Interview with Rouzie Hassanova
Interview with Rouzie Hassanova
Question : What is your new film about? What is its theme?
Does it concern the name-changing period?
Rouzie Hassanova : No, it slightly touches on this problem, but the subject matter is about freedom and music. A human story between father and son - how in 1971 a father departs from an unnamed village to the town to buy a radio for his son. The son is obsessed by the rock and roll music, which at that time is banned, while the father wants the radio for himself too because he wants to listen to the "Free Europe" radio station. He also wants the radio for the entire village, because at the time men used to gather to listen to the radio. So, he has three reasons for buying a new radio. Along the way he naturally becomes aware of many things and returns a new man. And instead of buying a radio, he buys a radiogramophone. He returns as good as new – with the idea that the freedom after which he so desperately aspires, does not come from being free physically, but by the way you feel. That a name means nothing. Along the way the father realizes that this music will give freedom and future to his son. And he is the new generation, which will liberate Bulgaria from communism in the coming years. The film abounds in music, we have many Rhodope songs, old songs, which we’ve mixed with rock songs for which we already have the copyright. Our composer is a Pole. This is the essence of the film.
Q: Does t he action in the film happen during the first name-changing wave ?
R. H. : No, actually there were many waves. In 1956 there was a renaming campaign, which was unsuccessful. Then they started from 1971 to 1974 - 1975 when the authorities managed to change the names of all Bulgarian Mohammedans. And the largest scale renaming wave was in 1984. First they started with the Gypsies - shortly after 1944, then the Bulgarian Mohammedans - quietly, without anyone knowing. But it's a background while the heart of our story is music and freedom.
The film has already been attacked - that it is anti-Bulgarian because the story takes place mainly among the Bulgarian Mohammedans and shows the dirty side of the Bulgarians in Europe, that it has been made with the idea of exposing Bulgaria in Europe. That is, whether I’m a Bulgarian, or not. But I’m extremely proud of being a Bulgarian. Wherever I go, I talk with enormous love about Bulgaria, about my kin, the Rhodope mountains. All of us are Bulgarians, regardless of our religion...
Alexander Hadzhiangelov is our main actor, he is the father. He is a new discovery, this is his first film, he comes from the Youth Theatre and he is incredible. Alex Alexiev plays Zahariev, Yana Titova plays Yasmin. Stefan Mavrodiev, Phillip Avramov participate in the film in cameo roles. Kiril Prodanov is the cameraman – this is also his first film. But as he had travelled throughout Bulgaria on foot, there wasn’t more suitable person than him to shoot this film. He loves nature as much as I do, and this was very important in order to see the beauty of the Rhodope Mountains. The whole film crew was very eager to film this story. All of us, including me, took part in the film because many people from the region were anxious to be photographed - these are people who are not educated, to me they are beautiful, but they did not understand what we were doing. You can’t make them wait for 12 hours a day - they have hay, cows - no one wanted to stay on the shooting location for more than 2-3 hours.
Q: You made the film with little money. How does it affect your work?
R. H. : Actually, we tell a fairy tale, we have a bear, a donkey, a sheep, a wolf, a dog, an ant, a bee. This is how we made it - as a fairy tale and it will be like this after assembly, it is very beautiful and poetic. We have a scene with rain. But we had no money for tankers. And I said – we will pray for rain. And as early as the first week we heard that there would be thunders coming from the Balkan range and it turned out that a big storm would come from the mountains. We left everything else, dressed the actor and got ready. The storm last about 10 minutes, but we managed. And the rain is seen against the background of all mountains. The film had a lucky start and I hope to finish it like this.
The camera was sent from Poland (by the Polish co-producer) - as a percentage of their participation in the film. We can not pay their honorariums, we could hardly pay ours ... We had a small investment from Turkey, but it is in return for copyrights. It was good that we had it, so that we could provide the money for the film. Otherwise we would not manage to make it - concerning costumes and decor, a four week trip of a large crew of 30-35 people. We managed, but it was very difficult. I wanted a week of preparation of the actors on the film location - to feel the atmosphere and dialogue, we used the local dialect. The actors were so inspired by this idea that they themselves wanted to speak a dialect. It was incredible, the dialect sounds very natural. It just becomes like a foreign film, even for me, it is better than I've imagined it.
I and Kiro (cameraman Kiril Prodanov) also wanted to have a bit more complex single pictures – we wanted to have at least 5-6 shots to be remembered by people. However, one such single picture takes hours - preparation for lighting, rails, cranes ... I expect to make it within 10 minutes, it takes about two hours. To shoot in a car takes a lot of time. These are details – I don’t know how to shoot them, if I haven't made them before.
Our film crew is very young - it helped us a lot and a lot to bring us together. The feeling on the location was very good, finally there were tears. But there were as well tense moments when I lost my nerve ...
Now we have to think where from we will find the money for postproduction in order to finish the film. I myself can assemble the entire film - if I have more time and then we’ll do the sound.
