The Characters of Georgi, the little brother, and Isil, the turkish girl, are entirely fictional. I wanted to juxtapose Georgi with Itso, in order to observe and understand how confusion and alienation are born. Family, friends, city and country take part in conditioning human beings, and then these conditioned beings are in constant conflict with the very same environment that conditioned them. What interested me in this comparison was to follow how the little brother became like his older brother. Georgi’s addiction or Neonazi gangs are mere illustrations of the same thing.
I was looking for a way to illustrate Itso’s past, the origin of his suffering, without showing it too directly. The character of Georgi - his 17 year old little brother - illustrates the beginning of Itso’s alienation. Everything surrounding Georgi - his parents, his friends and the city Sofia - leave him confused. His spiritually handicapped parents only prolong their suffering through their own children. I find the notion of parental responsibility interesting. When the two brothers meet up again, they finally communicate. They see each other as they would looking into a mirror. One looks into the past, the other into the future – yet both are lost and afraid. And the reason the two brothers meet is because of the young Turkish girl, Isil. She speaks of strange things, of souls born again and a world that trembles. She is teeming with a different kind of creative energy.
Itso and Isil’s relationship is unique. I didn’t want them to be physically attracted to each other so that their bond would transform into a typical love story. To me, Isil just had a transformative experience and she needs to share it. Both characters are very open and their positive energy begins to circulate freely. This energy goes beyond nationalities or any other label that people can invent. Many Bulgarians still feel hatred towards our Southern neighbors. Five hundred years of Ottoman rule has weighed heavily. A Turkish girl can easily be poorly perceived. Anything can be imagined: from the Sultan’s daughter to an illiterate daughter of gastarbeiter (guest-workers) heading to Berlin.
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