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- 2013-02-14 20:24:46
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“‘The Boy Who Was a King’ tells the best story that this part of Europe has to offer.” That is how writer and director Andrey Paounov replied when asked how he came up with the idea for his award-winning documentary, screened on Monday, Feb. 11 by the Documentary Movie Club.
Indeed, the story of the film sounds intriguing and fairytale-ish. At the age of six, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the heir to the Bulgarian throne suddenly found himself being called ‘your majesty’ instead of ‘your highness.’ The reason: his father, King Boris III, had suddenly died and it was Simeon’s duty to become the next monarch of the country.
[caption id="attachment_11690" align="alignleft" width="154" caption="Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Cotha, www.time.com"]
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After three years, however, in 1946, Simeon and his family were forced to leave the country when a referendum for the establishment of a republic was held. The royals were shipped to Egypt, and after living there for five years, they settled permanently in Spain. After continuing his education, raising a family and becoming a successful businessman, Simeon returned to Bulgaria in 1996 to win the parliamentary elections and become the 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Simeon’s political career ended after his party, The National Movement for Stability and Progress, failed to win the required number of votes to enter Parliament in the 2009 elections. Even though he was no longer a leading political figure in Bulgaria, Simeon did not leave the country and was obviously insulted when a journalist asked him whether he was going back to Spain after his political defeat.
The film itself looks beautiful and made with passion and dedication. Apart from interview segments and absolutely unique archival footage, the “The Boy Who Was a King” features different people and their stories, all somewhat connected to Simeon. The viewers saw a girl getting Simeon’s face tattooed on her back; a woman who designed a suit especially for the monarch and even had it sent to him; a Japanese couple who sang an original song about Simeon’s return from exile; a group of elderly people still sticking to the Communist idea and deciding on their weekly communist conference that Simeon must immediately leave the country .
Indisputably, “The Boy Who Was a King” is an interesting mixture of classical documentary and purely cinematic filmmaking techniques. The pieces that featured different people were carefully thought-out and executed with surgical precision. Some scenes, however, were slightly overdone. For example, the Japanese couple sang their song for a little too long, clearly because of the director’s pursuit of a comic effect. Even though the purpose was definitely achieved (the audience laughed and applauded strongly at the end of the music performance), the goal was made too obvious and thus spoiled to some extent the otherwise original idea.
“The Boy Who Was a King” is definitely an achievement for Bulgarian documentary filmmaking and is an interesting product both visually and conceptually. The focus is skillfully placed on both Simeon’s political career and personal life. Thus, for instance, the audience saw the monarch in an unfamiliar light: as a young and dashing man enjoying the pleasures of life and refuting claims that he was a ‘playboy’.
[caption id="attachment_11575" align="alignright" width="133" caption="The film premiered at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival"]
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The film is Andrey Paounov’s third documentary after “Georgi and the Butterflies” and “The Problem of Mosquitoes and Other Stories.” It premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and has been a huge success at various film forums worldwide. One review describes the story of the exiled-king-turned-Prime-Minister as “the greatest experiment of democracy today.” Taking into account that it happened so close to us and acknowledging the film’s indisputable artistic qualities automatically make seeing it a must.
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After three years, however, in 1946, Simeon and his family were forced to leave the country when a referendum for the establishment of a republic was held. The royals were shipped to Egypt, and after living there for five years, they settled permanently in Spain. After continuing his education, raising a family and becoming a successful businessman, Simeon returned to Bulgaria in 1996 to win the parliamentary elections and become the 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Simeon’s political career ended after his party, The National Movement for Stability and Progress, failed to win the required number of votes to enter Parliament in the 2009 elections. Even though he was no longer a leading political figure in Bulgaria, Simeon did not leave the country and was obviously insulted when a journalist asked him whether he was going back to Spain after his political defeat.
The film itself looks beautiful and made with passion and dedication. Apart from interview segments and absolutely unique archival footage, the “The Boy Who Was a King” features different people and their stories, all somewhat connected to Simeon. The viewers saw a girl getting Simeon’s face tattooed on her back; a woman who designed a suit especially for the monarch and even had it sent to him; a Japanese couple who sang an original song about Simeon’s return from exile; a group of elderly people still sticking to the Communist idea and deciding on their weekly communist conference that Simeon must immediately leave the country .
Indisputably, “The Boy Who Was a King” is an interesting mixture of classical documentary and purely cinematic filmmaking techniques. The pieces that featured different people were carefully thought-out and executed with surgical precision. Some scenes, however, were slightly overdone. For example, the Japanese couple sang their song for a little too long, clearly because of the director’s pursuit of a comic effect. Even though the purpose was definitely achieved (the audience laughed and applauded strongly at the end of the music performance), the goal was made too obvious and thus spoiled to some extent the otherwise original idea.
“The Boy Who Was a King” is definitely an achievement for Bulgarian documentary filmmaking and is an interesting product both visually and conceptually. The focus is skillfully placed on both Simeon’s political career and personal life. Thus, for instance, the audience saw the monarch in an unfamiliar light: as a young and dashing man enjoying the pleasures of life and refuting claims that he was a ‘playboy’.
[caption id="attachment_11575" align="alignright" width="133" caption="The film premiered at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival"][/caption]
The film is Andrey Paounov’s third documentary after “Georgi and the Butterflies” and “The Problem of Mosquitoes and Other Stories.” It premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and has been a huge success at various film forums worldwide. One review describes the story of the exiled-king-turned-Prime-Minister as “the greatest experiment of democracy today.” Taking into account that it happened so close to us and acknowledging the film’s indisputable artistic qualities automatically make seeing it a must.