Description
A documentary about Lachezar Oshavkov, a Bulgarian painter, sculptor, and singer who has lived in Paris for more than half a century. It is not a conventional biographical portrait, nor an attempt to tell the artist’s life story in chronological order. Instead, it is the story of a man who once left his country but managed to preserve his inner freedom, his memory of home, and a rare ability to turn lived experience into art. Above all, it is a film about the freedom of the creative individual, memory, friendship, age, and the energy that lets him go on painting, singing, laughing, and marveling at the world.
About the director:
Andrey Chertov
Cinematographer and director. Born in Moscow. In 1974 he graduated from VGIK as a cinematographer (workshop of Professor Volchek). Since 1975, he has lived and worked in Bulgaria. Over the years, he has shot some 200 documentary and popular-science films and taken part in more than 15 fiction features. Among his work: the feature documentaries The Bright and Dark Sides of Things and Lullaby (1982), directed by Binka Zhelyazkova, on the lives of women in Sliven Prison; The Unknown About Ernst Neizvestny (1989), directed by Grigory Chertov, about the famed sculptor; and the fiction films The Adventures of Spas and Nelly (screened at Moscow International Film Festival, 1987), 8 Per Cent Love (1989), That Thing (1991), and The Alchemists (2000). As director he has made the feature documentaries Rainy Day (2013), Silent Movie (2016), and Once Upon a Time in Paris (2024). A member of the National Competition jury at the 36th Message to Man IFF.