Discoveries from Bulgaria World Cinema

The film consists of 12 miniatures, each based on one of the signs of the zodiac.

This is a political picture about the Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Dimitrov. In 1933 during the Reichstag Fire Trial trumped-up charges of having set the Reichstag on fire were brought against him. At the trial Dimitrov exposed the machinations of the Nazis and turned from a defendant into an accuser. Central to the story is the face-to-face political duel between Dimitrov and Goering. Dimitrov's interactions with ordinary Germans, the memories of his wife Lyuba Ivoshevich, and the meetings with his mother Parashkeva alternate with documentary shooting scenes from the time of Nazi Germany.

Bulgarian queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev transforms personal and social hardship into provocative public and intimate spectacles, boldly exploring sexuality, identity, faith, and activism in a celebration of queer visibility.

An antifascist resister escapes from a train transporting him to his execution, evades capture with the help of a sympathetic peasant and soldier, and eventually joins a partisan unit despite numerous obstacles.

The main character of this propaganda story is a farmer Mito Petrov, who joins an agricultural cooperative, but aspires to independent farming and cannot accept the innovations in agricultural work that are introduced by the management of the cooperative. The village rich, seeing his discontent, want to use Petrov's Mito to harm the cooperative. Petrov gives in to their pressure and leaves the collective farm, but in the end he admits his mistake.

100-year-old Grandma Maria lives alone in an abandoned village. When a lamb appears in her barn, a series of inexplicable events challenges her faith.

A hairdresser Gerda has an affair with Dr Nikodimov, a married man past his prime. Savarinova has had her hair done by Gerda in fashionable style. She is ill at ease at a family party. Her sister Mina has been the cause of her anxiety, because the young scientist Belokozhov prefers young and unaffected Mina. They go out to the park and have fun by themselves. Meanwhile, Nikodimov goes to see Gerda in her flat. She tells him what has been preying on her mind during their liaison. Nikodimov's wife comes there but he turns her away. He tells Gerda that he will move in with her for good. Heartbroken, the girl turns him away. Nikodimov goes to the hospital. In his office, he takes out an ampule of cyanide and drains it with a resolute gesture. Mina and Belokozhov discuss love in the park. It starts raining. Laughing, a boy and a girl walk towards the dawn.

Vassil (41) is a documentary film director who has not achieved the success he dreams of. He puts all his energy filming the broken relationship between a monk and his mother. Meanwhile Vassil's wife and their 14-year-old daughter take second place in his life. The director learns that the monk is in a psychiatry while his mother will have to undergo a cancer surgery. To bring them together to forgive each other is Vassil's long awaited finale of his film. He faces a dilemma to shoot "life as it is" or show human compassion and empathy.

Nasko is left at his grandma Fany's for the summer. He teams up with the neighbourhood kids against their scary neighbour with a scar on his face, which ends up involving everyone in an uncomfortable situation.

"Stochkov - Against All Odds" will bring to the big screen the story of the Legendary Eight - from its beginnings in Bulgaria to its rise to world football. The project is developing with the ambition to establish itself as a significant event for the Bulgarian public and to take its place on the international stage.

The film is dedicated to the uprising, which broke out in Bulgaria in September 1923. All characters, with the exception of the leaders of the uprising Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil Kolarov, are symbolic characters. The central figures, Stefan and Peter, impersonate the motive forces behind the uprising - the workers and the peasants. They are involved in worker's strikes, in the stormy events of the First World War and the Soldier's uprising in 1918. They also participate in the bloody clashes of the September uprising and suffer its defeat after they have seen too late the need for concerted action by communists and agrarians.

Dimitar was always trying to find his bag, not realising he was missing something very important.

Single, unemployed and with nothing to lose, Anton accepts an offer to start working in an illegal coal mine. When his colleague is buried underground in an accident, Anton finds a replacement in the face of Hristo, 28, a young local Roma. The two men quickly bond, until the mob boss Tzetzo finds out that they've been hiding things from him. And in this town, some secrets better remain buried.

Koki and Angel are last year students in high school. They are boxers. They must face at the last stage of a tournament. The matter is complicated by the fact that Koki is not in top condition and Angel knows that. Who will win - the friendship or the sportsman's honor? Angel takes the title from his Friend. There are scarier victories than defeat.

A father killed his son. In a state of alcoholic delirium, a young man murdered his friend. A 21 year-old boy shot a policeman. Faced with their death sentence, they tell about what happens with them at the moment when they are between death and ... death.

