evala, pich!" "(Well done, man!" ")" "Have a nice day... tvorcheski uspehi (artistic successes)!" "He's absolutely alone and he's in coma Look, I need to go there." "I don't want to emigrate at all, How can I explain this to you..." "It finished very quickly, I thought it will take you the whole day." "Here you are." "Don't fall to pieces, please!" "I started rehearsals." "Can you imagine that?" "And I'm happy and very scared." "In my thoughts I'm talking with you." "I want you to see this play and not be ashamed of me." "I'll play my grandmother's song." "The one that says ...that life goes like a shadow." "Do you remember it?" "I wanted you to see my whiskers." "We have to take into consideration what women want." "The other day Seiji told me a haiku." "A great one, for love and death." "I can't translate it, but I have the feeling I knew it for a long time." "The Japanese are good in this." "Aren't they?" "Do you remember?" "Life goes like a shadow." "Do you know what I just did?" "I turned on the camera you gave me." "I'm doing this for the first time." "But this is the only way we can communicate because they don't let me come over there." "I can't understand how come from so many people in New York ...her majesty Death has chosen exactly you." "She must be beautiful, right?" "Ask her, ask her everything you want to know." "And remember it, because I'll ask you for quotes." "I know I haven't written to you in a while." "But you'll wake up and forgive me, you hear?" "I was very bad..." "I don't like talking, stopped writing..." "I wonder how can Nina put up with me." "I can't understand what is she doing with me." "It's fucked up." "You wouldn't desert me, you wouldn't go without saying bye, would you, motherfucker?" "Damn..." "I can't remember it!" "Where are you going?" "Keep sleeping." "St. John the Forerunner." "I thought he was St. John the Baptist." "What do you do?" "Nothing at the moment." "Some time ago I was a writer." "St. John the Forerunner and St. John the Baptist are one and the same person." "I'm a restorer, Nevena..." "Nevena Galabova." "What genre do you write in?" "I don't know what genre is..." "I'm not interested in this." "I think only writing real things." "Something that chokes you, something that grinds you." "What do you think is the genre of..." "Life goes like a shadow." "Who wrote this verse?" "It's folklore." "Oh!" "Folklore?" "That's a totally different matter." "There are very different energies." "I'm also an admirer of authentic folklore." "Here in our lands many years ago there was a song ...which could bring life back to the dead." "And once somebody sung it to his beloved to bring love back to her heart." "And people were punished ever since then." "Some forgot the lyrics, others the melody." "And they lost their ability to bring life back to the dead." "And I think this is the base of the myth of Orpheus." "Can I make you a portrait?" "I have a camera over here." "Of me?" "Yes!" "Would it bother you?" "No, but I don't look good on photos." "Otherwise I don't mind." "You can write a story about the old restorer with ...her old Lada and telling the myth about Orpheus." "What am I supposed to do?" "Just be yourself." "It's quite hard to be yourself when somebody is looking at you." "When I saw you on the road I said "Here's a man who knows where he's going"." "Don't!" "Sorry, I'm just making a video..." "What are you?" "I write books, that's what I do." "I'm headed to a village to look for a song." "The grandmother of a friend of mine knows it." "...it's great, the song I mean." "Some people brought life back to the dead with songs." "I hate this sort of bullshit!" "What kind of people are you?" "How can a man go wander around to look for a song?" "!" "I worked really hard, sometimes I haven't had sleep for 50 hours." "Sometimes 52 hours!" "When they put me in the grave one day, please don't bugger me." "Come on, please don't bugger me at least there." "A relative of mine was a tough guy." "Here's where we worked together." "It will be a year soon..." "He built a house." "Almost time for an opening party with family and friends ...the roof fell off and he died instantly." "God bless him, only 33 years old." "Died in minutes." "No, my man, there's no song, no nothing which can bring life back to him." "That's why while you're alive, you should do whatever you can." "And in the end if you can relax a little and enjoy life..." "And if you want to sing, just sing." "There are no songs in after life." "Remember I told you that!" "How many more kilometres till Sandanski?" "But we already passed Sandanski, are you sleeping?" "Could you stop so I can get off?" "Sure, but only after we climb the hill." "Look, I have to get off." "No problem, but only after we climb the hill." "Hello." "Hello, madam." "Where can I drink some water?" "Where are you from and where are you going to?" "I'm from Sofia, I came here by accident." "I was with a truck, but missed my junction." "This morning I headed towards a village." "There are no cars passing by here." "How many kilometres?" "Not much, should be around 18 kilometres." "I have a bottle of water here, you can have