Ray van Zeschau, the frontman of the Dresden rock band Freunde der Italienischen Oper, flies to Sofia to sell the apartment he inherited from his passed Bulgarian uncle – the artist Lyuben Stoev. But the painter‘s home is full of memories, graphics, woodcuts, three-dimensional art installations, stories and video materials. And Ray, like in a detective movie, solves the puzzle of his uncle’s life. In this journey we meet Ray’s real father, Lyuben’s first Dresden Love and Lyuben’s Spirit itself, while we sing along to Brecht and Weil’s „Mack the Knife”.
Bulgaria-Germany, 78 min., 2023, Bulgarian/German with English subtitles
Script: Ivaylo Manev
Directors: Nikola Boshnakov, Georgi Stoev – Jacky
Cinematography: Antony Stoev
Sound: Samuil Dzhoganov
Music: FDIO/Ray and the Rockets
Production company/ies: Gala Film, 4 Elementz, Ray van Zeschau
Director’s Biography:
Nikola Boshnakov was born in 1977. After graduating from high school, he took a job at the Machine Tool Plant, workshop “Second Paint”; then he sold newspapers in Sofia for a while, did military service in a border detachment in Dragoman in 1997, graduated in film directing from the NBU in 2006, where he and Mitko Taralezhkov and Oleg Konstantinov became “Bidon Film”. His documentaries include “Lifestyle “(2004), “The Altangiers Are Coming “(2006), and “Jackie, Johnny, and Charlie Are Not Dog Names” (2010).
Georgi Stoev – Jacky has for years been universally recognized as one of the great cheschits in Bulgarian cinema. His talent, curiosity, and tireless sense of humor are at the heart of all his projects. Among his better-known films are “Life in the Belly of a Cow “(1977), “Rituals of Love” (1977), “Few Days” (1977), “Itzko” (1983), “Father Ivan and His Children” (Golden Riton 2010), as well as the feature films “Our Shoshkanini” (1982), “The Adventuress of Spas and Nelly” (1987), “Fly with Rosinante” (2007).