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  previous next  

SOFIA 2021


REVIEW: GERMAN LESSONS

by Mariana Hristova

16/03/2021 - Pavel Vesnakov’s feature debut is a moody journey through Sofia’s
shabby neighbourhoods and an exploration of a man’s wanderings through his
midlife crisis

Julian Vergov and Vasil Banov in German Lessons

“Whatever I do turns out to be a mistake,” moans the protagonist of Pavel
Vesnakov’s German Lessons [+see also:
trailer
interview: Pavel G Vesnakov
film profile], Nikola (Julian Vergov), an angry man in his fifties who is about
to emigrate to Germany only a day after the end of his probation sentence, which
he was given for beating up the new husband of his ex-wife (Stefka Yanorova).
His hot temper seems to have doomed him to a string of successive failures, and
the ship for achieving something in life has definitely sailed. Except the
emigration one. Germany – a symbol of order and a stereotypical utopian
destination for many Eastern Europeans – embodies a desire for a more regulated
life.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)


However, even the emigration idea isn’t his, but rather belongs to his young
girlfriend (Elena Telbis). Sensitive and emotional despite his fierce
appearance, Nikola is already nostalgic about the familiar world he is about to
leave behind, and hesitant regarding the future outcome of his planned
endeavour. He is spending his last few hours before departure immersed in
frenetic attempts to tidy up his affairs, reconcile with his loved ones and
possibly make up for some missed chances. Driving around dirty and dilapidated
Sofia, his sole company is the repetitive background sound of recorded German
lessons for beginners, his father’s dead dog in the boot of his car and a
freshly ironed white shirt on the back of the passenger seat. It’s a very
special white shirt, which he puts on to steel himself for telling white lies to
his suspicious parents (Vasil Banov, Meglena Karalambova) and which helps him to
quell their anxiety about his upcoming failures, as well as assuage his own
nervousness, guilt and shame.

German Lessons, which has just screened at the Sofia International Film
Festival, is a poetic, multilayered film with melancholic and contemplative yet
skilfully edited sequences, and a complex narrative that is, however, smoothly
delivered, and touches upon universal existential and locally topical issues.
For international audiences, it is the absorbing personal story of a middle-aged
man desperately chasing one more chance in life. The rich and controversial
emotional palette of the main character is masterfully relayed on screen by
Julian Vergov (who won the Best Actor Award at Cairo), an actor who usually
plays self-assertive and glamorous men, both in cinema and on stage. Here, he
has a scruffy, criminal-like look in line with his protagonist's low self-esteem
and obscure past, which is probably full of petty swindles, alcoholic binges and
plenty of wasted time. For Eastern European pundits, the socio-political angle
is a subtle portrait of a particular epoch and its values. Thirty years after
the fall of communism, 50-year-old Nikola represents a generation that was
educated in a system which collapsed before the promised bright future arrived,
so he was forced to build a new life in another. He is one of those people who
never managed to adapt but who is still longing for his Arcadia, somewhere out
there. In this sense, German Lessons provides a group picture of a common
feeling enveloping a Bulgaria of failure and despair, but also a Bulgaria with a
vague, escapist hope that prosperity is only possible abroad, in the so-called
“normal” world. Hence why Nikola is a character easy to identify with locally.

Pavel Vesnakov, recognised internationally for conveying bold messages in his
short films, has already demonstrated his aesthetic affinity for characters
situated on the fringes of society, amidst a gloomy environment, and deprived of
the opportunity to make any useful move on the chessboard of their lives. His
long-gestating feature debut is the mature sum of all of his previous artistic,
thematic and cinematic searches, but also an advanced, intuitive study of a
perplexed society in decay.

Orlin Ruevski's intimately observational camera chooses either voyeuristic
viewpoints through semi-open windows or from the back seat of a car, while
sneaking around the protagonist, or zooms directly into his unsettling facial
expressions on the verge of an emotional outburst. The grey-sky exteriors in
combination with the anonymous, decaying suburban cityscapes suggest a dead-end
existential situation.

German Lessons was produced by Bulgarian company Moviemento, and was co-produced
by German firm Heimathafen Film and the UK’s Jaegerfilm.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)


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  previous next  

MORE ABOUT: GERMAN LESSONS


INTERVIEW: PAVEL G VESNAKOV • DIRECTOR OF GERMAN LESSONS

“I don't want to be a moral grumbler who pretends to understand all aspects of
human nature”

The Bulgarian director has just screened his feature debut at the Sofia
International Film Festival, where he won the Special Jury Prize and the
FIPRESCI Award  

24/03/2021


INTERVIEW: MILKO LAZAROV • HEAD, UNION OF BULGARIAN FILMMAKERS

“We give prominence to those film professionals who usually remain in the
shadows”

Three years into the job, the head honcho of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers
gives us his take on the importance of the union’s annual awards and their
significance to the local industry  

