Manevri na V etazh (Maneuvers on the Fifth Floor, 1985)

Petar Vasilev

Bulgaria

94 min, color, Bulgarian

Danton (Stefan Danailov), Petar (Velko Kynev), and Andrei (Anton Radichev) are buddies and colleagues who share an office on the fifth floor of a traditionally socialist building. Their boring jobs involve a lot of sitting behind empty desks and not doing much except relieve the boredom of the workday by gawking through binoculars at a young girl who does aerobic exercises in the next building. They spend the rest of their time on coffee breaks, flirting with women co-workers (or having affairs with them), and sucking up to their bosses.

One day their carefree existence ends abruptly when Michona (Maria Stefanova) tells them about a rumor that the new boss will send one of them to Japan on a business trip. From this point on, all hell breaks loose as the three friends begin maneuvering each other out of the possible candidacy for the trip. Intrigue, betrayal, slander, extortion, pimping... nothing is too low for the erstwhile friends, who even resort to keying each other's cars. In the end, it is all in vain when it turns out that, in good socialist tradition, the boss is the one going to Japan.

A nicely done film with quite a few gags and many laughs, Maneuvers on the Fifth Floor is a light-going social satire that exposes what passed for work in the socialist bureaucratic system. Even as the friends put together impossible amounts of money to help Danton buy his dream second (or third/fourth) hand BMW, it is not clear at all where they manage to make this money. But, as one of them says at one point, "Bosses come and go, but the salary remains."

Given the rather strict censorship, it is not surprising that social criticism is muted in favor of exposing blatant personal failings. Neither of the characters is really likeable. Danton is a weakling who is terrorized by his beautiful current wife (Iskra Radeva) and his stern ex (Maya Zurkova). Petar is a meek bureaucrat who does have some ideas that go nowhere because of his inability to present them to his boss. He also tends to dismiss his rather loving wife (Maria Statulova) and seek "solace" in the hands of a lusty co-worker. Andrei is a playboy who is as cynical as he is incompetent, and who is ready to let his boss Rusev (Ventzislav Valchev) bed his slutty friend Veneta (Marina Kostova) if that would help send him to Japan. It is impossible to root for any of the three main characters, and this is by design because it frees the viewer to enjoy their pathetic attempts to screw each other over the trip.

Some extra fun is injected by Maria Stefanova's relentlessly upbeat performance as the experienced secretary to the middle manager. She is an excellent flirt who does not bat an eye to the amorous (or lecherous, depending on the view point) advances of her various male co-workers. She relishes the attention but somehow manages to come off as a good-natured woman, unlike the manipulative Veneta. I am particularly partial her comment when she finds the three friends staring through their binoculars at the nubile but flat-chested aerobics gymnast. Pointing to her own sumptuous breasts, she quips, "Look here, that board over there has nothing to show!" Spoken like a true woman.

A funny, and perhaps somewhat sad, film, Maneuvers on the Fifth Floor still delights. It is strange that Stefan Danailov gets such a non-typical role to play, but it makes everything funnier. Even his good looks become a butt of jokes when his wife tells him "The only thing you're good at is looking handsome!" and his ex father-in-law dismisses his protests that he did not leave his ex-wife with "Of course she left you. What could you do for her? Pose for photographs?"

The VHS transfer that I have is atrocious, with wahsed out colors, dropping video, and jerky audio. It is watchable and it is not likely that we'll see this film soon in any better shape. The NTSC version runs a little short of the 94 minutes due to the conversion from PAL.

February 24, 2003