Triumph

Triumph

Krum Rodriguez

VERDICT: Psychics, the military, extraterrestrials, and a democratic future collide in this unbelievably wild but true Bulgarian dramedy.

The unknown can be simultaneously a frightening and exciting proposition. Its between those scales that the Bulgarian military finds themselves in Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva’s absurdist dramedy Triumph. Set against the backdrop of the newly democratic country finding its feet, this oddball picture may be broad in its metaphors, but is perceptive in its view that basic human desires don’t change much, no matter who’s in charge.

Based the true story of The Tsarichina Hole, and spiced with considerable liberties, the film centers on psychic Pirina (Margita Gosheva) and the head of the Bulgarian Army’s Science Department, Colonel Platnikov (Julian Vergov). Sleeping her way through the ranks, Pirina now holds incredible sway over General Zlatev (Ivan Savov), and convinces him that through telepathic contact with an alien named Yolo, she has learned that an extraterrestrial vessel lays buried in a bucolic, rural field. Zlatev orders Platnikov to lead the operation, and the Colonel sets up camp with a platoon of soldiers, orders the dig to get started, and brings his daughter Slava (Maria Bakalova) along who soon becomes just as central as Pirina to the excavation.

Of course, it seems preposterous that any government entity would just dig a hole based on a psychic’s intuition, but that’s really what happened. Wisely, Valchanov and Grozeva don’t overtune the comedic overtures of Pirina channeling the voice of Yolo with a growl. Or officials touching a dirt wall hoping they’ll receive healing powers. Or military higher-ups gamely believing they may actually not only be in communication with an alien species, but have a chance to travel and meet them. The filmmakers play every step completely straight, letting the strange, dark, and amusingly surreal elements of the story speak for itself. The result is a picture that, like the dig, can be tactical in one moment and feverish the next, and always a bit mystifying. The feeling throughout the film is how could this have happened, but that’s exactly the point Valchanov and Grozeva want you wrestle with.

Set in the early ’90s as the Soviet Union is in mid-collapse, Triumph, is really about a nation seeing an entire way of living and an elemental belief system fundamentally change overnight. On the radio we hear reports that Bulgarians, in a free election, have elected communists to power. It’s an outcome so surprising that even French papers have picked up the news. But is that desire to cling to the known and familiar, so strange? And for those reaching for answers and understanding in an unclear future, it gives some reason why an extraterrestrial dig (which in real life lasted two years) is possible. Because if the world as you know is falling apart, whose to say a guide for an entire other way of being isn’t waiting out there in outer space? If you’re afraid to face tomorrow, grabbing a shovel is as good a distraction as anything else.

“Dig in both directions,” Platnikov orders at one point under growing pressure from the President to get results after the classified mission gets exposed in the press. It’s in that confident yet uncertain declaration where the cosmically grounded, darkly comic, and surprisingly moving Triumph is at its most provocative. Coupled with a growing discord between Pirina and Slava — who becomes the biggest believer of them of all — over the influence of the dig, Triumph suggests that even as the old ways crumble, the misguided, manipulative, and corrupted grasp for power will still be there, no matter what democracy says. And if it’s that the case, maybe it’s better if the aliens hold off on making first contact.

Director: Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva
Screenplay: Kristina Grozeva, Decho Taralezhkov, Petar Valchanov
Cast: Maria Bakalova, Margita Gosheva, Julian Vergov, Julian Kostov, Stanislav Ganchev, Ivan Savov
Producers: Konstantina Stavrianou, Irini Vougioukalou, Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov, Maria Bakalova, Julian Kostov
Cinematography: Krum Rodriguez
Production design: Ivelina Mineva
Costume design: Ivelina Mineva
Editing: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Music: Theodore OikonomouIvan
Sound: Ivan Andreev, Kostas Varympopiotis
Production companies: Abraxas Film (Bulgaria), Graal Films (Greece)
World sales: Bankside
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Platform)
In Bulgarian
97 minutes