Discoveries from Bulgaria World Cinema

Julia, a social media influencer, finds herself trapped in an elevator without knowing how she ended up there.

This is a film about a famous Bulgarian wrestler who is forced by the police authorities to work for them. We see a lonely man, tortured by his consciousness, who dies without single scratch.

On October 16th, 2023, Georgina Reagan and her driver Petar Petrov went missing. Only Reagan's Canon EOS 90D camera was found. The fates of both Reagan and Petrov remain unknown. This is what happened next.

This is the story of Mityo and his son Vasko, who live in a poor area, near to the Bulgarian-Turkish-Greek Border. Mityo had lost everything that has mattered to him – his wife, his work, the confidence of his son, Vasko. In order to get him back, Mityo has to find forgiveness and pay for his sin, done 25 years ago.

Set against an Eastern European nation's election, in a country that was the most notorious communist dictatorship, the film charts the paths of five characters; An aging CIA officer; A young attractive economic advisor; The ambitious Bulgarian Prime Minister's chief of staff; An American political consultant; and a retired member of the Bulgarian Communist State Police. These five character destinies intertwine in the weeks leading up to the elections in a fledgling democracy.

This film brings us back to show us the life of the famous ancient sage Aesop, who helped people with his wisdom in their struggle for freedom and happiness.

Azat is a Syrian refugee who is trying to get to Germany. While passing through Bulgaria, he is accused of attempted manslaughter over a child and goes to jail. There he meets The Boss - Koko. The friendship between them changes both their destinies.

A Bulgarian-born, American-raised rapper dies and faces The Gatekeeper at the crossroads of the afterlife, where he must relive his tumultuous past—family struggles, lost love, and a life of excess—to determine whether he belongs Above or Below.

There is a small frontier post. A soldier abiding by the rules of the system gradually turns into a murderer.

In 1945, on the battlefields in Hungary, three Bulgarian soldiers from the reserve have to fight for the liberation of the country. They are totally unprepared for the war and have no desire to take part in the battles. The three reservists are the sad sight and initially their commander wants to send them back to Bulgaria. But their attitude is changed after the witnessed tragedies. Without knowing it, they all turn into heroes.

A nurse traffics the ID cards of demented patients on the black market of identity theft. Driven by easy cash, and an addiction to morphine, she struggles to keep tabs on her emotional void, and a growing fear of punishment.

The events of the film are related to the Civil War in Spain. This is a film about the beauty of love - exotic and tragic and the maze of human feelings.

A captain in the Czar's army encounters danger and romance while carrying a secret message across 19th-century Russia.

Atanas Burov (played by Assen Blatechki) is considered as the most influential politician in Bulgaria's history. The movie is about him and his love story with Dilyana Popova as the main female character.

The film takes us back into the times of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom - 13th century. The Bulgarian Emperor - Tsar Ioan Assen - is trying through several marriages to enlarge the State and to support the peace in it.

1951. Because of her husband, Velichka turned out to be an “enemy of the people”. In order not to “kill the future” of her son, she became a State Security agent. Disobedient men are taken out for armed resistance in the forests; they are named “Forest Men”. Velichka, whom they trust for her husband's sake, betrays them. When she realizes her sin and tries to resist, the repressive machine crushes her…

Before the Liberation, during the years of the exiled Bulgarian revolutionaries in Romania, the Major and the Prime Minister once shared the same ideals, the same home, and even the same woman. Today, the Major orchestrates a conspiracy to overthrow the government led by his former friend, the Prime Minister. The head of state must be assassinated, and the Prince – dethroned. The woman is part of the plot, but she will try to prevent the fratricide.

Dr Ganevski leaves his wife Maria and his grown-up children Rositza and Chavdar for Dr Troyanovska, who has been widowed by the war. Her son, Angel, a school dropout, is in love with Rositza. Rositza renounces her father. Up to a point, Chavdar can understand Ganevski's decision. Hoping to live in affluence, the boy moves in with his father's new family. Dr Ganevski cannot bring himself to visit his daughter who is ill with the pneumonia. On his birthday, which he celebrates at his father's, Chavdar feels terribly lonely and leaves him.