some." "It's good water, it's from a spring." "I am taking these loaves of bread to the elderly ...because we are very few and there is nobody to bring them bread." "What are you going to do there..." "Are there people?" "I don't know, it's the first time I'm going there." "Are you buying a house?" "No, I'm not." "Because in some regions people buy lots of houses." "In our region nobody buys any houses, everybody ...left his house and went to other countries." "Yes, we became very few." "Drink, drink." "You can have all of" "I was very thirsty..." "But they will come back." "I don't think so... sometimes I think yes, sometimes no, but things are getting only worse." "As if you are being punished." "I understand if you are guilty, but..." "a whole region being guilty..." "I got to go now." "Thanks for the water." "It's from the mountains." "You seem not to be going to this" "There is a shortcut." "You take the slopes there, then through the fields ...and in 2, maximum 3 hours, you will be there." "It's very steep, but it's shorter and quicker." "This is a camera." "Would you allow me to film you?" "Just the way you are, with the bread." "Me?" "I feel deeply shy." "You can film the background around us." "Around here it is very depressing, and you are smiling." "I really want a friend of mine to see you." "The place is like that, but I'm not giving up." "My name is Dafina." "I'm from the Skrebetno village." "I have been working for the Bulgarian National Railways." "When I reach the tree, you can start." "My name is Ivan!" "A metro station." "I go here every day." "See how many people." "And they're always in a rush." "Where are they going?" "It seems they know." "And where am I going?" "Where are we going?" "We're in a rush, we're moving, but is this really important?" "It's strange that I feel lonely among so many people." "Hi Ivan!" "This song can bring life back to me if I'm dead." "It's a very powerful song!" "For love!" "I have been a victim of love many times." "I like love a lot, and want it too." "But somehow she doesn't want me." "I am single." "Lonely, never convicted, and single." "There was such a song..." "The song that you're after..." "are you showing it on TV?" "I need it for something else." "I've always wanted to be shown on TV." "That's not a problem, I know some people there." "I want to, but I'm scared to do it." "Have you seen the programme about the lonely hearts?" "People like me... who're looking for their other half." "Yes, I have." "If only you could film me and show me on TV..." "What do you think, is it possible?" "No problem, just stop when we reach the hill, because the tractor is too loud." "It's ok here." "Great, you're like an actor!" "My name is Belo Taskov, I drive a tractor, 34 year old, served in the military, single ...and I can provide for myself." "I live in a nice, beautiful place." "I live with my mother and sister." "My sister is a little bit sick, so I take care of her." "We have a house with a garden, ten sheep, eight goats and a cow." "All sorts of milk!" "I hope a woman with a lonely heart will call me after this video." "She could have a kid... children." "I will take care of her and she should give me joy and love." "It was very real." "Very good." "When I get back home, I will give it to the television." "I shouldn't have said this thing about my sister." "They might be repulsed, a sick person at home..." "No, in this way they'll know what sort of person you are." "And besides, you make the rules, you're a man, aren't you?" "Plus, this way you'll know that whoever calls you ...she likes you the way you are." "Really, if you start lying to each other from the very beginning... it becomes like hell!" "Let it be that way, what about being lonely?" "I can't go this way, because the road up there is damaged." "But if you take that way over there, the village should be close." "It means somebody died." "Take some." "Whom are you looking for?" "I'm looking for Kamen's grandmother." "She went with the first women down to the river." "Go and you'll catch her." "Come on, putting gold in his coffin?" "!" "The bagpipe is worth as much as gold." "You should put everything in a coffin that is dearest to the dead." "We should put the bagpipe in the coffin." "A bagpipe needs to be blown, it requires a living person!" "What do you want, boy?" "Are you making fun of us?" "Who, me?" "No, it's just interesting how you talk." "What do you think about the bagpipe?" "There's some truth in both positions." "On one hand, it's nice to put favourite objects in a coffin." "This comes from old times when people believed in after life." "But on the other hand, keeping the bagpipe for somebody else ...might have been the wish of the deceased." "We're talking about the bagpipe here." "And I didn't get anything from what you said." "You can't support both sides." "The truth is, man either believes or doesn't." "Anything else is just talking." "You might be educated, but you're stupid." "Come on, let the boy be." "You're more stupid, you couldn't sign your name." "Yes, you couldn't sign your name!" "I'm looking for Kamen's grandmother." "Here she is!" "It will be ready