Tilt (Viktor Chouchkor, 2010): Germany/Bulgaria

Reviewed by Addie Rosales. Viewed at The 2011 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The foreign film Tilt, directed by Viktor Chouchkor is a German/Bulgarian love story filled with echoes of Romeo and Juliette-like plot threads when it comes to lovers who are up against “ the powers that be” who are driven to keep them apart.  This film takes us to Bulgaria, where the majority of the film takes place, and Germany in the early 1990’s where there is political turmoil, strong class oppression, and corruption in law enforcement, making it the perfect setting for a suspenseful love story. The title Tilt derives from a popular pinball game amongst a group of friends who dream of opening their own bar which would carry the same namesake.  Tilt could also infer the way situations can“tilt” one’s choices and the way reality is viewed.

In order to attain their dream, friends, Stash (Uavor Bahnov), Gogo (Ovanes Torosian), and Angel (Ivaylo Dragiev) must come by their funding with illegal transactions that involve the blackmarketing of pornographic videos.  Eventually, they get caught hustling the porn and get put on probation that entails sitting in silence in a small room for many hours each day.   Previous to their daily routine of attending detention, main character, Stash fell for a mysterious and beautiful girl named Becky (Radina Kardjilova) and begins a relationship with her.  The downfall in this relationship falls in the relationship between Becky and the lead enforcement officer, Colonel Katev (Georgi Staykov) who is in charge of the sentencing of Stash and also happens to be Becky’s father.  At this point, relationships become more complex.  Some become stronger like the love between Becky and Stash despite the threats and consequences they face and some become weaker like the relationships between the original group of friends by the way personal gain along with fear seduces them.  Loyalties start to become “tilted” and shift as corruption and emotions get entangled.

I enjoyed this movie because of the great acting, and even though I knew it was a love story, the  unpredictable story line.  It was also refreshing to see an intriguing movie that did not have to rely on too much violence to carry out the plot line or believe that that is the way to keep an audience engaged.  The cinematography was well done as it was very key to adding to the mood of the characters and the film as a whole.  It was a well told story that explored relationships and the way circumstances can affect them and was well rounded out in a believable manner by the way each character’s story line resolved.