Q: Is there in your films a worldview or sensitivity that are different from the films made by men?
R. H. : I’ve made at least 5 short films, a 10 minute musical about an organization in England, which represents modern slavery. Because there are forms of slavery to this very day, especially in England. People from Rwanda, Nigeria come to uncles and aunts and they use them as slaves – they keep them in a basement. My story was precisely about that - a girl of 16 – the way she came to her uncle. But as the story is very severe, we decided to alleviate it and turn it into a musical. Three months of preparation and just two days of shooting. For me it was a great experience. Because to spend three months with a film crew and fight for a better choreography, or better music – it really gives you more courage and confidence as a film director and it indeed helped me a lot for the film we are shooting now.
Earlier it was A Tree Without Roots. We made it in December 2012, when it was extremely cold, minus 10 degrees C. It was good to work with Vassil Mihaylov, Stefan Shterev and Lyubov Lyubcheva - four days of filming. We managed to make the film look like as if we had made it in Germany. From then on, I began developing a one-shot style - if I can catch the whole scene in one take, it is better for me than cutting it into 4 or 5 frames to be on the safe side. Vasil hadn’t done anything like that so far and felt tired during the seventh take. We continued until it's perfect. In this way we shot almost the entire film. For some scenes we have 15 retakes each. And even more. All say this - well, it's good it’s not a tape. I have never filmed on tape.
Q: Why did you choose the film directing profession and how come you studied in London?
R. H. : Every weekend my sister and I used to go from Kazanlak to the British Centre in Stara Zagora to take books and read. We passed the TOEFL / SAT exams to get an equivalency certificate for universities. We began sending applications; I was admitted in London in 1998. It was very difficult. I was first admitted to the Richmond University, and then I transferred to the London College of Printing, now they call it the London College of Communications. There I was admitted to the acting class. Dad was not very happy. Then I wanted to be an actress, although I have always written short stories, directed short plays, not plays but sketches in the theatre in Kazanlak - I was in the theatre group there. A year later I decided it was not for me and transferred to the film direction class.
To support myself I worked as a waitress in a private club for people employed in the media. There are such clubs worldwide, the last one of which is in Turkey. But at that time the club was the only one - in Soho. I was very well paid, I worked from 17:00 to 3:00 o’clock in the morning, but it was no obstacle for me, at the age of 18-19 you have a lot of energy. Four years passed unnoticed. But it all was a good luck.
Q: As a woman, have you had any professional difficulties in your work?
R. H. : After graduation, I started from scratch. I left the restaurant and began work as a "runner" in a post production company. It was once called VTR, now it is called Prime Focus and is a huge global company. They paid a pittance, but I endured two years and decided to quit. I also had personal concerns. I left - I've always regretted it, because I liked post production. I was lucky to work for Jeremy Thomas in London, not at his production company, but as a sales agent. I was obsessed to work for Jeremy Thomas. We studied him at the university - he is the greatest producer in London. Every two weeks I wrote letters to the effect that I very much want to work for him, I knocked on the door and was successful, not in the producing sphere, but in the sales. This is a very strenuous sphere, we travelled constantly. I began work there in 2005 and spent a year and a half, but in 2012 I was sure that Bulgarian National Film Centre - NFC would give us money and quit. But they did not give us any money. The following year they didn’t give us money, either. I think the big scandal was in 2013 ... then my niece was born and in August 2014 we were approved when applying for low-budget films and in April 2015 we were told how much money they would give us and we reacted in no time, we started preparing very quickly, we had only three weeks for this and it was very difficult for the whole film crew. Despite that we shot many good things.
Together with Paul Vesnakov we were nominated for funding from the Robert Bosch Foundation. Neither of us took any money, the money went to a boy from Albania, whose film was not at all shot and didn't come out, while we both made our films. For this reason they gave him support for the film Zeus.
Then despite everything I and Ralitsa Veleva – a producer, with whom we were nominated for the film, decided to make it. And we collected money over Internet through a platform Sponsor me. It is an English platform and even if you don’t manage to collect all the money you have applied for, they give it to you. Then we collected 1500 British pounds, Ralitsa and I invested a solid amount from both of us, and this is how we shot the film. We decided that it makes no sense to wait for funding.
Q: As a woman did you have to make any sacrifices for the sake of your career and profession?
R. H. : I feel as if half of my life has passed in some jogging, running. And I've felt nothing. I’ve been constantly racing with myself to make a career, and in the meantime I want to live, I can’t even go to the cinema. I’ve been in Bulgaria for two months and I can’t see the film "Lesson". Sacrifices all the time ... especially concerning women. We work much more, they have much less trust and confidence in us ...
Currently I again work for a Sales company. I tried to find work in production companies in England, but they are afraid that I know a lot and don't want to hire me. And finally I returned to the sales. Now I work for Mr. Smith, as is the name of the company of David Garrett. They make different films - worth 20 million and over ... this is another world - Hollywood, there is nothing to do with European cinema. There is no creativity in it, everything is money and business. But I learn many things.