52 Films by Women Vol 10. 41. THE DREAMED ADVENTURE (Director: Valeska Grisebach)
Pictured: Archaeologist Veska (Yana Radeva, left) catches up with old friend Saïd (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov, right) in a scene from co-writer-director Valeska Grisebach's Bulgaria-set drama, 'The Dreamed Adventure'. Photograph courtesy of 'Haut et Court' (France)
The Dreamed
Adventure (Das Geträumte Abenteuer), the first film in nine years from German co-writer-director
Valeska Grisebach, runs for 2 hours and 44 minutes. The duration might seem
excessive but the slow rhythm of the film, focussing on conversations between groups
of people and featuring authentic faces rather than actors, together with a
mystery that Grisebach and her co-writer Lisa Bierwirth are in no hurry to
solve – the disappearance of what appears to be the main character – not to
mention the presence of shady types whose menace increases, keeps you riveted.
Grisebach’s choices are unexpected. She stretches narrative form with a
novelist’s touch. I was thoroughly absorbed.
For the first twenty
minutes or so, we think our protagonist is Saïd (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov), a
late middle-aged businessman who is driving to south-eastern Bulgaria,
specifically the town of Svilengrad, close to the Turkish border, where he
hopes to conclude a deal to purchase 10 tonnes of diesel fuel. On the way, he
has car trouble but happily nurses the vehicle back to life. He is on the phone
to a colleague, having discovered that there is a crack in a bucket that is
delaying a project. ‘Get a bank loan for five days,’ he tells the colleague.
‘Some of them don’t charge interest.’ His contact in Svilengrad is the Raven,
the sort of guy who doesn’t show up when he is supposed to. Asking a young man
at a café if he knows the Raven, the young man disappears and produces his
boss. ‘A lot of people are asking for the Raven,’ the older man tells him.
Forced to check into a cheap hotel, with the Raven promising to meet with him
the next day, Saïd goes for a nocturnal walk. Some young men pass him and show
off their athletic prowess. We sense the potential for violence. When Saïd
awakens the next day, he discovers that his car, a 1990’s white Passat, has
been stolen. Later we are told that nobody steals things in Svilengrad as
everyone knows everyone else, but that is just one of the unreliable statements
we hear.
Formerly resident in
Svilengrad, Saïd has history, in particular with a local gangster, Ilyia
(Stoicho Kostadinov), one of whose henchmen pulls up beside him, asking him to
get into his car. Saïd refuses. Happily, Saïd finds someone else he recognises,
Veska (Yana Radeva), who is running an archaeological dig and is one of the
area’s most prominent employers. He accepts her invitation to visit the site
and mends her metal detector, which has been disabled (rather than broken) by
someone. We suspect that it is to prevent metal objects being found; the motive
is never discussed. Saïd also asks Veska to accompany him to his meeting with
the Raven, to whom he pays half the money for the 10 tonnes of diesel. He will
pay the second instalment in a week. The Raven tells him that if he does not,
he will look for another buyer. Saïd takes the theft of his car in his stride
but upon returning to town discovers that he is locked out of his hotel. He
goes to a bar and buys a local man a drink (rakia, Bulgaria’s national tipple).
He is told he has a nerve. Saïd is implicated (indirectly) with the death of
the man’s brother, though the killer was never brought to justice. Saïd moves from the bar to the dance floor. A
much younger woman dances with him. There is a cut and Saïd disappears from the
narrative.
Pictured: Looking at a younger woman who reminds her of herself, Veska (Yana Radeva, right) converses with colleague, Maria (Denislava Yordanova, left) in a scene from co-writer-director Valeska Grisebach's Bulgarian-set drama, 'The Dreamed Adventure'. Still courtesy of 'Haut et Court' (France)
Grisebach then
follows Veska, who becomes the new principal viewpoint character. When a
colleague asks if Saïd is coming. Veska replies that he should be there, but
she doesn’t fully know her friend’s business.