A solitary Frenchman seeks inspiration in a ruined duchy, meeting eccentric figures with their visions of art, madness, and myth. During 15 minutes he wanders across the broken edges of reality and sanity, he questions what form inspiration can still take among fragments of ruins and environment, as the viewer steps into his eyes and ears, discovering beauty within decay.

Courage without truth. Truth in secret. A secret without a way out. Exit without salvation... Which is the right path of change?

Two old friends and neighbours (a gardener and a mole) in the wilderness, waiting for the wind, which will help them fulfil an absurd dream.

The film tells us the story of the excellent student Chris, who decides to purge the world. Together with his Winchester, Chris gives God what He wanted. 'Cain' changes completely our notions about everything that surrounds us. How well do we know the people we are communicating with every day?

The action takes place at the end of WWII. It is 1944 on the Yugoslav front, where the Bulgarian Army is fighting bloody battles against the retreating Nazi units. Several lorries loaded with Bulgarian soldiers make a detour so as to deliver ammunitions to an army unit. They are people with different convictions sharing a common goal - to come out victorious and to return to their peaceful everyday life. Among them are people who believe in the triumph of the new system and for whom the difficult crusade is a confirmation of their ideals. They are also uncertain people. For the youngest this is the first trial in life. A young Yugoslav woman helps them find the road through the dangerous front line. Her romance with the one of Bulgarian soldiers symbolizes solidarity in the struggle against the common enemy. After a series of difficulties and mishaps, the soldiers manage to deliver the ammunitions to their comrades.

A social and psychological study of contemporary problems.

Yanko, a young partisan, arrives in a small coastal town. He has to carry out a mission and return to his unit immediately. However, he runs into Armando, a former schoolmate. The guitarist Armando is genuinely overjoyed. He throws back a glass or two, plies his friend with questions, and indulges in memories. Yanko's heart is torn between conflicting emotions: Should he kill Armando and thus avoid the risk of detection? On the other hand, should he take a chance and spare his onetime friend? In a moment of lucidity, Armando realizes the tight spot that he is in. He offers the partisan his own, better clothes and wishes him god luck. Just when Armando is at his happiest, the police, who have mistaken him for the outlaw they want, shoot him.

In another galaxy and another time, a man finds a pod and rolls onto a goal not yet known. At a certain time, the pod pops and turns into a big insect, an imago. By ship, by cart, he goes on transporting it. He comes to a ziggurat and takes it to the top...

For 30 years 60-year-old Dante has been taking care of his sick mother and quietly working in a printing house. Within a single week he loses both his mother and his job. The one thing that motivates Dante to keep on living it to take revenge on his mother's tormentors when after her death he learns of deeply guarded secrets from the past.

The story of an indecisive young doctor.

Nurse Nikolova takes care of the elderly. She faces various human destinies. Her patients spend the rest of their lives alone. They seek from her what they have not received from their own children. They love her. Nurse Nikolova touches on the complex problems of human existence.

Fictional film about Hristo Smirnenski's life before his death of tuberculosis at 27...

Hijacking. A former cop is facing a former prisoner. A girl stands between them. No one wants a collision, but in the end it is inevitable. Everyone has to make their choice. And someone has to lose...

The moving story of Milena Boeva, a passionate woman who finds a one-of-a-kind sanctuary where young people with disabilities can thrive through creativity, community, and meaningful work. As the garden blossoms into a place of hope and transformation, Milena faces growing challenges that threaten its very existence. Will her dream endure, or will the pressures of reality uproot the seeds of change she’s planted?

Sometimes, if you want to become a hero, you just have to fly. Innovation handmade embroidery animation.

World War II. Vasil is in serious conflict with the police officer Simeonov and at the same time with his childhood friend and brother by faith - the partisan Kalin. Yana comes between Vasil and Kalin. She has grown up with them and they are both in love with her. She loves Vasil more but she cannot accept his individualism. The tragic struggle in Vasil determines his doom. After the coup on September 9, 1944, he arrests Simeonov, but when he takes him to the military tribune, he dies unexpectedly.

A cinematic, character-driven insight to what it meant to produce and to own a car in communist times: the Socialist propaganda dreams and the hard reality of living that dream. The freedom that these slow and clumsy vehicles were giving to their owners; the cars as an instrument in the Cold War battle; legends and homemade tune-ups as an attempt to stand at least a little bit off the crowd.

Marta, a woman battling dementia, seeks refuge from the harsh reality of her illness and the confines of a nursing home. As her memories blur, she retreats into the warmth of her happiest moments, where the past offers the only escape from a world that no longer feels like her own.

