Five years ago Desislava Andonova, Andronia Popova and Vera Chandelle went on stage for the first time as Sentimental Swingers. The venue was a small Sofia club, but their success was resounding. Some time before that Vera met her future husband – André Chandelle – director of the Belgian-Bulgarian documentary Life is an Eternal Swing whose premiere is tonight, 18 November at Hall No. 1 of the National Palace of Culture. The event is on the programme of the Cinemania 2015 film festival. The documentary features the three ladies from Sentimental Swingers, along with instrumentalists from Mihail Yossifov sextet. The musicians are also working on a concert followed by a happening.

“The evening kicks off with the screening of the film,” says Vera who is its co-producer. “It is followed by a concert by the Sentimental Swingers with the entire Brass Association with conductor Angel Zaberski Jr. That was the way we decided to celebrate our birthday. Mihail Yossifov is first trumpet in the band – he has been with us since the very beginning. Mihail made the arrangement of our first single Unemployed Lovers as well as the title song of the film Life is an Eternal Swing. We shall also be performing songs by the Andrew Sisters in the original 1940s arrangements; they sound truly inspiring. This is the first time we are singing with a big band – it is an incredible feeling and the concert will be as much a gift to the audience as to our own selves. We hope to see in the audience movie buffs, people who love music, people who love dancing. Part of the stage is actually adapted for dancing – for the dancers from the Lindy Hop Bulgaria dancing school. The concert will be followed by a swing happening in the lobby, where the DJs from the Smugglers Collective will be playing swing. Still, it is the documentary that comes first in all this. The film is about the last 40-50 years of life in Bulgaria though it is without any pretense at being a historical movie. The story line follows our own feelings, childhood memories from the times of socialism, the changes in 1989 and then the transition. It is the story of the generation that stayed behind in Bulgaria after the fall of the Berlin wall when many people left the country. Even now young people emigrate – not that there is anything wrong in that. But we are here and as Mihail Yossifov says, we are trying to live a normal life in a situation that is not all that normal.”

Vera added that when she decided to stay in Bulgaria she made her biggest dream come true – to sing. An economist by training, she changed profession once the trio was founded. She says she is happy that just five years after their first club performance the three friends will be having a concert in Bulgaria’s biggest concert hall.

Vera’s husband André Chandelle, who comes from Belgium, has been living in Bulgaria for the past ten years but divides his time between Sofia and Brussels. He first came to this country to make a feature film for Belgian and French TV. To begin with, he thought Bulgaria was a country that was a bit coarse and didn’t think he would ever feel a connection with it. The first person he met with a smile on her face was Vera, she also spoke very good French.

“Every time I asked her something about life in Bulgaria, she would give an original answer,” says André. “And gradually I started seeing the country as she does. She was glad to have me meet her friends. At the time new clubs were mushrooming all the time, there was music late into the night. I saw non-tourist Bulgaria in which former security guards were calling themselves businessmen. At the same time I was doing journalistic work in Eastern Europe, I also went to Russia. This was a Europe I did not know and now I realize that in my mind, I had already started work on the film. I made up my mind to stay in Bulgaria, I married Vera and we had a beautiful baby boy. Ours is a Belgian-Bulgarian family, we both have children from previous marriages. I saw that people in this part of Europe were no different to the Westerners I know, something I didn’t seem to be able to grasp before. Even though Europe is united, prejudice has not been overcome and that is wrong. In the film we tell the story of Sentimental Swingers and several magnificent instrumentalists. And this kind of music is well-liked in any part of the globe. This is a trio that could have been created in any point on the planet. But our characters seem to have lived several lives compared to people their age in the West. What I really admire in Vera and her friends and which I have shown in the film is that they have kept their joy of life intact, whatever the conditions or the difficulties that have accompanied them in their life and work. It is because of this joy that I named the film Life is an Eternal Swing.”

The audio file contains the following songs:

- Boy, boy;

- Unemployed lovers;

- Life is an Eternal Swing.

English version: Milena Daynova