Saturday | May 6, 2000 9:00 pm

Here Am I

Screening on Film

Directed by Joshua Dorsey and Douglas Naimer.
With Ivailo Tsvetkov, Ivailo Christov, Josef Sergichiev.
Canada, 1999, 35mm, black & white, 72 min.
Bulgarian with English subtitles.

Set in the nineteenth century and shot entirely on location in Bulgaria, this film tells the story of a village ruined in war and the fright of a boy and a mute scribe who carry with them a sacred Hebrew text. The pair is pursued by an invading horseman who is interested in the text’s mystic powers. Writer-directors Dorsey and Naimer studied East European Jewish history for two years before embarking for Bulgaria, where they claim to have "found" their remarkable film: they wrote the story on the spot and filmed it, working with distinguished Bulgarian actors and making use of the region’s striking landscapes and architecture.