"Omnipresent" is a human film to its last frame. Honest, bitter, and cruel - even a little crueler than you want it to be. The seemingly simple story, focusing on painfully well known life experiences, is actually much more than just Big Brother in cinemas. The film has enough layers for anyone who has the desire to get into them. You've heard of the phrase "a film about"... well, this is a film about a thousand things. About personal limits. About difficult secrets. About the fragility of the human soul. About love. About art. About the confusion of human relationships. About feeling low. About the media. About inspiration. About nudity. About freedom. About God most interesting, containing within all the others, is the God angle. The paths to musings about Him in the film are visual, narrative, and meaningful. The protagonist of the film, Emil, says "you must know only as much as you can bear", which reminds us of the biblical truth that "he who gains knowledge, carries sorrow." God himself may be looking through Emil's eyes, but only seemingly... maybe.
The story
Emil is not just an ad agent, Emil is a writer. This is a detail that inevitably leads us to the idea of the Artist, the creator of worlds. And like any inspiration, his idea to describe this mysterious world around him comes about quite accidentally. In the meantime, surveillance cameras turn into a mirror of hidden existences, which until recently have been buried somewhere in the subconscious of the film's characters; as if right there, in the unrecognized truths before us, we are both most human and least human, alas.
The cast
Velislav Pavlov, who is a perfect, perfect Emil, didn't just accidentally nab a lead actor "Golden Rose" for this portrayal. Teodora Duhovnikova also earned herself a "Golden Rose" for her female lead in the film. Besides her, Vesela Babinova (for whom Omnipresent is a feature debut!), Irmena Chichikova, Anastasia Lyutova and actors such as Boris Lukanov and Mihail Mutafov are a real joy to watch on screen, for which I am thankful!
There is no way to miss the great (as always) camera work of Emil Hristov, who quite unobtrusively and masterfully mixes in the voyeuristic vision behind the hidden cameras. It is another play on duality – that between the perfection we seek in the world and the raw picture of our true essences - without assembly, in dead colors, unadulterated, just as it is.
Тhe film is directed by Ilian Djevelekov, (well-known from his feature-length debut "LOVE.NET"). Ilian teamed up with Matey Konstantinov to write this screenplay). The producer is Miramar Film, also the creators of "LOVE.NET" and "Zift". In short, you have a team with proved success. Another reason to hope for a good screening future for "Omnipresent".
In short...
I recommend "Omnipresent" with both hands because such films - about broken human relationships and fuzzy interpersonal boundaries - are not often done in our country, at least not from this very personal angle. It's probably not easy to direct such an honest film, perhaps requiring a monstrous dose of personal reflection, but that's just the key to the kinds of stories you talk about for hours, and you think about for days, and you remember for weeks. And if you look a little deeper, you can find the best thing in them - hope.
To those who are tempted by cinema from inside, I would like to add that in one of its layers, "Omnipresent" is also a film about art and its meaning. Especially for this, my most favorite – the art behind the camera. Beyond the "Big Brother story", the film reminds us that we CAN, indeed, create stories about joy. As this seems most deserving to remain preserved forever after us.
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