Working title: "A MAN WITH TWO FACES"
Brief Synopsis:
"A Man With Two Faces" is film about Venko Markovski and his personal struggle for belonging and identity. From the founder of the Macedonian language and literature, through the suffering on the island of death - Goli Otok, to his emergence as a new star of the Bulgarian literary and political sky, makes him one of the most controversial figures in Macedonian and Bulgarian history from communist epoch. |
Director: Marija Dzidzeva DOP: Rosen Savkov Scriptwriter: Dime Ratajkovski Script consultant: Mina Hristova Producer: Goran Stojilkovic, Vladimir Stojcevski Co-producer: Lyubo Yonchev Status: Production MK-BG co-production www.award-film.com www.4lmntz.com |
“A Man with Two Faces” - Synopsis
“Sunbeams never permeate this open grave. An ominous grave it is.
God’s iris bows never arch above it. Nor do ever rustle free birds’ wings.
Flowers never bloom upon it. Daylight arrives late here…”
Venko Markovski – “Goli Otok, the Island of Death”
“A Man with Two Faces” is a documentary about the search of the controversial poet Venko Markovski for his own identity. The film simultaneously faces us with the absurdity of identity, as a state that can trap a person, leave him/her devoid of the right to existence and free creative thought, engulfing him/her in a feeling of endless solitude, turning his/her life into a never-ending search for belonging as an only way out of the self-created labyrinth. Quite often, the person also entangles his close ones in that personal struggle and self-searching, without giving them much of a choice.
Venko Markovski (1915-1988) is a poet and activist who was both Macedonian and Bulgarian. Regarding his national belonging and identity, he declared himself differently in different periods of his life, depending on the historical ordeals that were subject to permanent entwining and various interpretations.
His life path span from a founder of the Macedonian language and literature, through his suffering on Goli Otok, to his rise to fame as a new star on the sky of Bulgarian literature and politics. This specific controversy of his as a person and an author, caused him to be seen as a national convert i.e. a writer who publically and demonstratively renounced his initial national/ethnic mark, the Macedonian, making the choice to become a Bulgarian national through his words and actions.
Venko Markovski and his work were first extensively glorified, only to be discarded later and ignored to the point as if he never existed at all. Venko Markovski was forgotten in both countries, remained trapped in the inter-space, in between his two states of self-belonging. He remained trapped in an open grave, without time, movement and feelings.
“A Man with Two Faces” is a movie about the life of Venko Markovski in that open grave, about the timeless existence in that state of eternal limbo and his journey through the interspace, moving simultaneously in two directions – to the past and the future. In the past, where he faces his own life, searching for the answer to the question of his own identity, and in the future, where he faces his descendants, searching for the answer whether all that he has gone through and has fought for was worth it.
“A Man with Two Faces” is envisaged as an intimate visual narration of the creative world of Venko Markovski. It is a movie about the journey of his personal thoughts through the interspace and the imaginary conversation with the members of his family – his wife Filimena, who was with him at all times, witnessing every word he ever wrote, his son Mile, whose untimely death happened under suspicious circumstances, his daughter Sultana, a talented pianist who gave up her carrier and personal life tо dedicate all her time to her father, his grandchildren who went on with their lives all across the globe, still carrying their grandfather’s burden along.
In the process of creating this movie, naturally arose the need to ponder on self-discovery and self-acceptance, as well as about accepting others together with their right to self-determination of belonging. It is a movie that intends to open up a space for free movement of human thought, simultaneously erasing the borders set by the history on the question of identity.
“Sunbeams never permeate this open grave. An ominous grave it is.
God’s iris bows never arch above it. Nor do ever rustle free birds’ wings.
Flowers never bloom upon it. Daylight arrives late here…”
Venko Markovski – “Goli Otok, the Island of Death”
“A Man with Two Faces” is a documentary about the search of the controversial poet Venko Markovski for his own identity. The film simultaneously faces us with the absurdity of identity, as a state that can trap a person, leave him/her devoid of the right to existence and free creative thought, engulfing him/her in a feeling of endless solitude, turning his/her life into a never-ending search for belonging as an only way out of the self-created labyrinth. Quite often, the person also entangles his close ones in that personal struggle and self-searching, without giving them much of a choice.
Venko Markovski (1915-1988) is a poet and activist who was both Macedonian and Bulgarian. Regarding his national belonging and identity, he declared himself differently in different periods of his life, depending on the historical ordeals that were subject to permanent entwining and various interpretations.
His life path span from a founder of the Macedonian language and literature, through his suffering on Goli Otok, to his rise to fame as a new star on the sky of Bulgarian literature and politics. This specific controversy of his as a person and an author, caused him to be seen as a national convert i.e. a writer who publically and demonstratively renounced his initial national/ethnic mark, the Macedonian, making the choice to become a Bulgarian national through his words and actions.
Venko Markovski and his work were first extensively glorified, only to be discarded later and ignored to the point as if he never existed at all. Venko Markovski was forgotten in both countries, remained trapped in the inter-space, in between his two states of self-belonging. He remained trapped in an open grave, without time, movement and feelings.
“A Man with Two Faces” is a movie about the life of Venko Markovski in that open grave, about the timeless existence in that state of eternal limbo and his journey through the interspace, moving simultaneously in two directions – to the past and the future. In the past, where he faces his own life, searching for the answer to the question of his own identity, and in the future, where he faces his descendants, searching for the answer whether all that he has gone through and has fought for was worth it.
“A Man with Two Faces” is envisaged as an intimate visual narration of the creative world of Venko Markovski. It is a movie about the journey of his personal thoughts through the interspace and the imaginary conversation with the members of his family – his wife Filimena, who was with him at all times, witnessing every word he ever wrote, his son Mile, whose untimely death happened under suspicious circumstances, his daughter Sultana, a talented pianist who gave up her carrier and personal life tо dedicate all her time to her father, his grandchildren who went on with their lives all across the globe, still carrying their grandfather’s burden along.
In the process of creating this movie, naturally arose the need to ponder on self-discovery and self-acceptance, as well as about accepting others together with their right to self-determination of belonging. It is a movie that intends to open up a space for free movement of human thought, simultaneously erasing the borders set by the history on the question of identity.