site.btaFilm Director Who "Changed the Lens from Social to Psychological" Presented as Book Author at Apollonia Art Festival

Two books by film director Lyudmil Todorov (1955-2023) were presented at the Apollonia Festival of Arts in Sozopol on Saturday by the author's widow Zlatna Kostova, former Head of Foreign Relations at BTA, Georgi Lozanov, Head of BTA's LIK (Literature, Art, Culture) Directorate, and actor and director Ivailo Hristov, who wrote the foreword to one of the books.

As a director, Todorov is known for such movie hits as Seamstresses (2007), Emigrants (2002), Emilia's Friends (1996) and The Love Summer of a Schlep (1990). He belonged to a generation of Bulgarian film makers who, unlike their predecessors, looked inward into the Self rather than at social relations, according to Lozanov, who is also a media expert. "The absurdity which was explored earlier was that we were not allowed to live the way we wanted. The absurdity of the [post-Cold War] Transition stems from the fact that we are unable to live the way we want," Lozanov said.

One of the books, The Ambassadress, published by Znatsi, is a collection of three short novels which was to be published in 2023 but came out posthumously. Lyudmil Todorov "was never particularly sociable, but he embarked on a journey with his books which brought tremendous joy to my son and me. I believe he is watching us from somewhere now and it makes him happy," said Kostova, who is also a well-known translator of films and stage plays from English.

She noted that her husband spent the last five years of his life passionately rewriting all his books. The three short novels that make up The Ambassadress present the author from multiple perspectives, and readers will discover things they did not know about him before. But above all, they can see themselves. "He had a painter's eye," Kostova said.

Presenting the other book, From Chrysalis to Butterfly. Unfilmed (Znatsi, 2024), Kostova said that Todorov wrote the scripts for all the films he ever directed. The four unfilmed scripts included in this book were in the author's computer, where his wife and their son discovered them. These screenplays would make great reading not only for film professionals but also for anyone who likes good prose.

Georgi Lozanov said about Todorov: "We liked each other, I felt a closeness between us, and now I have this bitterness in me that we did not use our closeness fully enough. But talent offers a chance to keep communicating with it after the person is gone and despite the circumstances of life," Lozanov said.

A popular film director, Todorov was also "a good contemporary Bulgarian writer, one of not so many in this country, and I think this is yet to be brought home to the audience," Lozanov said.

According to him, Todorov had his own way of perceiving the post-1989 Transition in Bulgaria, the developments of the last 35 years. "He changed the lens. It ceased to be social and became psychological," Lozanov said. "The final resolutions between the characters are very tense, and they seal the characters' fate. You follow them with the kind of restlessness with which you would follow the intricacies of a crime novel."

Lyudmil Todorov's characters are not the thick-necks and the nouveaux riches typical of the Transition, Lozanov said. They are mainly "intellectuals who fail to play their role, and the author shows he has a soft spot for them." He described Todorov's prose as "existential".

Director Ivailo Hristov said that From Chrysalis... is a unique book. He gave a quote from French novelist and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, who compared a screenplay to a caterpillar waiting to become a butterfly. "However, we have something different here because Lyudmil wrote in a different way. Nowadays, screenplays go into much less detail, whereas with Lyudmil the script is like a short novel, a complete work of literature, and reading it is a great pleasure," Hristov said, referring to the four unfilmed scripts in the book.

The Apollonia Festival of Arts is organized by the Apollonia Foundation, established in 1991. The festival first took place in 1984. According to the organizers, it aims to preserve cultural traditions and support new talent in the arts. BTA is a media partner of the event.