Yana Titova knows how to make dreams come true. And I’m not talking about the dream of her 16-year-old self to become an actress and get on the stage of the National Theater, which came true quite quickly. Nor for the two films he created as screenwriter and director – “Dose of Happiness” and the recently released “Diada”.
I am referring to the fact that Yana Titova has fulfilled the dream that many of us have – of a life without social networks.
He has been out of this trap eating up the attention and free time of most of us for 3 years now. She came to this decision after at one point she felt how reality collided with what she read online about herself and her husband – the actor and producer Alek Alexiev.
“And I said to myself, “Oh, stop it! I do not need this. It neither enriches me nor gives me a different point of view,” explains Yana heatedly while guesting with me and Thames Arabadzhieva on the podcast “Front Page”.
According to her, social networks rather bring confusion to their users. And not only that – they strengthen the tendency to condemn, which is already flourishing in society.
“In Plovdiv, we grew up with: ‘What will people say?’. What people want to say, think a little beyond that!”, points out the director, who touches on the topic in “Diada” – both in the film and in the book of the same name.
At the center of both is the multi-layered image of Dida, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, both victim and abuser. Among viewers and readers, there will undoubtedly be different assessments of the main character – some will feel sorry for her, others, perhaps, will despise her.
The initial reaction to stories like hers – because there are many real examples – is precisely condemnation. Online, this attitude manifests itself even more acutely.
“It’s very easy behind the computer to write 50 comments: “Oh, rubbish…”. Why don’t you come and say it? People stopped communicating with each other and saying things to each other’s eyes,” adds the screenwriter and director (and now and writer).
This is also one of the reasons to break away from the clutches of Facebook and Instagram. Some of you who follow her there object that she has profiles on these social networks.
“I have people, they fast for me – thank God!”, Yana reveals, without hiding her satisfaction.
Yana Titova at the gala premiere of “Diada”.
The barrier between us that the screens have imposed on us does not escape her. The illusion that we are “gods of Facebook comments” or “gods of fake Instagram photos” in which everything looks perfect and which carry the message “Our life is like this, but yours is not”.
“I don’t want it to affect me, I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to think about how I’m not happy enough. I just want to live my moments at home or wherever, but live my happiness, not suffer, that he’s gone,” says the creator of “Dose of Happiness” and “Diada”.
Like me, you’re probably wondering how giving up social media is affecting her.
“I have much more time for myself, for my projects, I don’t scroll for 1 hour a day or 2 hours, and at the same time I got rid of some very intrusive thoughts,” Titova points out.
With copies of her book Dyad, which inspired the film of the same name.
After her refusal of direct contact with social networks, she realized how great their influence was on her. And now, without that influence, she feels “much freer”. She also believes that any opinion she has is her own and not imposed from anywhere.
She’s also gained more confidence in her personal life – when it comes to her work, she’s always been confident – and in her words, she doesn’t seem to “give a damn” about what people think of her anymore.
“Maybe because I can’t see it,” he says with a laugh.
If my work did not require daily staring at social networks, I would happily try to close my eyes to them, like Jana. In that case, ignorance would indeed be bliss, as the poet Thomas Gray wrote (I admit – I know the quote from Schiffer in The Matrix, I had to Google whose original it was).
But as Yana herself points out, being away from social networks does not prevent her art – to tell stories and go deep into them. If you ask me, it might even be helping her.
Proof is her new film “Diada”, which is in cinemas from November 10, and the book of the same name. And you can hear our entire conversation in “First Page” here:
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You can read the review of “Diada” by colleague Antonia Rumenova here:
