Theodore Ushev’s new film, The Physics of Sorrow, had what is most likely the highest attendance ever for a short film at its Sofia premiere on November 17, 2019. The film played at Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture as part of the 33rd edition of the Kinomania festival and, according to organizers, sold nearly 3,000 tickets, in addition to being attended by hundreds of accredited press and industry members. With a capacity of 3,750 seats, Hall 1 was packed with film-goers eager to see the latest opus by the Bulgarian-born, Montreal-based director.
The enthusiastic audience gave the film a six-minute standing ovation. The screening was preceded by a cine-concert performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons by the Tokyo University of Arts. The Physics of Sorrow is a National Film Board of Canada production (Marc Bertrand) with the participation of ARTE France.
Narrated by Rossif Sutherland, with a special guest-voice appearance by Donald Sutherland, The Physics of Sorrow ranks as Theodore Ushev’s most ambitious, intimate and poignant film to date. Inspired by the novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, it is the first fully animated film made using the encaustic-painting technique. The Physics of Sorrow tracks the outlines of an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of circuses, bubble-gum wrappers, first crushes, army service from his youth in communist Bulgaria, and an increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada—all the while struggling to find home, family and self.