The new movie Moon Lake of director Ivan Stanev offers a true provocation for the senses. Mr Stanev is a renowned avant-garde playwright, who has long been living in Germany. The movie was shot on sites near Kamen Bryag, Tyulenovo, and Shabla /Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast/ and stuns with picturesque scenes and highly aesthetic vision. At the same time the music masterfully takes us from what is visible for the eyes towards the rumble of the depths from where Orpheus brings out his beloved. An old rusty tanker ship stuck near the shore gives the name of the movie. A boy and a girl greet the sun every morning from its bow. Their innocent game attracts the mythological Orpheus and Euridice. According to the director, the legend of the lovers and the myth of Dionysus are worthy of filming by Bulgarian moviemakers, as the characters are related to the Bulgarian lands. Mr. Stanev comments about his movie:

“We aimed for the movie to have a polyphonic structure, i.e. the stories developing on different levels. What is best known for the Bulgarian spectators is the moment when Orpheus brings Euridice out of hell and is banned from looking at her, otherwise she would return to the kingdom of the dead. This moment of the forbidden look seems incredibly cinematographic to me. There are other story lines as well. For example, there is the story of a school created by alternative groups who have found shelter in the caves of the Yailata seaside terrace.”

Producer of the movie is Donka Angelova, publisher of the magazines Altera and Altera Academica and of works by young Bulgarian poets, writers, and philosophers. Postproduction was done in Germany, as French producer Patrick Sandrin, who lives in Bulgaria, helped the crew. Director of photography is Stefan Ivanov, who has long been living in Canada and is known for his rich experience, visual aspirations, as well as technical perfectionism. The cast are unknown to the local cinema.

“We had invited a great number of people to a continuous casting, in order to gather a so called micro cosmos of musicians, painters, anarchists, prophets, i.e. – alternative-thinking people building a kind of counter civilization in the caves. The caves themselves have ancient history with monks living there before, troglodytes occupying the caves long ago, and so on. For us it was important that the cast did not have artistic ambitions and vanity and are just participants. That was the way we chose the whole of the cast. What is interesting is that later during postproduction, the movie became totally international, as the editor is a man whom I have long been working with. He is from the Netherlands but lives in Berlin and is a very creative person. He manages a whole festival in Berlin – the avant-garde Transmediale. The man who wrote the music to the movie is called Sebastian Meissner. He also lives in Berlin but is a Jew from Poland. So, there is a great global eclectic combination. It is a reflection of the world we live in, of the roads and influences that cross. It is a contemporary Babylon that we inhabit and that is one of the topics in the movie.”

The premiere of the movie was accompanied by the presentation of two new books. One of them is a collection of texts by literary critics and philosophers on the movie. The other is the poem Moon Lake, written by Ivan Stanev. The director has already created a theater installation in Norway based on the poem. In Studio 1 of BNR, a concert took place with the participation of Arabel Karajan, Rosen Zahariev, and Georgi Donchev – a few of the musicians, who took part in Moon Lake. Also a discussion on the movie took place in Sfumato theatre workshop. The movie, which had its premiere during the autumn Cinemania forum, will be in cinemas in February.