Summary
A sun-drunk Sofia boulevard, circa 1917, exhales dust and mandarins; into this jittery cosmos stroll two adolescents whose pulses drum louder than the trams. She, a ribboned whirlwind with the family villa for ball-and-chain; he, a penniless philology student whose eyes devour her like unwritten verses. Their clandestine Eden is a cramped party-shop, its paper lanterns trembling each time they whisper futures that smell of confetti and ozone. But Aunt Kera—a matriarch carved from walnut and protocol—has already wired Gabrovo for a bridegroom fattened on banknotes. The telegram arrives like a winter bullet: „Nephew arrives tomorrow.“ Lovers panic, invent theater. A dormitory pal is recruited; wardrobes are ransacked; monocles and walking sticks become artillery. First masquerade: the student, now twitching, stammering, wild-eyed, confronts Aunt among her frozen geraniums; she recoils, slams doors, crosses herself thrice. Second masquerade: costume swap, roles reversed; the friend careers through the night garden howling Balkan nonsense, topiary trembling under his boots. Our hero, conveniently strolling by, „rescues“ the household, earns gratitude, tears the matrimonial contract in half, pockets the aunt’s blessing like a stolen apricot. Curtain falls on two silhouettes kissing against the iron gate—love vindicated through trickery, chaos transmuted into dowry.
Synopsis
The university student and a girl are in love. They make dates, visit a party shop. The girl's aunt opposes their love. She has decided to marry her off to a rich suitor from whose uncle she receives a telegram that his nephew will be arriving from Gabrovo. While Aunt Kera is asleep in the winter garden the young people meet. The girl informs her lover about the forthcoming visit. The student decides to cunningly discredit the suitor of her choice before the aunt. He changes clothes with his friend and poses as the expected wooer. In the conversation with Aunt Kera he feigns nervous tics. Scared she turns him out of the house. After a second change of clothes the two young man carry on the farce. The friend playing the part of the of the mentally deranged suitor raves round the garden, screaming and threatening. The student who happens to pass by chases him away. Having passed himself off for a hero in the aunt's eyes, he finally gets her blessing. The young couple fall into each other's arms.
Review Excerpt
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There is a moment—easy to miss if you blink—when the camera in Lyubovta e ludost lingers on a paper lantern swaying above a Sofia sidestreet. The lantern is cheap, crinkled, probably bought for five leva, yet in the tremulous flare of 1917 nitrate it glows like a pocket sun. That instant distills the entire film: gaudy, fragile, absurdly radiant. Vassil Gendov, pulling triple duty as co-writer, co-director, and comic chameleon, stages love not as destiny but as mischief, a carnival hustle wher..."
