Couldn't disagree more with Nic from Canada. This film is a consummate study of humanity - like a Peter Greenaway mock-doc, only, in this case it's all true folks, and therefore acutely significant. The great achievement of the film is the skill with which Paounov switches from a procession of entertaining absurdities into the real, terrifying underlying story of Belene before you as a viewer even realise what's happening to you. The result is that you're left puzzled about all sorts of things, but especially how we humans, we innocents, can get ourselves tied up in such a mess of history. Definitely worth two hours of your life (and that's including the commercials).
5 Reviews
beautiful and quirky documentary
Iliyana11 December 2009
What a beautiful and quirky documentary! A documentary that is funny, poetical and social, all at the same time without boring the viewers with false pretences and intellectual babble.
The story reminded me of a mosquito flight – it commences than it stops, it hops on and off the different characters and occasionally it bites. Interestingly the director Andrey Paounov chose to focus on the smallest of creatures — the mosquito — as a way of exploring the bigger issues: what are we here for? How do we live our lives? How did the past affect us and what are we going to do about the future?
And although the whole documentary is based on both humorous and tense juxtapositions, in the end the most important message of the film comes from the mouth of one of the characters: "There are mosquitoes everywhere!" As if he was saying there are problems everywhere but life goes on. We could deal with them and move on!
The story reminded me of a mosquito flight – it commences than it stops, it hops on and off the different characters and occasionally it bites. Interestingly the director Andrey Paounov chose to focus on the smallest of creatures — the mosquito — as a way of exploring the bigger issues: what are we here for? How do we live our lives? How did the past affect us and what are we going to do about the future?
And although the whole documentary is based on both humorous and tense juxtapositions, in the end the most important message of the film comes from the mouth of one of the characters: "There are mosquitoes everywhere!" As if he was saying there are problems everywhere but life goes on. We could deal with them and move on!
Great movie!
josip-nalis13 December 2010
This documentary is amazing and brilliant, and of course, because of that, many persons can't understand it and don't agree. However, replying to Canadian guy, who said dozes of time how he didn't understand nothing of it (I wonder why?) and that this movie 'is like watching Borat, but without Borat'... This movie were not made for plain Westerns, or to be some cheap product for amusing everyone, as Borat is. Or to be kind of funny and provocative, so millions can have a little fun... This move is an excellent true story which aim is to express atmosphere and realism which is present in Belane 100%. Belane, which is town in Bulgaria, a sovereign and solid state in European Union! What is shocking there is real thing, not fiction or pumping up. After watching, one first meditate for some time, and after is spreading recommendation for watching. Camera, music, composition of movie... Indeed stunning job! Congratulate! For everyone who agree I recommend to watch 'The Shutka Book of Record'. Josip from Zagreb
It's cinema baby!
ipaunov24 February 2009
When I saw this film I was stunned. Like Andrey's other films-smart, funny, sad and surprising, this one had an additional bite! On one hand a fascinating portrait of a small Bulgarian town lost amids communist slogans and industrial propaganda, it felt like a metaphor for something bigger-the human condition in general, the hopes we sore with and the demons we fight, it could as well be your own “little town” drawn through beautifully casted characters. On the other hand what struck me was that Andrey had finally mastered his unique narrative style, to the point that it felt like a sub-genre of its own or that "Andrey style" if you wish, rather than simply documentary. This is indeed the reason why some people, less open to innovation, find this film long or boring. It's hard to think out of the box, I know, but man it's so much fun if you do! Using absurd juxtapositions, unexpected hooks, and spontaneous, impulsive transitions between scenes and episodes, the story line unfolds like jazz. It feels like a total improv, like it's out of tune, yet there is an underlying harmony and form. The editing may look like Brownian motion, yet it's governed by mathematical unity of style. Characters are constantly placed in and out of their natural habitat creating powerful, often grotesque parallels - hard to explain, you just gotta see it - like a dream within reality, a film within the film. At the end your brain, atrophied with predictable plots, gets so tired of wandering “how do I watch this?”, “what is this?”, that you just lean back, let go and watch- it's cinema baby!
What the &&? stung me?
npiquard14 September 2007
I normally don't write reviews. But this movie is so terrible, that I feel I owe to fellow IMDb patrons to stay away. I can understand an ideological movie. I can understand an 'independent' movie. I can understand a movie that pretends to be a documentary but is in fact an absurd collection of stories. I can understand quirky characters. I can understand contrast, irony, non-linear/non-existent plots and utter desolation. What I can't understand is all of it put together in a meaningless, unedited, frustrating and painfully boring whole. It's like the director feels that because his subjects had to waste the entire time of their lives in some horrible pathetic place, that's its OK to waste two hours of yours. Put another way: It's like watching Borat, but without Borat.
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