Theodore Ushev, the auteur behind renowned animated shorts such as Tower Bawher, Gloria Victoria, Oscar®-nominated Blind Vaysha and his masterful The Physics of Sorrow, reveals his inner universe, formed by a half-century of personal experience acquired in a constantly changing world.
In this feature documentary by Borislav Kolev, Ushev reminisces about the “unseen connections” in his life—biographical and historical, cultural and subcultural. Connections that shaped him as a person and an artist.
Constantly interlacing a so-called “objective” reality and the parallel reality constructed by Ushev in his films and conceptual visual works, Theodore Ushev: Unseen Connections sends viewers on a trip through time and space. They witness a variety of past events, ranging from the funny and the sad to the downright absurd. And they learn much about the artist and his world.
Theodore Ushev, the auteur behind a number of renowned animated shorts, reveals his inner universe, formed by a half-century of personal experience acquired in a constantly changing world.
In this feature documentary by Borislav Kolev, Ushev reminisces about the “unseen connections” in his life—biographical and historical, cultural and subcultural. Connections that shaped him as a person and an artist.
Theodore Ushev, the auteur behind a number of renowned animated shorts, reveals his inner universe, formed by a half-century of personal experience acquired in a constantly changing world.
The goal of this film is to help viewers see the unseen connections between key moments in Theodore Ushev’s personal and artistic life. To bring to light the things and events that made Theo a world-renowned artist, an individual with a voice and a point of view—sometimes, even, a point of view that’s been considered radical, eliciting anger from many directions. To bring light to the artist’s life in the same way that, in this film, UV light illuminates secret signs left by Theo throughout the city of Sofia at night, in a plotline that runs through the documentary and ultimately acquires symbolic significance.
The film explores the subject of memory; the spiritual and aesthetic influences that form the artist’s worldview and creative stance; the amalgamation of genetic roots and a cosmopolitan mindset; the role of loneliness and rage in the struggle to not only survive but to leave a mark on the world.
Theodore Ushev: Unseen Connections is not a simple film portrait. It’s a journey through time, through historical events and societal upheaval, through the cultural and subcultural movements of a turbulent 50-year period filled with rapid change, hope and hopelessness, happiness and disappointment, triumph and disaster.
The structure of the film is polyphonic, moving freely through time and space in unison with Theo’s way of life, constantly travelling around the world, and resonating with quotes from his art. The main idea is to show that these scenes from his films and these clips of his installations and performances have real-life events as their basis. So fiction and reality are constantly interlaced, enriched with uniquely intriguing archival footage.
The original music by the composer Kottarashky, Theo’s preferred music creator and collaborator, as well as unconventional songs by Bulgaria’s first punk band, New Flowers, give the film an additional emotional charge.
A man looking back at his path from child to adult—through childhood games, maturity, love, separation, life-changing decisions, the loneliness of both geographical and spiritual emigration, the creative drive—would suggest an emotional and slightly nostalgic film. But Unseen Connections offers a bit of humour, too. It offers the essential balance between sad and funny, serious and merry. As seen in every good artwork.
As seen in life.
A Projector Ltd. and National Film Board of Canada Co-production
With the support of
Bulgarian National Film Center
With the support of
Sofia Municipality
With the support of
Bulgarian National Television
In co-production with
Cineflo
Directed by
Borislav Kolev
Written by
Maria Landova
Producers
Maria Landova
Marc Bertrand
Borislav Kolev
Eli Koleva
Executive Producers
Lora Chenakova
Christine Noël
Director of Photography
Miroslav Gaydoshik
Original score by
Nikola Gruev (Kottarashky)
Songs by
Novi Tsvetya (New Flowers)
Editor
Miroslav Gaydoshik
Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer
Alexander Simeonov, BFSS
With the special participation of
Theodore Ushev
With the participation of
Valya Usheva
Georgi Gospodinov
Albena Mihaylova (Benji)
Galina Lardeva
Hristo Dermendzhiev
Hristo Hristov
Mariana Pancheva
Evgeni Serafimov
Also featuring
Novi Tsvetya (New Flowers)
Ivan Popov (Johnny)
Valery Stoichkov
Krasimir Barakliiski
Angel Pavlov
Colosseum circus performers
Lucrezia Malevolti
Momchil Kolev
Maximilian Kolev
Lucia Koleva
Mario Malevolti
Waldemar Malevolti
Coco the clown (Nikola Boychanov)
Location Sound Mixer
Alexander Simeonov, BFSS
Sound Post-production Facility
Sonus Ltd.
