Das geträumte Abenteuer

Valeska Grisebach’s DAS GETRÄUMTE ABENTEUER begins with a familiar genre trope: a solitary man returns to his hometown Svilengrad in Bulgaria after years of absence. With his shady dealings and kind, rugged face with its magnetic smile, Said (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov) is perfectly cut out to be a solitary noir hero, but instead his disappearance becomes the driving force of the film. Taking his place is his old archaeologist friend Veska (Yana Radeva), a dauntless, observant and no-nonsense woman, who weaves her way through a web of unsettled deals. Yet Grisebach’s third feature is no mere riff on genre, nor are people and landscape just formal ornaments for an exercise in style. Beyond the deliberately meandering crime drama, her attentive gaze is best at capturing the authentic and mutually shared experiences of community—from late-night conversations on white plastic chairs to Euro-pop hits blasting from run-down gas stations. By exploring a place as politically charged as a border, the film appears less beholden to the linear logic of an unfolding mystery than to a vertical logic that digs down into historical strata, probing the turmoil of the post-Soviet era to uncover what remains. (Öykü Sofuoğlu)

In the presence of Valeska Grisebach, Yana Radeva and Syuleyman Letifov.

Valeska Grisebach: IN DER WÜSTE GOBI (1997, K), BERLINO (1999, K), MEIN STERN (2001), SEHNSUCHT (2006), WESTERN (2017)