Kozelyt

The writer Yordan Radichkov, whose novella the script is based on, endows animals with wisdom, insight and goodness. The billy goat is the narrator and a character in our story. He has come down to earth with a mission – to prevent people from finding a treasure hidden near an ancient Thracian sanctuary. The trumpet player Jonah moves into the remains of his grandfather’s house near where the treasure is hidden. In a tunnel under the house he finds a stone with a bird engraved on it and a map with an inscription in Arabic: “To have a house of gold, fall onto the sky and find the twin!” A copy of the same map brings Rumba and Emma to the same place. Rumba is Bulgarian and a passionate treasure-hunter. His wife is American and studies Bulgarian folklore as a way to fight globalization. Rumba wants to buy Jonah’s property so he can find the treasure. Jonah, whose flat in town was taken away from him by other foreigners because of debts, is afraid that the newcomers will deprive him of this property, too. A conflict arises between the foreign woman and the trumpet player that is strengthened by Jonah’s extreme nationalism. Two more people get mixed up in the conflict: Anani, Jonah’s elderly neighbor, and the Gypsy Ivanka, a woman Jonah sleeps with from time to time. Emma and Jonah start out as bitter enemies. They go through a number of ups and downs until in the end they begin to feel strongly attracted to each other. This attraction culminates in an inspired song – an improvisation on Bulgarian folk motives and American country music. They compose it together – Emma sings and Jonah accompanies her on the trumpet. Their unexpected romance goes on underground and in the water, at the bottom of a well… As the writer Radichkov says: “Man is a long sentence written with great love and inspiration but full of spelling mistakes.”