Dok Night | SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXICINEMA // SLANTZETO I SYANKATA 1962 (Sun and Shadow, Слънцето и сянката)

Every Thursday there’s a Vegan Dinner accompanying an exhibition opening/closing, a live performance, live music, movie screening or …
Come meet other people interested in art and activism, good food and great prices. Bring your favourite game and your friends. Or meet new people at the bar.

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18.00 Bar open

19.00 Vegan Food /// 2-course meal for 7 – 10 €

20.30 SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXICINEMA

SLANTZETO I SYANKATA  1962
(Sun and Shadow, Слънцето и сянката)

Directed by Rangel Vulchanov
69 minutes
In Bulgarian with English subtitles

This film follows two people on a beach, a male and female in their early 20s, who are trying to leave the scars of World War II behind them… they are the new post-war generation and they’re attempting to reinvent their lives, focusing more on creativity and playfulness rather than repeating the disastrous tragedy of the previous generation.

This film is balanced between twin emotions. One is the mood of the carefree beach, the feeling of having finally emerged from war and finally there is peace. The second emotion is remembering how ghastly war is. The year this film was made the United States was seriously deciding to use nuclear weapons for the second time—this time against Russia and Cuba. The event was called the Cuban missile crisis and President Kennedy was on the edge of pushing the nuclear button again. So there was tension in the air around the world, and the understanding that peace could be shattered at any moment. For anyone living during these years, any plane that roared overhead suddenly reminded them of possible disaster.

The main actress of this movie, as it turns out, is young Polish actress Anna Prucna, who continued making courageous movies in European cinema during the 60s and 70s (including Makavejev’s Sweet Movie). She loved Pasolini, and even took one of his poems, put it to music and sang the lyrics.

This movie was made at a time very similar to the one we face now, when a threat of possible nuclear annihilation hangs in the air. The biggest difference is that in the 1960s people understood what a disaster nuclear war would be, whereas today it’s barely thought about.  This will be another outrageously rare screening of a neglected gem from the past.

+ GUERNICA   1978
Directed by Emir Kusturica
18 minutes
In Czech with English subtitles

This is the graduation film of renowned Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica. He didn’t learn to make  films in his own home country of Yugoslavia, but instead went to study at the legendary film school in Prague. In this short flick a young boy is taken to a museum where he is bewildered by Picasso’s 1937 painting of the horror of war Guernica.

Presented by Jeffrey Badcock
A series of socially engaged movies, screened once a month on Thursdays. Touching on such hot topics as immigration, homelessness, racism, education, radical gender propositions, the pandemic and gentrification, these films not only explore visionary politics, but are also chosen to stir our imagination and creativity. The essence of cinema is the collective experience, and these screenings are aimed at creating intimate communities again in an increasingly hectic and fragmented world.