An engaging story with hilarious moments, ‘The Black Sea’ follows the story of a quirky New Yorker, Khalid, who finds himself in the picturesque country of Bulgaria. The film begins with Khalid blaming his friends in Brooklyn for not managing to keep hold of his passport, which set a challenging mission to begin with since Khalid assumes and looks forward to returning at some point. As funny as it sounds, the character lovable yet unreliable in multiple scenarios juxtaposes the moody aesthetic of Bulgaria skillfully. Khalid is viewed as a remarkably preposterous image in Bulgaria since he ‘doesn’t seem to fit the stereotype,’ which serves as a reminder of how foreign Khalid was to the place, especially since the rude yet warm nature of the locals constantly made it clear to Khalid how they did not view him as a local. Given the overall vibe and what we learn about Khalid, it’s safe to assume he grants joy to a lot of people.
This indie drama masquerading as a comedy is as dull as it gets. “The Black Sea” doesn’t really have much need to rush apart from a couple of forced moments of drama involving Khalid and Georgi (Stoyo Mirkov), an arrogant fisherman from Bulgaria. Khalid’s relationship with Georgi is one of the few fragments of his narrative that is not essential to his story and does not climax as a consequence. Instead, we drift through Bulgaria with Khalid, who is told by Facebook to go to Bulgaria and for the sum of 10k rubies only touch a girl called Raya (Krasimira Demirova). After being chastised for being late to work, Khalid quits his barista job and gets on the plane to meet Raya, only to receive the shocking news that she passed away seconds before he got off.
At this point, Khalid is in a tight spot and to top it off, no one from his family is willing to lend him any money as he owes all of them. He loses an argument with a local travel agent Ina (Irmena Chichikova) and finds her solving problems left to right on her behalf, Khalid goes through with Ina but it doesn’t cause him much trouble. Obstructive elements in life make it more beautiful is an irrefutable assertion. However, it would have been nice, as Khalid roams in a drama that is other than sunny and study, I mean, sitting in Bulgaria was a waste of time.
Similar to other American comedic films which are set in non-English speaking countries, The Black Sea places a lot of emphasis on the culture of alienism. In this particular film, Khalid is treated indifferent by the locals even after maintaining an affable demeanor and showing interest in their country. Khalid turns the tables by treating them more than what they are worth and instead of receiving them well, he gets a bad response. Apart from showcasing how hard it is for people from Brooklyn to get matcha tea after their local cafe changes hands, he adds a playful tone by sharing a mock concern about the locals supposedly taking over the show, giving their selfies all the more a motivational energy.
Even though Khalid and Ina have never fully crossed over into the realm of romance, Ina has never given Khalid a reason to drape something over her. However, there are a couple of points at which it looks like Georgi and Khalid are going to go head to head, particularly when it turns out that Georgi is not only the son of Raya but also Ina’s ex-lover. Still, that only serves as a way to illustrate how small Bulgaria is. It has never been in doubt that the various America’s America’s stock characterizations and plenty of hen pecking plots of the American movies are much easier to deal with The most irritating aspect of the movie for me was that all the characters in this film behave how they are required by the previous scenes or the current plot beat. Khalid and Ina, his café and Bulgaria have no inner lives, nor inner emotions with which to bracket each other which makes it more pointless arm due to Khalid’s and Ina were framed as disposable objects of a higher hierarchy situated to a service. To make things worse, the movie’s hand held photography, together with the actors’, gave the NTC stage a natural light to fight against the cut.
I find it hard to grapple with the absence of social commentary in modern comedies, particularly in the example of Khalid where an African American man travels to a foreign country due to the prompting of a Reiki healer who tells a dying white woman to, ‘find a black man’. I am curious what it’s like to be one of the two dark-skinned men in all of Bulgaria, especially in view of what Khalid asked, Anthony: “What does it make sense when Ina explains to another Bulgarian that Khalid is not a labor migrant, but a tourist?” This is in line with many issues that the film tends not to address more than the provision of the will they won’t they provision with Khalid and Ina. This is all the more disappointing given that Chichi ova and Harden look incredibly comfortable with each other.
“The Black Sea” only gives nuance to certain stereotypes while simultaneously accepting, almost without reservation, that the people are conscious about their culture and cultural differences. Honestly, I believe that even when in a country hostile to foreigners, where Ukrainians can see that looking at ‘them’ and say ‘So many innate ideas to fill’, the looks can be set aside, at least partly. Is Bulgaria like that? Is Khalid not like that? There is only so much room for theories up to the point, which the authors of “The Black Sea” omit out as non-critical. Rather, their feel-good pic glides from one episode to the other without care, on the assumption no reason is required to be explained in detail as to why this story needs telling, simply contenting everyone that whatever happens next in the film should not be a source of worry.
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