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.
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).