“Twice Upon a Time in the West” had its premiere in Sofia on October 7. The film is the feature debut of director Boris Despodov, known for his documentary “Corridor No. 8” and the animated film “Three Sisters and Andrey” which have won awards in Bulgaria and abroad. To begin with, the intention was to make a documentary. But surfing the Internet, Boris saw pictures of the location where Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” was shot, a film starring Claudia Cardinale. And the location was amazing with surreal landscapes – the Tabernas desert in Southern Spain.

“What I discovered was that the locals still lived on the borderline of reality and fiction and saw themselves as cowboys,” Despodov says. Together with cameraman Jimmy Gimferrer the two went on location and decided it was worth making a movie about the place. It was the film’s executive producer Krassimir Ivanov who contacted Claudia Cardinale. On the very next day they met her to discuss the project and she accepted the role. In fact, she plays herself – in her 140^th film.

“It was magnificent, because in “Once Upon a Time in the West” I was the only woman in the cast and coming back to this place 40 years later was truly wonderful.”

“The plot changed all the time,” Boris Despodov says. “First, the location itself was amazing. And the people there do not identify with modern life, they bear all traits of the characters they played in the film. To begin with, my idea was to have a young Bulgarian girl running away from her past, stalked by her abusive husband. She sets out to seek her fortunes here, to this place and meets with Claudia Cardinale. Practically the entire movie is riddled with improvisations and that includes the actors, we all improvised. To my mind, that is one of the most interesting things in filmmaking – to sense the change in the people you are working with. They might come up with suggestions that are better than your own ideas. That is what filmmaking is all about – it is a collective form of art, one works with people more capable than oneself, so they can turn one’s attention to things other people cannot dream up.”

Today, October 8, Claudia Cardinale is meeting with Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov and Prof. Lyubomir Halachev, rector of the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NAFTA). She will be bestowed an academy Doctor Honoris Causa; the renowned actress will also hold an open master class for NAFTA students.

English version: Milena Daynova