A few words about A Dose of Happiness after its premiere last night. It's rare for a Bulgarian film to touch me emotionally. I've always wondered how come foreign cinema manage to make me laugh, cry or feel destroyed inside, while our cinema never could. A Dose of Happiness is the exception. And it deserves to be talked about.
It's the story of a girl (Vesela) which falls into the hell hole of heroin addiction. The story's told directly and uncompromisingly, but gently. The film is based on the real life and struggles of Vesela Toteva (she wrote about it in her memoirs Disgrace and Salvation) which is naturally important, but no one cares what a film is based on if it fails to touch you inside. And this film did just that. Making a film on a topic such as this after Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream is very brave. But the director Yana Titova made a bold move and succeeded in this challenge seemingly impossible to achieve. How, you ask? With huge talent and a big heart. And with brains. Choosing the right people for the job. The actors are great. Even the cameo appearances are given to the right people. Ilka Zafirova, Irmena Chichikova, Cvetan Alexiev, Dimitar Nikolov, Alec Alexiev, Asen Blatechki, Lydia Indzhova, Silvia Lulcheva, Ivan Barnev, Stoyan Doychev, Filip Avramov, Stefan Valdobrev, Tnaya Shahova, the gypsy woman with one tooth whose name I forgot and her son: each one of them shines as bright as the story needs them to, so that they can't steal the moment for themselves (as it often happens on the screen and on stage). The star of the film, Valentina Karoleva who is in every scene, is natural and does not even suggest fakeness. A great role which I hope is the beginning of a great career. I can't begin to think what's it like to play your mother because she is actually the daughter of Vesela. There's something about daughters in this film, because one of the things that make it unique is the character of the daughter, Valya. Through her eyes we see her mother falling. There is a little gem in the film and her name is Aya, who is the three-year old daughter in the film. It's not necessary to be in the industry (you just have to be a parent) to know that it's difficult to direct a 3-year old child. Yana Titova succeeded. Even though the girl is her own daughter. Kudos to both of them.
The camera work is exceptional. I can forgive the self-indulgence wide shots, but they were compensated with clever visual storytelling elsewhere. Very effective transitions from different scenes, years and conditions.
I want to congratulate the producers that they believed in Yana and invested time, love and life for this film to appear. An African proverb springs to mind: "It takes a whole village to raise a child." I have the feeling that everyone involved went all in with heart and soul to have this film produced and give us the chance to talk about it.
I didn't see the film being supported by the National Film Centre or the Bulgarian National Television which is hard to explain given how socially important the film is. I hope it reaches as many Bulgarian students as possible because a film like that will be far more effective than a class on drug prevention. Because it's not patronizing. Hour in a half in the cinema can spare someone years of their lives, to give hope to another and even safe a life. Art can work in that way, sometimes.
Congratulations to Yana Titova!
This film gives hope to the independent young people in Bulgarian cinema and to us, the viewers.
