Dimitris Georgiev | So Close Away / 2020

 love where you least expect it

by Douglas Messerli

 

Mariy Rosen and Dimitris Georgiev (screenplay), Dimitris Georgiev (director) So Close Away / 2020 (30 minutes)

 

In this Bulgarian film, two prisoners escape from the Sofia Central Prison, one of them is a hardened criminal, Victor Stefanov (Dimitar Ivanov), the other his cell-mate, Theodor Panaytov (Stoyan Doychey), the latter hardly believing in their quick escape, mostly achieved through their intense shouting as the run for they lives. A car awaits them, but is speeding away almost before Theodor can get inside. In this world, just like the prison, we quickly realize there is no forgiveness.

     We quickly learn from the news media that Victor is a habitual offender with a 34-year sentence for kidnapping, rape, and double murder. Theodor has been sentenced for 26 years for murder and attempted murder. These are not the usual heroes of a gay story. Yet we almost immediately feel an attraction to Theodor, who obviously feels confused, “spooked and crooked” in the entire process of the escape.

       They race to a cabin, which was clearly been pre-arranged through the friend, “The Gipsy” (Borislav Chouchkov), a cold place in which there is only one blanket, Theodor complaining of the thieves who might have stolen the others. He comments the desperateness of the petty criminals, wondering “Do they eat them the blankets or steal them?” In the darkness, he suggests they share, cuddling up, fully clothed, with his prison buddy.

 

      In a sudden flash into the past, we now recognize that one of Theodor’s crimes was a murder of another gay man who attempted to have sex with him, terribly ironic since we now see his complete sexual involvement with this prison companion. We realize that the homophobic past suffered by Theodor has radically changed in prison, that he is now desperately in love with the violent Victor. The situation has obviously radical changed through prison-life itself. And, although Georgiev’s powerful film doesn’t openly express that difference, it is this short cinema’s central focus.

       The appearance the next morning of a man (Petko Kameov) and his son gives rise to an entirely new perception of this odd couple. Although it appears that the man has arrived to help in their continued escape, the very fact that his young son seems to recognize them forces Victor to immediately demand that they reject their help and move on, with a subtle possibility of otherwise having to kill them as he insists Theodor move on without looking back. “Don’t turn around,” he insists of his naïve prison companion, “the kid recognized us.”

       A tire failure of the car in which they are attempting to escape reveals the further ridiculous inability and total innocence of Theodor, who can’t even imagine how they might continue on their voyage, while the far more desperate and crueler Victor quickly fixes their flat tire. Clearly they have agreed upon Victor’s plan, which has not yet been revealed to us.

       So after, they visit a friend of Victor’s, Borislav or “Bobby” (Anthony Penev), whose wife is not at all pleased by their sudden arrival and overtaking of their apartment. To Theodor’s dismay, she insists that her husband immediately kick them out. She openly demands that they leave, but recognizing that he has laid out a gun on the table, she cannot continue in her demands, particularly given that fact that her husband evidently owes something to her criminally engage husband, financial or otherwise. The far more innocent Theodor, we now begin to realize, has no knowledge of his lover’s control over others, and suffers deeply, particularly when he spies his friend fucking Bobby’s wife.

 

    From the TV reports we discover that Victor had been previously imprisoned for assault and robbery of older people in Sofia. He is not at all a nice man, and clearly did not react as Theodor has in a moment of passionate rejection of sexual activity, even if it is hard to forgive Theodor for his homophobic acts. We now recognize that, inexplicably, Theodor has gone along in the prison escape simply out of his love of his prison mate.

     Meanwhile, the “Gipsy,” going about his life, seems totally unafraid of Victor and his previous connection to him. Besides, he’s not alone. He has what he believes is his “protection.” Theodor’s father speaks on TV about how he let his son down, not being there for long periods. There is no logic in this world of guilt and insinuation which doesn’t want to deal full with the real causes of criminal behavior and murder, and no distinctions are made between the two criminals. Theodor’s father mistakenly claims his own guilt as being: “I wasn’t at home…a lot…and so…you lose your child.” In this culture you can’t discuss your own or cultural values which might lead to a child’s dissociation and violence. The crime becomes personal rather than cultural.

     Victor soon makes clear that he has only let Theo join him out of pity, and that his real goal is to get revenge of “the gipsy.” There is no love there to be found, despite Theodor’s desires. In desperation Theo contacts his father who helps him escape to another country.

      In the meantime, Victor has reconnected with “the Gipsy,” and apparently, in a piss break after which he still might attempt to fuck him, is shot, killing him, while his Gipsy is also shot and killed—by whom is not certain, perhaps by Theodor himself.

      We flashback to a scene when Theodor is first fucked by Victor, an evidently quite pleasurable experience.  

       In the final sequence we see Theo, having arrived evidently in Italy sitting at the edge of the Tivoli Fountain, pulling out a sandwich packed into his backpack, and eating it as a romantic song is sung. Through love, even if it his violent, he has escaped into a new life.

        This short film is a wonderful contribution to the LGBTQ community from where you also may least expect in the form of a prison escape drama from Bulgaria.

 

Los Angeles, March 4, 2024

Reprinted from My Gay Cinema blog (March 2024).