From Friday to Friday. From Bite to Bite
11 January
6:00 in the morning. The village of Osikovska Lakavitsa, tucked away 70 kilometres from Sofia. The temperature is minus thirteen degrees. The day of the “Admira” shoot.
When I sent the demo to Zhoro Manov back in September, he answered with a single message:
„I want to — REALLY want to — film it!!“
Later he told me that the theme of the inter-ethnic conflict between Serbia and Bosnia had moved him for a long time. It felt like an interesting coincidence.
Jacqueline and Ivan fall in love for a day.
Jacqueline arrived a little later on set — excited, a big smile and a touch of nerves. As she came closer, she whispered to me: „The whole way here I was driving behind an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. That’s a sign, isn’t it?“
Zori embroiders a machine gun
When Zhoro told us his idea — an embroidered machine gun — I got goosebumps. An image formed in my mind: a weapon, but not cold and deadly — turned into thread and symbol. Blood replaced by yarn. Violence — by silence and handwork.
Krum chases a dragon
The big cardboard dragon was already inside — carefully carried into the old village house, as if it too wanted to curl up in the warmth. We were like in The Mitten — crew, equipment, costumes, props, every living thing gathered under one roof, breathing in a single rhythm.
Even though I knew my place wasn’t there, I kept being tempted to steal a glance at the set. I felt like a child peeking through a gap in the curtain before a premiere.
As if from a Vermeer painting
The gentlest presence of all was a gift from little Beata.
Guernica comes alive
The puppets created especially for the video are strongly inspired by Picasso’s painting.
…
The dragon
The one who tells the stories.
Another song with the ever-present Iliyana Georgieva — a cellist, part of Dead Man’s Hat, talented, irreplaceable and versatile in every way. Our paths run parallel, and sometimes together… for 10 years now.
And every time we meet in music — it’s a new discovery and a celebration.
Christopher Kem
And his violin solo… even after dozens of listens, it still shakes me the way it did in that first moment. He played it improvised, straight from the heart, right there in the studio. Then he set the violin down, laughed and said:
„Just don’t make me repeat it. I won’t be able to.“
And I knew — that was the take. The real one.
„At least you’ll leave with him too.“
…The scene of Boško and Admira’s murder on the Vrbanja bridge, over the Miljacka river, we chose to recreate in this field — empty, silent, as if frozen between the living and the beyond.
A retelling of a story that hurts.
Jacqueline and Ivan were brilliant. They became silhouettes of love and loss.
It's a wrap
With this video I made one of my dreams come true. Zhoro and I have worked together many times — on commercial projects. But here it was different. To have an artistic, truly our own collaboration, one we could pour heart, idea and a stance into — that makes me immensely grateful.
Grateful for the trust, for the strong team, for all the frozen fingers (even though we had warmers). For the Juliet in history’s mirror. And above all — for the fact that art really can be an answer.
Photos: Iva Dimcheva