A special program dedicated to the remarkable director’s
work to be presented in cooperation with Goethe Institute Tzvetan Marasoff, well-known in Bulgaria as a poet, writer and playwright, is among the big names in the history of German cinema. He was born on 3 October 1933 in Sofia in the family of architect and poet Nikolay Marangosoff. His mother was German. In 1951 he was convicted for an attempted escape through the border. He wrote stories and plays. In 1960 he went to Germany to visit his mother but instead of going to Hamburg, he stayed in Munich. Between 1960 and 1991 he wrote plays for the radio and television, film scripts, directed films and became part of Munich electronic avant-garde. In Germany Tzvetan Marangosoff became known as Marran Gosov. He is among the early central figures of new German cinema and is part of the so called Munich Group around Klaus Lemke, May Spils, Werner Enke, Roger Fritz, Rudolf Thome etc. who left a remarkable trace in German cinema history with their auteur films as young directors, similar in significance to the French Nouvelle Vague.
Tzvetan Marngosoff’s rich oeuvre of over 30 short films offers a unique insight into life in West Germany of the period. In a special program dedicated to the remarkable director Sofia International Film Festival and Goethe Institute will present 10 of them: Богатото творчество на Цветан Марангозов от над 30 късометражни филма е уникален поглед към западногерманските нрави от онези години. В специалната програма, посветена на забележителния режисьор, София Филм Фест и Гьоте Институт ще представят 10 от тях – K.I.N.O., Pfeiffer, Der Alte, Zwischenlandung, Sabine 18, Tana, Der lange Marsch, Schöner Abschied, Schritte, Spielen in Deutschland.
But Tzvetan Marangosoff’s oeuvre covers a very wide spectrum: he developed video installations and ideas by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Joseph Beuys. Later on in the 80s he made some of the episodes of popular German television crime series A Case for Two and wrote the script for another popular crime series Eurocops. He also composed music.
In 1991 Tzvetan Marangosoff returned to Bulgaria. Between 1991 and 1996 he published four books with verse. In 1997 his play The Mushroom was staged at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre. The impressive director’s film Videoconcept IV presented Bulgaria at the 25th contemporary art biennale in Sao Paolo in 2002.
German writer, producer and actor Bernhard Marsch, who will also be a guest of the 20th Sofia International film Festival, played a key role in the promotion of Tzvetan Marangosoff’s film legacy.
Bernhard Marsch was a key figure in the Cologne group, a free association of Cologne film makers. In 2014 he was invited by two American universities to present his short films in full. In 1990 he became one of the founders of Filmclub 813 in Cologne, a club that continues to enrich cinema culture, disposing of little means and lots of devotion.
Today Bernhard Marsch is the chairman of Filmclub 813 which is famous throughout Germany. It was there that in 2008 Marsch presented a full retrospective of Tzvetan Marangosoff’s films. Since then Bernhard Marsch has made Tzvetan Marangosoff’s film legacy accessible to the public through numerous events.
More news of the festival’s 20th edition coming soon!