soon." "So you can't remember the song?" "No, I can't remember." "Can I film you, then so Kamen can see you." "Kamen to see me?" "Yes." "He'll probably be happy." "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." "Honour thy father and thy mother." "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not covet your neighbour's house ...nor male or female slave, nor ox, nor donkey." "Tell him something more, he needs it." "Listen to me, son." "Come back home and we will prepare ...a warm loaf of bread, just the way you like it." "Why didn't you listen to your grandmother, you went so far away and I can't see you now." "Will your grandmother be alive by the time you come back?" "Your grandmother." "I'll send it over to Kamen in America." "What for?" "In America?" "Well, Kamen is in America, right?" "My Kamen is not in America, he's in prison." "But..." "The grandmother of Kamen who went to America ...his grandmother died eight months ago." "Her name was Mitra, and I am Maya." "Hold on." "The dough is ready." "Go look for grandmother Kalya." "She was friends with grandmother Mitra." "Where can I find grandmother Kalya?" "This way!" "Pour some rakia for our deceased, God bless him!" "They're slashing the Death." "They are relatives of the bagpiper." "They're putting his clothes in the water to wash Death off ...and then they slash her with the sickle so that she doesn't come back in the house." "Kamen!" "A director in America?" "!" "Are you serious?" "I wanted to work in the same area... an artist!" "But they didn't accept me." "I applied four years in a row ...with a very good monologue!" "Do you want to hear it?" "Spit rain, burp wind." "Let's drink for welcome." "For welcome." "So you don't know this song?" "I don't." "Grandmother Mitra knew it, but she died, God bless her!" "We were both widows, we lived together, in ...good and bad times, we were happy and sad..." "But this had its end too, so I had to go forward." "You haven't been anywhere else?" "No, I like it here... it is very nice!" "God bless her." "God bless her." "Does anybody else know this song?" "Well, son, I don't know it.." "maybe the teacher could know it." "Well, I'm off." "You can go, but first have a rakia." "For health!" "For health!" "I'll sing you a song." "What song?" "No, it's not this one." "I've sung this song as a child." "The visitors were holding their breaths." "I was touched that I made them cry." "In other words, that I was a great singer." "Now I know ...that they were crying because they realised youth was gone." "With coming of age, man starts to realise some things." "When time will come to realise some things, but not all things." "Far from all." "What do you do for living?" "A reporter?" "No, a writer." "A writer?" "Wow..." "This is not a profession, this is vocation." "Literature and art are the biggest achievements of mankind." "What sort of books do you write?" "Prose or poetry?" "Prose but I'd like it to sound like like poetry." "Tough choice." "I'm writing a new book now, it's about people's fear of death and fullness." "I hope it will be real." "Let's drink for life and health." "Yes, for life and health." "Now go and look for grandmother Rusa." "She is a wonderful grandmother!" "Grandmother Rusa?" "Is grandmother Rusa here?" "Come on in." "You can wait for her inside." "So you are a singer?" "No, it's the lyrics I need most." "The lyrics of a countryside song?" "Yes, it's quite important for me..." "Hm... could be, but not very likely..." "Is grandmother Rusa coming any time soon?" "Yes, she should be here soon." "Nice to meet you, Ilka." "Ivan." "Nice to meet you too." "Can I borrow you a cigarette?" "I don't have any." "What a pity." "Here in this village there is nobody to join you for a cigarette and coffee." "They don't really like the fact that I'm smoking." "I'm from the city, my husband brought me here." "I met him when he was a soldier, I was really young." "So... well, we came here." "And instead of going down to the city ...he moved even higher, he's got a pen with my father in law, they've got some sheep there." "And I stay here with the children." "But when I get depressed ...I eat some honey, they call me the honey daughter in law here." "At least we have lots of honey." "Actually, would you like some?" "Have you got a girlfriend?" "Yes." "Maybe you are at odds with her?" "No." "Is she beautiful?" "Very much!" "Long hair, slender, dark eyes..." "I think she wanted to live in America." "But she stayed here." "And I don't know if she is happy." "Her name is Nina." "Well, America..." "I also dreamt about America and Paris." "But if your Nina is not happy, it's not because of America." "It must be something else." "Are you maybe jealous?" "I saw you when you were making a video at the graveyard." "Somebody was going to make a video of me at my prom, but..." "I didn't graduate." "I can make a video of you now, while we're waiting for grandmother Rusa." "Really?" "Now?" "Yes." "Should I change?" "No, it's ok like that too." "We should go out, because it is very dark here." "Sure." "Is grandmother Rusa coming soon?" "She is at the pen." "And is she coming, or...?" "Sometimes