The Physics of Sorrow
Part of Thistles and Sunflowers festival and Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022
27-29 May 2022 | Daily 12, 1 and 2pm | Scottish Storytelling Centre | 43-45 High Street Edinburgh EH1 1SR
Tickets are on a Pay What You Can scale. Suggested amount is £5
Enjoy the Scottish premiere of five short films from the last ten years by the Academy Award nominated Bulgarian-Canadian animator and political activist Theodore Ushev.
Delve into folk tales of demons painted directly on 50 vinyl records, galloping to the catchy rhythms of Bulgarian musician and composer Kottarashky in Ushev’s Demons (2012).
Feel the pulse of the surrealist poem Romance Sonambulo by the Spanish bard Federico García Lorca, coming alive in Ushev’s ode to joy Sleepwalker (2015) set to Joan Miró-inspired abstract imagery and Kottarashky syncopated Opa Hey music.
Walk to the dark side of surrealism, from Guernica to Dresden, with Ushev’s Gloria Victoria (2013). With a poignant peace message, this film is propelled by the ‘invasion’ theme of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, resonating with our outrage for the current war in Ukraine.
Embrace Ushev’s first collaboration with the outstanding Bulgarian writer and poet Georgi Gospodinov in Blind Vaysha (2016) – nominated in the Best Animated Short category at the 89th Academy Awards for its linocut style and powerful protagonist – the wee girl Vaysha born with the superpowers to see the past out of her left eye and the future through her right.
Get immersed in Ushev’s The Physics of Sorrow (2019) (Trailer) – his most ambitious work to date, also adapted from Gospodinov’s novel. A compelling portrait of an everyman consumed by melancholy and the need to belong. Discover also Gospodinov’s poem Love featured in Thistles and Sunflowers Poetry Trail.
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The Physics of Sorrow programme is curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Daniela Dimova-Yaneva as a partnership between Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre Scotland, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Bulgarian Culture Institute London and Edinburgh Short Film Festival.
Part of Year of Stories 2022 and Thistles and Sunflowers festival running 18 May – 5 June 2022 at Scottish Storytelling Centre – a spotlight on stories and artists from the lands of thistles and sunflowers. An initiative of Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre Scotland, Thistles and Sunflowers is curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Daniela Dimova-Yaneva and supported by the City of Edinburgh Council Flexible Fund, as well as Tasgadh Fund for Traditional Arts devolved from Creative Scotland and managed by Fèisean nan Gàidheal.
ILIYANA NEDKOVA 
2 thoughts on “Theodore Ushev”