Ralitza Petrova's Godless is a grim redemption story, a film steeped heavily in sorrow, isolation, pain, and decay. Set in post-communist, Bulgaria, Godless follows an unlikely protagonist in Gana, a nurse who spends her days caring for bed-ridden elderly patients. While her profession is one of empathy and selflessness, Gana herself couldn't be more deceptive and cruel, running a scam in which she steals her patients identification cards and sells them to corrupt police officers who make a handsome profit by selling them to shell corporations in what amounts to a heinous act of fraud. The money she makes fuels her morphine addiction, her only way of escaping her hardened existence, one of passionless solitude. In a place of such darkness and misery, Godless presents a story of hope and redemption, a film which evokes the notion that it's never too late to save one's sense of morality through personal empowerment. Gana is a character who is beaten down by the cold, harsh world thst surrounds her, a victim of her environment who has never experienced any form of empathy, love, or compassion. Hardened and shaped into a character who is as cold as the Bulgarian winter, Gana has never even experienced any form of kindness, yet all that changes through her relationship with Yoan, an elderly man and ex-choir insrructor who survived the communist regime. Through their relationship Gana begins to understand the error of her ways, questioning her hardened existence, and eventually rejecting the corruption and vile existence which she once herself made her bed in. Gana is a character who has experienced a lot, yet it's through the relationship with Yoan, the old elderly man, that she learns the importance of personal empowerment, eventually growing to not just accept her sad life, quit feeling sorry for herself, and find strength in her convictions. Ralitza Petrova's Godless is a understated, harrowing experience, a film that paints a dark and depressing portrait of modern day Bulgaria where corruption is far-sweeping and hope and empathy are scarce. Juxtaposing the picturesque Snow covered mountainscapes with the decaying man-made structures, Godless evokes a sense of hopelessness throughout it's narrative, visual evoking the cold emotional state of its main protagonist. While some viewers will surely find Godless too tepid in pace, the film's slow-burning nature feels perfect for this story, lulling the viewer to sleep in it's hopelessness, only slowly revealing the light that still exists among the darkness. Featuring a phenomenal, understated performance, Ralitza Petrova's Godless is a stunning debut film, a harrowing portrait of the importance of personal strength and redemption.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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