East of the West 2002 / Sadbata kato plach / Bulgaria, North Macedonia 2001
A paradoxical story about a gang of men who top up their wages stealing stone from the local quarry by the sea. They respond to the news that the quarry is to be closed down to make way for the construction of a summer resort in a manner which reflects their primitive and amoral conduct. They blow up a half-built pier. Another explosion soon follows...
The film is set in a sleepy, isolated small town by the sea where the nearby quarry provides the inhabitants’ only chance of work. A group of forty-five-year-olds, however, manage to do fairly well increasing their family budgets by stealing stone and dynamite. These men are primitive, greedy and cunning with no moral inhibitions. They exacerbate their hollowness by their churlish treatment of their own and others’ women. Their blunt existence is brightened by petty squabbles and intrigues which they then consummate with raucous, companionable drinking bouts. When they hear that the quarry is to close down and that, above the cove where they dynamite fish, a summer resort is to be built instead, they take this as a violation of their inalienable rights and decide for the appropriate action. They begin by blowing up a half-built pier. Another explosion soon follows.
75 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Ivan Pavlov
/ Screenplay Konstantin Pavlov
/ Dir. of Photography Svetla Ganeva
/ Music Božidar Petkov/Bojidar Petkov
/ Editor Dimitar Jurukov /Dimitar Yuroukov
/ Producer Ivan Pavlov
/ Production Act-Pick Ltd. (Sofia), koprodukce/co-production: Pegas (Skopje)
/ Cast Ivailo Christov/Ivailo Hristov, Valentin Tanev, Sofie Duez, Christo Garbov/Hristo Garbov, Alexander Doinov, Ivan Radoev, Verica Nedeska, Ivan Savov, Svetlana Jančeva/Svetlana Yancheva
Ivan Pavlov (b. 1947) studied film direction at VITIZ in Sofia (1978); he then worked at Boyana Film Studios. Apart from numerous documentaries, he has also made the following features: Mass Miracle (Masovo chudo, 1981), Black & White (Cherno-byalo, 1983), Walking with an Angel (Razhodki s angela, 1990), the TV film Theatre, My Love (Teatar, lyubov moya, 1994), From Scratch (Vsichko ot nula, 1996), Fate as a Rat (Sadbata kato plach, 2001).
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