Sage

A cosmic renegade wanders through to a fallout shelter underneath badlands in search of a mystical fuel, so he can continue his journey into space.

The film revolves around the theme of escaping your oppressive habitat as the only way of surviving as a pure being in a filthy overpoluted and almost completely destroyed world.

Sage was a big challenge for me not only because it was my first featurette as a director (also set designer, dresser, costume builder, prop maker, and so on), but also because sci-fi is a genre that demands a superhuman sense of reality, determination and a lot of creativity from its authors. Not to mention a bigger budget. On the other hand sci-fi is not something that’s created a lot here in Eastern Europe (if you ignore all the "straight-to-video-on-demand" Hollywood mutan productions), especially in Bulgaria, where literal and heavy subjects like the transition from socialism to a market economy and it’s consequences; the mafia; corruption; poverty; the dying small town; the disappearing traditional man; etc., are predominant. Where the human soul and what’s left of the film industry is corrupt and decaying.

The film was originally meant to be an 80-minute story, but due to many circumstances it ended up being twice as short. Acting more as a teaser or a pilot for a bigger, more complex story and a glimpse in the universe of the main characters.

However, plans for a bigger and more ambitious story are to happen sooner or later.

The plot, most of the costumes, all of the sets, props, comic strips, and everything visual were created exclusively by me. From the smallest dirt spots and details on the sets and costumes to all the floorplans, and almost all the carpentry and installation work.

I started building the props and collecting clothes in the beginning of 2017. A few months later in April I started building the first set. In the beginning of July same year, together with friends, family, and professionals, we started shooting.

Apart from four scenes, all sets were shot in an improvised garage-like 10 by 10 meter room. After each shooting day, the set was disassembled and a new one was built.

Sage was shot in 12 days scattered throughout one calendar year. Half of the budget was provided by Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein through the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, the other half was invested by me from my personal fund. The budget was exclusively spent on costumes, lighting and set design. Everyone in the crew, who helped this idea grow into the final underground Eastern European dystopian film, was working for free.