24/03/2021 - The Bulgarian director has just screened his feature debut at the Sofia International Film Festival, where he won the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award

Following its two-fold victory at the recent Sofia International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award (see the news), we found out more about German Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pavel G Vesnakov
film profile], a Bulgarian-German co-production and the feature debut by Pavel G Vesnakov.

Cineuropa: Spending six years working on German Lessons was obviously worth it, as it turned out to be a formally and emotionally mature film that avoids typical debut traps – such as an attempt to say everything at once, for example. How did you manage to maintain this moderate tone?
Pavel G Vesnakov: By constantly repeating to myself that, unlike short films, which are more like a high jump, feature films are rather like a marathon in which the energy of the story should be distributed more evenly, rather than expending all of it in the first scene. Persistently listening to my intuition also helped. In the beginning, I was really inspired by some films such as Cristian Mungiu's Graduation [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile], and authors such as Cristi Puiu and Kelly Reichardt, but after two days of shooting, I threw away all preconceptions and dived into the unknown.

You started working on the film before you turned 30, and your character is in his fifties. Why is a man about to enter middle age interested in the life of one who is on the threshold of old age?
I have always been fascinated by characters who find themselves in extreme and radical situations, on the edge of reality. Although the style and imagery of the film are based on the realistic tradition, I insisted that what was happening to Nikola needed to be charged with inevitability. Being in his fifties and considering the situation in which he finds himself, almost everything for Nikola is already inevitable. Dealing with this type of character helps me face my own fears and weaknesses, and helps me accept them as an integral part of me. Thus, in addition to reflecting my personal life, this character has an extra, meaningful function.

Who is Nikola, actually – a personal projection or rather a collective image?
All of my complexes and fears about the future are projected in the character of Nikola. This happened unconsciously, but I think that in this way, I managed to approach everyone as sincerely as possible, both the audience and the people who helped me make this film. However, I would not say there are any autobiographical elements in the story. I would rather call it prophetic in the sense that I realised how I have been constantly hurting the people around me.

Have you thought about emigration, like your main character?
Yes, very seriously, but something has always stopped me. However, I am asking myself if I am not an immigrant in my own country. At times I feel I express myself clearly, but then why does no one understand me? Is it my problem, or has the generation gap grown to be so insurmountable?

German Lessons is poetic and contemplative, while at the same time, the editing is precise and the rhythm is dynamic. Who are your teachers?
One of the few people whom I listen to in terms of film aesthetics is Bulgarian filmmaker Milko Lazarov. Apart from being a very talented director, he is also an erudite individual with an innate sense of style and measure – qualities that you encounter extremely rarely today. My conversations with him over the years have helped me understand that I am not aiming to make explanatory films while teaching people what is right and what is wrong. I don't want to be a moral grumbler who pretends to understand all aspects of human nature. On the contrary, I prefer to explore it with the help of the audience. And one of my spiritual guides is W G Sebald. I think everything he wrote was ingenious, and I reread his books on a daily basis. I can't imagine life without his work. Here, I would like to quote one of his poems to which I turn if I ever need inspiration:

For how hard it is
to understand the landscape
as you pass in a train
from here to there
and mutely it
watches you vanish.

Before this interview, you mentioned that you think of your debut as your first and last feature film. Where does this feeling come from?
I have no idea. The truth is, this isn't the first time I've felt this way. My creative process always involves a moment in which I question everything I do, and I wonder if I am up for doing anything at all. I guess I'm too well-mannered, while in order to survive in the film industry, one should be some sort of bad boy. I'm learning how to be one.

So what is the future bad boy of Bulgarian cinema working on now?
I am currently participating in the Jerusalem Film Lab and developing the script for my second feature, called Windless. The plot explores the moral and existential decline of the Bulgarian countryside. Thematically, it has a lot in common with German Lessons, as it once again examines the processes that led to the disintegration of our society. It will be much more radical in its form. Or that's what I hope, at least. And in parallel, I'm working on an idea for a third film, Deconstruction, which has sci-fi elements and focuses on the origin of the human soul.