Narrative imperative
takes a holiday. A typical scene will start with Veska (or Saïd) intending to
go to one place but then stopping off somewhere else. Indeed, when Saïd meets
the Raven, Veska is told to go for a walk. She ends up running into some Polish
women, workers at an electronics factory, who invite her for a coffee, which
turns out to be beer. When Saïd looks for her afterwards, he heads in a
different direction. Late in the evening, Veska finds him. She then drives him
to a family meal, where a table full of women comment on his good looks. Though
never stated explicitly, Veska is single. Grisebach constructs her scenes in
order to present possibilities. These aren’t always followed up - until they
are. In one conversation, an older woman mentions storing a valuable in the
ceiling cavity of a house. In a later scene, Veska wanders around a vacant
building, perhaps the one the woman referred to, fumbles around the ceiling and
discovers a gun, which may possibly have been used to shoot the aforementioned
brother. In an early scene, Saïd passes an inordinate number of parked lorries,
possibly linked to illegal migration. Grisebach builds up atmosphere by
focussing on details that are askew.
Veska has concerns
about her employees. An older colleague, Bai Hristo (Hristo Dimitrov) is
subject to intimidation by Ilyia’s men. His property is being used against his
wishes to house migrants and (possibly) stolen goods. Ilyia stops by the site,
looking for Saïd. He too has history with Veska but is currently not in a
relationship, although he lives in a large mansion with his young daughter. In
a much later scene, Veska brings the girl home but then has to take the girl
away again after a fight breaks out. Veska drives her to her grandmother’s
house.
A worker complains
that the untreated stony path to the site ruined her tyres. (‘Potholes
everywhere,’ another character remarks.) Veska telephones the Mayor, but he
refuses to meet with her. She doesn’t have that much leverage. Veska is also
concerned by Maria (Denislava Yordanova), a young worker who dates one of Ilyia’s goons. She recognises all too
well the kind of man he is and escorts Maria to a party at Ilyia’s house and then
out again, pursued by three men. One of them knocks Veska over. ‘I was only
joking,’ he says as Veska gets to her feet. The threat of rape is no joke.
Grisebach doesn’t
use extra diegetic music to create atmosphere. Instead, she maintains tension
through a series of outdoor dining or drinking scenes. At one point, Veska
visits Bai Hristo’s property to witness how it is being utilised. We see an
area filled with clothes, evidence that it was once used as living quarters.
Evading the men on the site, Veska steals a set of car keys and throws them in
the undergrowth. It is an act that brings men to Bai Hristo’s house, disrupting
his outdoor barbecue. Veska witnesses the attack and apologises to him
afterwards.
Saïd’s fate is
surprising as it is unremarkable. The film develops into a discussion about the
two ways of doing business in post-Communist Bulgaria as well as Saïd confronting
his past misdeeds. Bai Hristo gives Veska a telephone number that Saïd
requested, for the sister of the boy who was killed. The number belongs to a
hotel. Veska visits the property and speaks to the sister, who serves Veska
coffee while a staff member is on the phone. She does not want to revisit the
past and tells Veska she worked hard to build her business. ‘I travelled a
lot,’ she adds, describing how she wanted to recreate the comforts she herself
enjoyed.
The title refers to
the ambitions of younger characters, who contemplated better lives elsewhere. Saïd
is sanguine. Veska is more at ease with herself. The dig turns up some
interesting artefacts, as well as worthless coins dating back several
centuries. ‘They were thrown away,’ Veska explains, as much a comment on the
past as referring to Bulgarian currency devalued during recent years. Grisebach
doesn’t give her characters too much hope that criminal activity will cease to
impact on rural communities, though she remains affectionate throughout. The
film effuses a love of people, evidenced by the final line: ‘I’ve missed you.’
Reviewed at Screen
Four, Picturehouse Central, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, Monday 5 October 2026,
14:15, London Film Festival Press and Industry screening
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