The Dreamed Adventure: Knife-edge menace propels crime drama that subverts all the rules

The Dreamed Adventure

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Director: Valeska Grisebach

Cert: None

Starring: Yana Radeva, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov, Stoicho Kostadinov, Nikolay Shekerdjiev, Denislava Yordanova, Tiana Georgieva

Running Time: 2 hrs 44 mins

Valeska Grisebach’s film The Dreamed Adventure turns a Bulgarian border town into the setting for a crime drama that subverts all the rules of the game.

With a nod to the western, the gumshoe and the works of the Turkish film-maker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, this adventure accumulates through snippy conversations, ancient grievances and negotiations.

Said (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov) returns to Svilengrad to arrange a black-market diesel deal with a local figure known as the Raven. He reconnects with Veska (Yana Radeva), a former girlfriend now working on an archaeological dig near the border with Turkey.

When Said disappears Veska begins asking questions, gradually, insidiously taking over his business dealings and drawing the attention of Iliya (Stoicho Kostadinov), a local kingpin with a gated compound where pet peacocks roam. The region’s historical shift from communism into wild west – nay, Grand Theft Auto – capitalism underpins their murky relationship.

Veska’s attempts to find her friend are soon eclipsed by a wider portrait of a community wherein personal relationships, lawlessness and economic necessity blur.

Pay close attention to the sneaky script, which the director wrote with her fellow film-maker Lisa Bierwirth. Vital clues surface over drinks, often long before their significance becomes clear.

Within the cinematographer Bernhard Keller’s claustrophobic frame, it can be tricky to differentiate between shakedowns and flirtations.

There are, additionally, intriguing geographical peculiarities to unravel. Svilengrad’s position near the borders with Turkey and Greece shapes local paranoia and reticence. People know more than they let on. But co-operation with local criminals offers the path of least resistance.

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Radeva, a non-professional actor, gives Veska a raw energy. She is resourceful, canny and empathetic, yet she rarely resembles a conventional heroine.

The viewer fears for her throughout this edgy affair. Grisebach’s greatest achievement is sustaining knife-edge menace across a three-hour runtime, with only the scantest use of violence.

Welcome to bandit country. You have to haggle your way in and out.

The Dreamed Adventure is being screened at Belfast Film Festival on Sunday, November 1st