Interview with Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov

The Literary Saloon brings to our attention an interview with Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov.

An excerpt:

Focus: Where should we seek salvation from the economic crisis? You said we could find it in science.

Georgi Gospodinov: Salvation lies in us understanding that the economic crisis is not solely economic and that the exhaustion of basic things, like human culture and civilisation, lies behind it. This is a crisis of civilisation, not just of economy. This is why I envisage art’s life-saving role as a machine for sense and solace. Things, that we think have long ago happened, will be happening – very simple things. We will be moving towards a new type of ecology – not just of environment, but of men, if we really want to survive.

As mentioned in a previous post, our next issue focuses on Bulgaria and just might include an interview with Gospodinov, along with an excerpt from his new novel. Stay tuned!

Absinthe Recommends: Films

An early look at some of the film recommendations coming up in Absinthe 15:

My Queen Karo

Directed by Dorothée van den Bergh

Netherlands/Belgium, 2009

Ten-year-old Karo lives a happy, carefree life with her mother, Dalia, and Raven, her father, along with a community of hippy squatters in 1970s Amsterdam.  However, when Raven brings another woman and her children into the community, Karo has to grow up quickly and deal with the moral dilemmas associated with free love, shared living, and appropriated housing. 

  

Hunting Down Small Predators

Directed by Tsvetodar Markov

Bulgaria, 2010

Four teenagers take to petty crime to raise some money for a vacation to the seaside but when their scheme to kidnap the cats of a wealthy old woman brings them dangerously close to a mobster and drug trafficker, they might just find themselves in deeper than they imagined in this dark comedy by Bulgarian director Markov.