Colour Grading
Miroslav Gaydoshik
Poster Design
Theodore Ushev
Voiceover
Vasil Varbanov
Translation and Subtitling
Hristo Hristov
Svetla Protitch
Sette
Accountant
Darina Dragova
Legal Counsel
Mariana Andreeva
National Film Board of Canada Team
Technical Coordinators
Mira Mailhot
Esther Viragh
Studio Coordinators
Laetitia Seguin
Rose Mercier-Marcotte
Administrator
Karine Desmeules
Senior Production Coordinator
Josiane Bernardin
Line Producer
Anne-Marie Bousquet
Technical Director
Eric Pouliot
Technical Specialist, Animation
Yannick Grandmont
Online Editor
Serge Verreault
Graphic Design
Mélanie Bouchard
Legal Counsel
Peter Kallianiotis
Marketing Manager
François Jacques
Special thanks to
Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria
Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Bulgaria
St. Cyril and Methodius School, Kyustendil, Bulgaria
U P.A.R.K. Gallery, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
DOLCE CASA store, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France
Plamen Yordanov
Nina Altaparmakova
Emil Hristov
Tonislav Hristov
Margarita Stefanova
Kerstin Boyadzhiyska
Yovo Nikolov
Ivan Andreev
Radost Kotseva
Yanaki Dermendzhiev
Lyuba Marichkova
Laëtitia Socquet
Véronique Dumon
Luiza Tahmisyan
Songs – Music, Lyrics and Performance by Novi Tsvetya (New Flowers)
“Life”
“Soft Porn and Hardcore”
“Radiation”
“Pop-folk”
Film excerpts from the National Film Board of Canada collection
Tower Bawher, Theodore Ushev © 2005 NFB
Drux Flux, Theodore Ushev © 2008 NFB
Lipsett Diaries, Theodore Ushev © 2010 NFB
Gloria Victoria, Theodore Ushev © 2012 NFB
Blind Vaysha, Theodore Ushev © 2016 NFB
The Physics of Sorrow, Theodore Ushev © 2019 NFB
The Physics of Sorrow – The Technique (Making Of) © 2019 NFB
Excerpts from other films by Theodore Ushev
Nightingales in December, 2011, music by Spencer Krug & Sunset Rubdown
Demoni, 2012
The Sleepwalker © 2015 Unité Centrale / Bonobo Studio
Apocalypsis © 2018 Momenti Foundation
Living in a Box © 2020 Mortadella TV
Archive of performances by Theodore Ushev
Diagonals, Montreal, Canada, designed and programmed by Iregular © 2014 NFB & Quartier des Spectacles
In the Mirror, Dimly, Sofia City Art Gallery, Bulgaria, curated by Adelina Fileva © 2018 Desislava Bineva
Archival Films
Yesterday © 1988 Boyana State Feature Film Studio / Bulgarian National Film Center, directed by Ivan Andonov, written by Vlado Daverov, Krasimir Kostov DOP
Plovdiv. European Capitals of Culture © 1985 BNT, directed by Lyudmil Staykov, written by Angel Wagenstein, Atanas Tasev DOP
Breakfast in the Old Town © 1974 BNT, directed by Vasil Minchev, written by Petar Karaangov, Hristo Ganov, Valentin Hristov DOP
Video Archives
Bulgarian National Television
Annecy International Animation Film Festival / Megapix’ailes Production
Harbour Island Records
Footage by Theodore Ushev
Footage by Stefan Hristov
Footage by Kalin Serapionov
Footage by Desislava Bineva
Theodore Ushev’s personal archive
Bulgarian National Television Archive Team
Nikolay Nanev
Desislava Boyadzhieva
Albena Kostadinova
Photo Archives
Theodore Ushev’s personal archive
Photo by Marc Bertrand
—
Bulgarian National Film Center
Sofia City of Cinema
© 2022 Projector / National Film Board of Canada