Major Hariev, a State Security officer, manages to learn that the spying center codenamed Citadel receives encoded letters. Sometime later, the Bulgarian agent in the West reports that the spy h as a subscription to the French woman's magazine. The State Security men find a beautician, who received the magazine and delivers it to Ivan Bolyarski, director of an important state department. Hariev follows Bolyarski to his meeting with the Hawk, his associate working in a military unit. The Hawk agrees to deliver the request information for an exorbitant sum of money. Hariev runs into the Hawk and kills him in the fight. Bolyarski is arrested. Major Hariev is planted in his cell. In a moment of demoralization, the agent discloses the secrets of the Citadel to Hariev. Hariev has to go to the Citadel, passing off as the Hawk. He takes a leap in the dark and does not know if he will ever come back to his wife and his child.

A tale of man's inability to reconcile achieving the good with preserving the good. A glimpse into a world where love has been replaced by base human passions. A world of fear and wealth, of violence and lies, of physical strength and spiritual weakness. The young French teacher Nelly Kodeva and the venerable "businessman of the year" Kosta Keikenov cross paths by chance. Fighting in absentia for their personal right, the two unleash the spirit of evil in themselves and together destroy a human life.

The beginning of the 18th century. Bulgaria is under the Ottoman bondage. The monks of the Monastery of Hilendar on Mount Athos warn the young monk Paisiy to beware of the "pestilent chapel". On his deathbed, the abbot conjures Paisiy to search for Slavonic books. The young monk goes from one monastery to another in search of ancient books. He breaks into the "pestilent chapel" and finds there stacks of old Bulgarian books telling of the wisdom of Bulgarians kings, and of the power and civilization of the Bulgarian Empire and its past glory. His fellow-monks try to burn the books but Paisiy manages to escape. His Slav-Bulgarian History circulates in handwritten copies through the captive country and the Bulgarians becomes truly aware of their national identity.

Anthology film based on six short stories by writer Elin Pelin. At the end of a market day, Stoyan learns that after ten years of marriage he has a son. Leaving the inn with his wife Penka, they find a baby girl thrown into their cart. There is no end to the poor man's joy. She too will be raised. Drought kills the land and the people. Grandfather Korchan and Lazar Dabaka decide to build a windmill. Lazar and his bride are traveling by cart to visit their godparents. They spend an unforgettable night under the starry sky.

The anonymous characters of this visual omnibus meet outside of linear time in eight different stories. Loveless is a mosaic story on the comic in the imperfections, in the twists and turns, and in the great common human themes.

After the death of her father, the young French woman Ellen Thibaud arrives in the Bulgarian village of Gradishte. She was guided there by the mysterious founder of their family and famous Qatari Bogomil, Robert Burg.All she left behind was a parchment filled with incomprehensible signs and letters in the form of drawings. Ellen was obliged to decipher his message to her grandchildren and to the world. In her search, the young woman meets her father Peter and the adventurer Victor, who has been looking for the manuscript of The Secret Book of the Bogomils for some time. The relationships in this triangle will change each of the characters, but also forever remind them that man and human life stand above all.

Two best friends get involved into the domination games of two mafia bosses in post-communist Bulgaria. Clutching like crayfish to the baits of everyday life, they determine their fates: without the other one knowing, they are manipulated to take seemingly harmless tasks. Parallel to the criminal line in the story, our attention is drawn toward the inner problems of the characters, toward the links that exist between everything and everyone. The two friends try fruitlessly to establish a dialogue. A dialogue about relationships, about death, about responsibilities, about the essence…

The anonymous characters of this visual omnibus meet outside of linear time in eight different stories. Loveless is a mosaic story on the comic in the imperfections, in the twists and turns, and in the great common human themes.

A documentary about the first Bulgarian filmmakers. Describes the first steps ma Bulgarian cinema in the late 19th century and early 20th. Tells about the artistic and political currents of the time, until the middle years of the communist regime. In the film you can see archive footage of the first Bulgarian auteur cinema, the tribulations these pioneers went through to bring cinema to Bulgaria, their rise and fall during the Regime.

Three colleagues and devoted friends – Danton, Petar and Andrey – share an office, and not only, on the fifth floor of a socialist industrial research institute from the mid-eighties. Every morning when they come to work they lock the door of the office and, armed with binoculars and great interest, they begin watching the aerobics exercises of a young girl in the nearby building. Suddenly, their tranquil daily round is disturbed - a new director takes over the Institute and decides to develop close scientific partnerships with similar institutes in Japan.

