COLLECTABLE STORIES: ТWO TIMES TWO

ТWO TIMES TWO

Short Talk with Andrey M. Paunov (director)

Drama / Bulgaria / 2023 / 14'53"

BEST NATIONAL FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024 

Synopsis: Two equal stories complement each other in a free meditation on the topic of violence.

Director's Biography: Bulgarian writer and director Andrey M. Paounov directed several award-winning documentaries including “Georgi and the Butterflies”, which won the Silver Wolf in Amsterdam in 2004, “The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories” (2007), selected in Cannes, and The Boy Who Was a King (2011). His latest documentary film Walking on Water, following renowned artist Christo, premiered at Locarno Festival 2018. Andrey’s first feature film January premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2022 and received the Best Director Award at the 26th Sofia International Film and Golden Rose National Film Festival Special Jury Prize.

Andrey Paunov, Director

Raya Hristova (journalist): ТWO TIMES TWO because you're showing а chain reaction, right?

Andrey M. Paunov (director): Yes, a multiplication. The film is made of two stories, each seven minutes long. It's basically the same story repeating itself with different characters. I initially wondered if I could make a story in two parts that make you imagine a third. So [hopefully] the third part starts playing for you after you see the film. It's an experiment in this way. 

We live in a world that constantly engages in violence, and this seems to be snowballing. I was inspired to make this film after I saw a video on YouTube, one of the first videos shared at the time via the first smart phones. It was two boys in an orphanage somewhere in Bulgaria slapping each other, with a third person orchestrating the whole thing. I was just so shocked. It was such incredible violence, albeit not a direct one. There was a sense of multiplicity [and proliferation] about it. You felt that every blow would bring another one, and there was no way out of it.

Raya Hristova: What was your experience with the teenage actors? Did they have previous acting experience?

Andrey M. Paunov: Some of them. One of the older boys had done quite few things. The others not so much, especially the smaller kids. It wasn’t the usual professional way you interact with adult actors. It was more complicated and much of it was about gaining trust. What we were doing was very intense. It's very hard to keep kids so focused in a dramatic situation, especially the 12–13-year-old ones with their skateboards. There were more than forty of them. It was really complicated. 

I let thе relationship between the older boys and the younger boys play out naturally. The older guys being well focused helped the smaller ones concentrate, too. You don't have to push much. If you build the right setting, it will take care of itself.

Raya's Take:

Two identical stories, each seven minutes long. Both have the same ending. A gripping framework.

This film plays with your imagination. After watching it you subconsciously imagine a follow-up third story. A kind of eternal loop. It's exactly what the director intended, and viewer evidence suggests he has succeeded.

The inspiration behind it was a real-life video, peacefully circulating on social media, showing two young guys in a public institution exchanging repeated blows, recorded and eventually published by someone else. 

Andrey Paunov examines violence and the oversized role it regrettably plays in our lives, his insight enhanced by his signature film making. Looking at the world he depicts, we feel an urge to escape. And the questions ring: Can someone or something break this cycle? Can we put an end to it?