they stay with months up there." "Do you know where grandmother Rusa's pen is?" "Come on, you can make a new one." "What's your name?" "You're not giving away your name, are you?" "I'm asking because I'm writing a book and I'm thinking about adding you as a character." "You're going to be the captain of a ship... a big one!" "How about that?" "See you." "Is this your kid?" "He's a neighbour of ours." "Why is he not talking, is he mute?" "That's the way he was brought to life." "What are you doing in our village?" "I'm a friend of the deceased grandmother Mitra's Kamen." "Do you know him?" "Kamen?" "Sure, I remember him as a kid." "Where is he now?" "In America." "That's good." "And what are you looking for here?" "I'm looking for a song." "Grandmother Mitra sang it." "A song?" "I can sing one for you." "Can I film you?" "Sure, why not?" "Are you looking at the cross?" "In our region we put it in this way so that women give birth to pious children" "Should I start singing?" "That's it." "I'll send it to Kamen." "Hello Kamen, it's Petra, son." "You probably don't remember me." "It's been a long time, you don't come around any more." "You must be an important person since you are in America now." "We are still here, son, our days pass by here ...and we will all pass away whenever our destiny is to." "I have a very important request, Kamen." "Write a few sentences, put them in an envelope and ...send them to me, Petra." "I'd really love that, because..." "I have no children, God cursed me." "I'm all alone, it's just me." "But you be alive and healthy, Kamen." "God looks after everything else." "Everything, America..." "Come on boy, give me a break." "Turn off that thing." "Together with my old man." "Come on." "Make a video." "Sit here." "He's younger than me, but that was his destiny." "Even dogs haven't seen what we've been through in our lives." "You've children, you're trying to figure out how to dress them up, how to feed them." "Kids are good by nature, but everyone went somewhere, someone here, someone there and now nobody comes to visit me." "I have no cat nor mouse either." "So you are not afraid of death?" "No, I'm not." "I'm afraid of the living ones, you don't know what to expect of them." "Yes, I'm afraid of the living ones." "You cannot die whenever you want." "Man is stronger than wood and stone." "Sad or not, I'm still going forward." "What is your name?" "Velika Atanasova, wife of Atanas Degov." "And how old are you?" "Eighty six." "I'm done." "Do you think there is something like after life?" "Maybe there is, but who knows?" "Nobody came back from there to tell us that it's good or bad there." "I wonder what does it mean when I'm dreaming about him?" "That's everything for the funeral so that people don't start wondering where things are." "I don't know... maybe I will see him in after life, maybe not." "Mitra Kalinova, 1910-1999" "How did you know this was the grave I was looking for?" "This is the grandmother of a very good friend of mine." "He now lives in America." "Do you know where America is?" "Do you know where A-me-ri-ca is?" "Year 1990." "9 November, 17:03h." "I'm in the village where you were born." "They still remember you." "There is a river." "I like it in New York when it rains." "When it rains I feel relaxed." "Generally speaking, I like it when it rains." "I miss you terribly much." "And I'm waiting for your call." "Down there in the village they told me you know a song ...which says that life goes like a shadow." "I want to send it to Kamen in America." "Do you know the song?" "I do." "So you really know it?" "I do, son, but I cannot sing it to you." "My son died and I can neither sing or listen to any songs." "If you come in two years, then I can sing it to you." "Can you at least tell me the words?" "I can't son, because I am mourning." "What are you going to do now, son?" "Well..." "I don't know." "For now I will just go home, but after that..." "I don't know." "How can you not know, son?" "There are such people, grandmother Rusa." "They don't know what is right, they don't know what to choose..." "They don't even know what to do too." "Give me your hands." "You will keep this to help me a little bit." "Are your parents still alive?" "They are." "And do you have a wife?" "I have one too." "And is she faithful to you?" "I think so." "What do you do?" "I write books." "What do you write in these books?" "Only real things." "Things I believe in." "Do you have a home?" "I do." "What about a car?" "No." "You don't need one." "I haven't been talking to anyone for a long time now." "I'm all alone here in the mountains." "Whenever I go to bed, if I wake up I cannot fall asleep again." "I cannot sleep well, something right here hurts." "For my deceased son." "This was our destiny, you can't do much." "Sad or not, you have to go forward." "When I look at you, I see sadness." "What is causing it?" "Somebody knocked Kamen down with a car." "He may die." "Who, our Kamen?" "Damn youth, mother." "Damn youth, it runs like rain." "Damn youth, mother." "And old age is like a shadow." "Damn youth, dear mother." "Damn youth, it never comes back." "Damn youth, mother."