site.btaProject Commemorates Actor Dimitar Elenov, Who Taught People about Freedom

A fundraising exhibition presenting over 100 photo stories about Rome will commemorate actor and director Dimitar Elenov (1947-2020). Part of the money to be raised will go towards a documentary film and a book by his wife Rozita Elenova, both titled Free, Freer, Dimitar, BTA learned from the organizers of the exhibition. It will be staged at Espace PORT A in Sofia for just one evening between 6 pm and 9 pm on October 26, but the photo selection will remain accessible via the website of the Dimitar Elenov Foundation until the end of the year.

Seize the day

The title of the exhibition, Carpe diem, is a Latin phrase usually translated as "seize the day" - that is, enjoy the moment. The photos show more than just architectural landmarks of the Italian capital such as the Colosseum and St Peter's Basilica, which everyone will recognize, said artist Leda Patasheva, who will present the exhibition on Thursday. For instance, she said, one of the photos shows a small shoe left at the base of a centuries-old column. "Someone must have crossed Bernini's angels' bridge and just left the shoe there for someone else to recognize it," Patasheva said.

She noted: "The beauty of the theme is that we can invent and imagine the missing parts of the stories behind these moments, each of which was captured in an infinitesimal instant. The next moment, the kid who lost her shoe was no longer there and was perhaps having an ice-cream."

In addition to details of the Roman landscape, the photos show portraits of strangers.

Excerpts of the documentary Free, Freer, Dimitar will be screened on the single off-line evening of the exhibition.

Free, freer, Dimitar

Shortly after actor, director and educator Dimitar Elenov died three years ago, his wife Rozita Elenova started working on a book and a film about him. She called dozens of Dimitar's colleagues, friends and students asking them to share stories about him. The film is supported by Bulgarian National Television, the Dimitar Elenov Foundation and City Hall in Burgas (on the Black Sea).

The name of the project, Free, Freer, Dimitar, was inspired by the stories collected by Rozita Elenova. The word "free" popped up all the time while she was researching the book and the film. Everybody described her late husband as "a free man", "the man who taught us about freedom" or "the one who taught us to ignore artificial rules".