My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of Black Sea

An experimental video-art film by Neno Belchev
Based on the novel of Bezmer Bagryanov "My last abstract painting"

"Everything is meaningless, even in cases when the meaning is obvious!
In other words: There is sense even in the most meaningless acts!"
My father (an artist)

About the movie:
I've been working on the full length experimental pseudo-autobiographical fiction "My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of Black Sea", since the beginning of 2014. I took me around two years and half, because it is independent, no-budget production - all other expenses over the movie has been covered by me. Finished in 2016, the film has been reedited in March 2017 – from 112 minutes it became 93 minutes.

One line synopsis:
The try of a man, who feels immigrant to his own homeland to make a documentary about his father.
As a story structure, it reminds a postmodern novel: fragmented, plotless and on first view: chaotic. Individual pieces can be rearranged and each one has its own life. In terms of genre, the film stands on the border between pseudo-documentary, dark comedy, punk (as an attitude) and video-art. The movie uses the expressive means of a documentary film, however, it is not a documentary, and it even contains some phantasmagorical and sci-fi elements and criminal moments, which it skillfully combines with grotesque animation and poetic visual language. It aims to bring to life author's understanding regarding art and his innovative position of a man, who works with the moving image, of a film-maker.
About the story in the film, my friends said that I gave this story to the audience on homeopathic pieces. But anyway, here it is:
The story runs mainly in a hypothetical Balkan country where the communistic regime collapsed at the end of the 80-ties, but after few decades it “reincarnated” itself making a contra-revolution. So, more or less, the movie is about the post-communistic mentality, despite that the main characters travel a lot around the globe. "My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of Black Sea" examines the problems of the lost-in-the-transition generation through the eyes of one of its representatives, but it also touches problems common to all mankind. The main character (middle-aged man) is an immigrant, who comes from a hypothetical Balkan country, where he has returned illegally to make a documentary about his father (known but forgotten artist from the recent past), and he returned illegally because in his youth he was involved in a bank robbery. All his life, the son has passionately defended his own artistic and creative position, but he has not reached the popularity and success of his parent, and, at the same time, he failed to find his place in society and to cope with the chaos in his personal life. His voice (behind the characters, voiceover) leads the narrative as a series of comments over the memories for his father by means of which he unobtrusively sets out his understanding of life, art and death. At the same time, he also presents a personal reading of history from the end of the 20th and early 21st century. Likewise, delicately, but slightly ironically, the story juxtaposes the life of the father with his son's life and presents their relationships, acquainting us with them through the prism of different cultures and temporal contexts.
The film has innovative and interesting creative approach, combining it with a thorough analysis of the past few decades of the life in post-soviet societies. Such analysis made in the light of art is necessary and useful not only for the public discourse in my country, but could be helpful for all societies around the globe and I hope to be interesting for any kind of audience.

Producers: VIDEOHOLICA and Neno Belchev
Directing, camera and editing: Neno Belchev
Scenario: Bezmer Bagrianov and Neno Belchev
Sound and music: Martin Evstatiev
Cast in order of their appearance in the film: Pavel Shanov, Neno Belchev, Petar Atanasov, Tsonka Belcheva, Pavlina Mladenova, Radul, Belcho Belchev, Irena Dimitrova, Polina Miltcheva, Petar Kostadinov, Rumen Rashev, Alexi Ivanov, Emil Yovev, Plamen Dimitrov, Mariana Shieverska, Ivan Barakov, Kalin Belchev, Krasimir K. Kostov, Hèléne Sabatini, Milka Judova, Veselin Nachev, Ilina Slavova, Jakub Shieverski