Since I've blogged about various international and American films, maybe I should write about a Bulgarian film as well. A classic from the 70's, translated as "The Boy turns Man", directed by Людмил Кирков , the film tells the story of Ran who is about to graduate from high school and continue his journey into the endless, but in the same time constricted sea of the socialist life. Bright and ambitious, Ran doesn't intend to follow any safe path that is laid for him. The small town community he's grown up in inspires him to write about the old habits and old fashioned way of thinking and how they clash with the new tendencies among the teenagers. Instead of sticking to the norms, he questions them and eventually breaks from them to discover his personality and interests.
Ran is into literature and dreams to become a journalist, an education that has been removed from the major universities as an attempt to crash young people's desire to express their view and provoke others to aspire for a change. The film deals with the time it's set in masterfully, delicately showing the reality of unparalleled morals combined with the subtle control of the government. Just when Ran is about to graduate, journalism is renewed in most universities, but his parents and the society in general don't perceive it as a "real" profession. A real profession instead, is something steady you start up when you're 20 and stay on it for the next 40 years.
The new generation, however, slowly produces people like him, who are not entirely sure wether this is the right formula for happiness. Throughout the film it is implied that the boy is a lot more mature than his peers. He is infatuated with a middle aged lady who works in a bakery shop and he comes there every day for a lemonade. His best friend seems to be a local middle aged bohemian painter he shares everything with. When a famous singer visits the city, he tried to impress her and brings her out on a date, but is somehow disappointed and returns to first infatuation. I think the beauty of the film comes from the subtext and the tangible romance between the two characters, intertwined with Ran's search for himself and his values. He stands up for the whole school and fights with the rules that all the boys who graduate need to undergo a very short haircut. Like many other pointless rules like this one, he is fed up with his previous life and looks forward to the period when he'll be a "free man". No matter what new he undertakes though, he always returns to the bakery shop and timidly orders a lemonade, silently building expectations and dreams in the bakery lady who is a prison of her marriage and mundane life. These two characters have created a relationship without even having to introduce each other, so when he appears in the bakery shop, we know it's their happiest moment of the day.
While every other teenager is preoccupied with prom preparation, Ran doesn't notice that a classmate who is also a friend of his is infatuated with him. On the night of the prom all the students look forward to leaving for the capital, where it's implied the new academic life waits for them. Ran has to leave as well, with his classmate and he tells her they will meet there. Very subtly the film deals with the change of the student as an individual who continues on his way to become his ideals, and the bakery shop lady who has missed so many chances and possibilities and is entrapped in her own security. Their most intimate moment is summed up in a hug, which we know has been cherished from both but can never last in these circumstances.
What I enjoyed about this film is the tone it sets as well as characters built with many nuances and feeling more real and exciting even in their passively introspective moments. Maybe another reason is that the theme of uncertainty around the desire of "stable life" is still valid and is getting a lot more popular than it used to be. Unfortunately, the film is not accessible in English language.
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