‘The Dreamed Adventure’ director talks about subverting the Western genre

At the beginning of German director Valeska Griesebach’s “Dreams”, a chiseled, distinctive man stumbles into a dusty border town where he has been missing for years. That has changed, and we have discovered that he has changed too. It’s like the beginning of a western movie.

This is no coincidence, Griesbach told Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere in Cannes competition on Friday. She was inspired to make this film after filming the film ‘Western’ in Bulgaria. This film also used this genre to explore the Eastern European country.

In “Dream Adventure,” set on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, she not only surveys the country’s troubled present, but also traces the roots of modern ills in the wild west of the 1990s, when the mafia filled the void left by communist agents after the fall of communism.

When he and a lonely, strong man with a mysterious past, his name is Said, ride into town, something strange happens. He goes missing, and in his place we follow Beska, a friend from his youth. She is an archaeologist who has returned to her hometown to excavate the ruins of an ancient civilization.

Through Beska’s eyes, we see the town and its devastated people struggling to survive on the fringes of the transnational economy that has passed them by, just as the town was sidelined by a new highway linking Europe and Turkey.

There are two worlds in this movie. The world of night is full of danger and menace, but it also promises good times. And a relatively boring and peaceful daytime world. Today, as in the ’90s, men rule the night, but women like Beska in the ’90s and Maria (the teenage girl she takes care of) in the present day find themselves drawn to the allure of the night’s demimonde.

“In the ’90s, nights were male-dominated and dangerous, but in a world of power, money, and sexuality, I could understand why women would want to be part of it, to party and have fun, to say, ‘I can be there, too,'” Griesbach says.

We follow Veska as she delves into the past in ruins by day and the underworld of a town ruled by local mafia boss Ilya by night.

She knew Ilya in the 1990s. Ilya calls this era the “Golden Age of Man”, when rival gangs fought for control of towns and entire countries. But now she is no longer afraid of him.

The Western genre has always-present influences, but Griesbach subverts some of those tropes. For example, a duel is expected to take place, she says. Everything leads us to believe that Beska and Ilya will face off, or that Sayid will step in and save the day. It’s like a modern-day Shane. But no, in this movie, words, not bullets, are the ammunition, and it’s the truth, not the ranch, that’s at stake.

“This genre seeks conflict, but for me it was more interesting to tackle the idea of ​​who’s strong and who’s weak. Who’s on top and who’s on the bottom? Frankly, who’s shitting and who’s being shitted?” Griesbach says.

The film has an ambivalence towards the wild days of the 1990s. “I was full of hope for democracy and capitalism,” Griesbach says. Many people dreamed of starting their own business. “People said to me, ‘We all dreamed of becoming millionaires.’ They thought, ‘I can be somebody, too,’ but many people don’t become somebody,” she says.

Nostalgia for this difficult decade was more common among men. “When I remember[the ’90s]it was like being drunk,” she says.

“The Dreamed Adventure” is produced by Komplizen Film in collaboration with Grisebach, Kazak Productions (France), Miramar Film (Bulgaria), Panama Film (Austria), New Matter Films (Germany), ARTE France Cinéma, ZDF/ARTE, and in collaboration with ARTE France. Producers are Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade of Komplizen Film. Match Factory sells worldwide.