Otklonenie

Somewhere on the road two mature people meet. She is an archeologist and he is a successful engineer. Seventeen years earlier they had a brief but tempestuous love affair. That was just after the war: the time of big construction projects, of fervent enthusiasm and faith in the future. Wishing to dedicate themselves entirely to the service of society they have renounced personal happiness, considering their love as a forbidden sidetrack from the requirements of the time. Now after all this time they revive the memory of the tiny garret room, of the short-lived feelings, which they sacrificed. While they are `sidetracked` again from the daily routine of their cares and responsibilities, they come to realize that noble goals and aspirations are not incompatible with love - the greatest emotional asset of man. Written by the poet Blaga Dimitrova and based on one of her prose stories, "Side Track" explores the contradictory inner life of the politically energetic postwar generation. The film is perhaps reminiscent of Antonioni in its arid mood, and of Resnais in its elliptical examination of the past through the eyes of the present; but its concerns are particular to the Bulgarian "revolutionary" generation, older in 1967 and facing the faults of the political system and the corruption of the ideal. The elegant chamber piece is highly regarded for the fine acting performances by Nevena Kokanova and Ivan Andonov, and for a rare irony in its approach to the revolutionary spirit of the immediate postwar years.