16/05/2022


PAVEL G VESNAKOV IN POST-PRODUCTION WITH HIS SECOND FEATURE, WINDLESS

The drama explores the passage of time and the consequences of memory through
the eyes of a young man  

16/05/2022 | Production | Funding | Bulgaria/Italy


REPORT: CPH:DOX FORUM 2022

We profile ten outstanding projects presented at last week's CPH:DOX Forum and
Works in Progress  

05/04/2022 | CPH:DOX 2022 | CPH:DOX Industry


EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL PALIĆ ANNOUNCES ITS LINE-UP AND THE LIFKA AWARDS
LAUREATES

The Official Selection consists of 12 European films while 17 other Eastern
European titles will be presented in the Parallels and Encounters competition
programme  

07/07/2021 | Palić 2021


PAVEL VESNAKOV PREPARING WINDLESS AND DECONSTRUCTION SIMULTANEOUSLY

The Bulgarian director, who recently released his feature debut, is in
pre-production with his second effort, while his third is already in
development  

20/05/2021 | Production | Funding | Bulgaria/Italy


IULI GERBASE'S THE PINK CLOUD WINS THE SOFIA CITY OF FILM GRAND PRIX

Films from Bulgaria, Romania and Switzerland were also among the winners at the
Bulgarian gathering, including Pavel G Vesnakov’s German Lessons, which scooped
the Special Jury Award  

22/03/2021 | Sofia 2021 | Awards


REVIEW: GERMAN LESSONS

Pavel Vesnakov’s feature debut is a moody journey through Sofia’s shabby
neighbourhoods and an exploration of a man’s wanderings through his midlife
crisis  

16/03/2021 | Sofia 2021


THE SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IS POISED TO HAVE AN ADVENTUROUS 25TH
ANNIVERSARY

Bulgaria’s biggest film event kicks off today with a hybrid spring edition, to
be followed by a second iteration later this year  

11/03/2021 | Sofia 2021


CINELINK ANNOUNCES FULL LINE-UP

Sarajevo's co-production market has unveiled another nine projects, including
new films by Nikola Ležaić, Teona S Mitevska and Andrea Štaka  

21/06/2016 | Sarajevo 2016 | Market

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TRAILERS & VIDEOS

international title: German Lessonsoriginal title: Urotsi po nemskicountry:
Bulgaria, Germanyyear: 2020directed by: Pavel G. Vesnakovscreenplay: Pavel G.
Vesnakovcast: Julian Vergov, Vasil Banov, Stefka Yanorova, Elena Telbis, Gerasim
Georgiev, Meglena Karalambova, Ivan Nalbantov, Mac Marinov


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LATEST NEWS

today

Films / Reviews
Belgium

Review: Holy Rosita

Sundance 2024
Awards

Sujo scoops the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance

yesterday

IFFR 2024
Bright Future

Review: Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust

two days ago

IFFR 2024
Limelight

Review: Hammarskjöld

three days ago

Solothurn 2024

Review: Ten Years

Production / Funding
Spain/USA

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door

FIPADOC 2024

Review: Son of the Mullah

Trieste 2024

Review: 1489

three days ago

Production / Funding
Romania

Andrei Creţulescu readies his second feature, Ext. Car – Night

Production / Funding
Ireland/UK

EXCLUSIVE: Irish director Brian Durnin putting the finishing touches to his
debut feature, Spilt Milk

Sundance 2024
World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Review: Handling the Undead

Production / Funding
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Christian Zübert’s Exterritorial in post-production








INDUSTRY REPORTS

Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – 19/01/2024
Intimacy coordinators: useful or essential?
During the first ANICA Talk of 2024, professionals were given the opportunity to
reflect upon the potential of this new figure in the workplace

Market Trends
FOCUS
During the busy autumn/winter festival season, Cineuropa will continue to
provide coverage from the buzziest markets and festivals including San
Sebastián, Cologne, Zurich, London, Tallinn, Rome and Turin

Green Industry Initiatives and Sustainability – 24/01/2024
The Netherlands Film Fund furthers efforts to encourage more sustainable
productions
The fund is seeking to raise awareness of the CO₂ impact of individual film
projects among creators and mitigate the industry’s carbon footprint

Green Industry Initiatives and Sustainability – 24/01/2024
The European Commission entrusts a consortium with the development of a common
carbon emissions calculator
The project, budgeted at €650,000, will run until December 2027, and aims to
promote data exchange and informed decision making among policymakers








INTERVIEWS

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The duo of Iranian filmmakers show that something is rotten in their home
country via a story about the lives of three Aghan refugees

Nora Fingscheidt • Director of The Outrun



The German filmmaker touched upon the movie’s adaptation process and her work
with actress Saoirse Ronan

Klaudia Reynicke • Director of Reinas



The Swiss-Peruvian director chatted with us about the genesis of her latest
feature film, the importance of re-examining memories through the filter of the
present, and the evocative power of music








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