Love & Engineering

Love & Engineering is a fascinating and thought-provoking documentary film from 2014, skillfully put together under the direction of Tonislav Hristov. This movie is the journey of Atanas Boev's quest— a masterful computer engineer who undertakes the challenge of decoding the mysteries of love through the algorithms and theories of engineering.

Atanas Boev himself, a Bulgarian geek, taking on the starring role in the movie, tries to unlock the 'mystical' aspects of love using a logical approach. Alongside Atanas are his geeky but equally determined teammates: Todor Vlaev and Tuomas Nieminen, who join him on this venture, each with their own charming quirks and unique perspectives on love and relationships—all with the hope of finding their 'perfect match' using the power of technology and engineering formulae.

In Love & Engineering, the protagonists treat love as a problem they want to resolve. Atanas, the centerpiece of the plot, is a computer engineer who fervently believes that love can be cracked, understood, and even handled in the same way as a complex computer program. He seeks to apply specific technological and engineering methodologies to understand love, courtship, and potentially successful relationships.

His passionate belief is the driving force behind his quest to prove that anyone—even the self-acclaimed 'geeks'—could find love by taking a scientific approach. He leads and guides his friends on a mission to understand love's complexities from the eyes of technology, breaking down the intricacies of human attraction, natural chemistry, and emotional connection.

The film is as much a social experiment as it is a testament to the ever-lasting human quest for love. The viewer is taken on a journey as the heroes maneuver their way through the world of dating, with each social interaction serving as an essential data point for their theory.

Central to the narrative is the concept that love can be treated as a scientific process and that engineering principles—often reserved for solving complex technological problems—can be applied to human emotions and complex social relationships to help find the ideal life partners. This concept brings a fresh and humorous dimension to the usually dramatic and romantic narrations of finding love.

Tonislav Hristov weaves this narrative elegantly in Love & Engineering. The film is shot in a documentary style, with most of the footage being candid and 'on-the-fly,' providing the audience with a raw, unfiltered look at the lives of Atanas and his friends. This style of storytelling adds to the authenticity of the movie, successfully blurring the line between a fictional narrative and real-life experiences.

Several scenes in the movie are as humorous as they are heartwarming, formulating an interesting contrast, and often questioning the heavily stereotyped notion of 'geek' and their social interactions in a conventional society.

Hristov has managed to craft a movie that is not just a social experiment but an intimate look at the human desire for companionship and understanding. It examines the determination of a group of friends to conquer something as abstract and unpredictable as love, using logic and a field as concrete as engineering. This leads to a unique viewing experience that is both compelling and engaging, while simultaneously being deeply personal, highly relatable and thought-provoking.

The exploration of themes such as technology's role in modern relationships and the intersection of science and love raises thought-provoking questions and provides the viewer with a unique perspective to ponder over. Adding to it, Love & Engineering manages to maintain a delicate balance between the scientific aspect and the emotional journey of its characters.

In summary, Love & Engineering is an engaging movie that combines the realms of science and love in a unique, humorous, and heartfelt way. It's a journey into the lives of individuals who believe that even an emotion as intricate and deeply human as love can be approached with the logic and principles of computer engineering. A must-see for anyone who appreciates genuinely human stories with a twist of humor and a dash of technicality.