Mityo Ganev is a leader of the armed bandits. The authorities accuse the Communists of his robberies. The detachment commander, Chalaka, and Mityo Ganev have a meeting but fail to reach an agreement. The police burn out Mityo's house and send his mother into internal exile. Chalaka cuts him off from his logistical support base. Mityo agrees to join the partisan detachment. Mityo and Velyo hold up the paymaster of the army garrison. When they take the money, Mityo wants to give it to the family of the exiles. Enraged, Velyo hands the detachment over to the Colonel. Mityo kills the traitor. The police and he army launch a major operation against the partisans. In a fierce battle, Chalaka leads the detachment out of encirclement while Mityo covers their retreat. A bullet hits him.

The young partisan Nestor makes attempt to escape from prison, but is shot in the chest. After a few tense hours, the surgeon professor Andronikov removes the bullet, however Nestor is to be tortured in the police station. The professor makes his case in front of the health minister who promises to help him. The minister wants Nestor to express regret for his actions and offer the authorities certain information.

An idiosyncratic comedy about a father and son, masculinity and their stolen Batmobile.

What stimulates, inspires, worries and disappoints rock singer Milena Slavova over the years? How does an artist go through time through barriers, walls, prohibitions, breakdowns, compromises – all reflected in her songs as music and lyrics. What survives? This is a film about the search and creation of meaning. The echo of a soul that asks why some are silent and others scream.

Chavdar gets a degree in geology. He wishes to pursue a scientific carrier, but his father decides that his son should practice his profession in a rich of mineral Rhodopa Mountain. Chavdar meets geologists and locals who love their profession and the region. Here he finds true love with Vanya, a girl born and raised in the mountain. She is a part time geologist student and dreams of finding new ore sources. Chavdar has to leave, and he bids farewell to his friends, certain that one day he will come back to continue his search.

Georgi Simov is a thief and an alcoholic. The police are looking for him. Simov squanders the stolen money in the pubs, while his wife and child lead a wretched life. The mother sends the little girl to ask her father for some money. Drunk, Simov chases the child away. The girl is injured in a car accident. The mother gets a divorce. The police find Simov, but he manages to escape. Simov is about to rob an unsuspecting passerby. He hears the sirens of the fire brigade and discovers that his home is on fire. In the blaze is his child. He rushes into the flames and saves his daughter. At this moment, the police seize him. After three years in a prison, Simov is set free. He comes across his daughter in a church. The two go to the sick mother. Simov repents his past. The whole family is happy.

Seven Bulgarians living in a small town on the Danube river decide to become contract soldiers rangers to get rid of poverty. Their training drills and military maneuvers provoke smiles but thoughts as well for the fate of Europe and the world.

The fortunes of a group of partisans after the triumph of the socialist revolution.

Two young men decide to migrate to the big city. While on the road, they start considering the ways of life through the relationships in the society.

Anna, nicknamed the She-wolf, is a young girl with provocative behavior, who actually hides an unhappy childhood without parents and real friends.

A lawyer must decide whether to help a young man.

The students Yoshkata and Petar share rooms and wartime privations in a poor man's street. Over a glass of vine, Yoshkata often talks about the stage life of genuine beauty. The student is unaware of the passion with which Vaska, the barmaid at the local pub, burns for him. Petar is a member of an antifascist combat unit. The pupil Katya loves him. Petar carries out a sabotage action and comes home wounded. Yoshkata manages to deceive the Germans who rush into their flat that they have been drinking and playing cards throughout the evening. He saves his friend. However, the secret agent notices the doctor's visits. When the police arrive to arrest Petar, Yoshkata tries to resist them and the agent shoots him dead. Petar goes underground. On the day of the liberation, all the residents of the poor man's street celebrate, and Katya and Petar happily reunited. Vaska is there, too, a baby in her arms, the fruit of her love with Yoshkata...

Sometime in the near future within a place of rot and wasted dreams, four men come looking for the Hall of Wishes within the contaminated zone of post-apocalyptic earth.

A pretty woman, divorced mother of a child works as a secretary at a research institute. She is taking an external degree. It all looks quite normal. In fact, she experiences serious difficulties: she has a problem with her ex-husband, her child is going through difficult age, a sycophant at the institute is exerting pressure on her, and the jealous wife of her boss makes malicious reports against her. She is forced to fight for each breath and to violate even her own principles in order to survive.

Two women are on the run from the state police, with an abducted man on the back seat of their car.