A Frenchman falls in love with a hot temper Bulgarian village girl. Following the call of his heart he starts looking for the village where she lives without knowing the character and the language of the people living there.

The film was named after the short story “Petya of My Petya” written by the exceptional young poet Petya Dubarova. The director Alexander Kossev and the writers Valentina Angelova and Nelly Dimitrova lift the vail of the past to present Petya Dubarova and her talent to today’s young generations.

Two friends (Katarina Didaskalou, Stefan Danailov) are separated when their village is divided by Communism, but they meet again 40 years later and begin having an affair.

Abundant supplies of imported vaccine prove ineffective against an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in several population centers. Warehouse manager Rashkov has been found dead. Major Zahov has to investigate the case.

Knyaz Boris I reached the most important spiritual insight - the country needed a single language and script. It accepts students of Cyril and Methodius, creating Ohrid and Preslav Literary School. What other nations took centuries, for bulgarians takes place only about 20 years after their baptizing - introduced a Slavonic Alphabet.

A small circus troupe wants to perform for the children in a small Eastern European town, but is prevented from doing so by the evil town boss. The circus' clown and his colleagues come up with a plan to defeat the boss and his men and put on a show for the kids.

Nikola, 34, is a commercial director, he’s about to become a father for the first time, and he dreams of one day taking his young family on a road trip in an old van he wants to convert into a camper. Over the course of one weekend, however, accompanying his father and extended family to a small village in Dalmatia, where his grandmother’s remains are to be buried, he finds himself looking to the past instead of the future. Ostensibly, nothing remarkable happens during the course of the journey.

After a night of partying with her friends Lora has to get herself together and attend an important meeting. At her office she finds two packages which contain two mysterious dice. The sides of one of them are all marked with the number two and of the other - with the number five. In the course of the day Lora will have to find out the truth behind the magical properties of a set of six dice. She'll be betrayed and helped, chased and abducted. She'll fall in love and help a friend deal with a complicated relationship. After this roller-coaster ordeal she'll come out stronger and happier having reasserted the importance of true friendship.

Romania, 1989. The twilight of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship. In a small, isolated town, Maria, a ten-year-old girl, is the last person to witness her sister disappearing before her eyes. Torn apart by the loss, she tries to make sense of a new, terrifying reality. Can she summon the courage to grow up?

The cult group "Revolution X" goes on their first big tour at sea, but the producer imposes on Bobby and Philip a new vocalist - the popular in BG singer GARY - NICHOL, which everyone in the group is annoyed with. The two couples plan to see each other secretly and spend a romantic vacation, but the director of the school Tsekov has his own plan for the trip ...

The new supervisor Vasil arrives at the construction site of a dam. Vasil has problems with his men, who mistrust him and reluctantly submit to his perfectionism. He becomes involved with the refreshment bar attendant Lilyana. Vasil, who always wanted children, cannot abandon his childless wife and breaks with Lilyana. When four workers are buried in a tunnel landslide, Vasil makes his way to them and manages to drag them all out, except for Zlatan, a spiteful egocentric, whose legs are caught under a fallen prop. Zlatan begs Vasil to save him, even if it means cutting of his legs. To release the miner's legs Vasil cuts the prop, which is also supporting the roof of the tunnel. Zlatan is rescued. However, Vasil is killed. Since then, the workers say his steps can be heard bellow the dam wall.

Friends of different generations, practicing different professions, spend together their summer holidays at the seaside every year. It is sunny; they look carefree and happy. They know each other very well, they are used to each other. To such an extent, that bore becomes inevitable. It is boredom that incites them to play a dangerous game. The end is dramatic: a young boy gets killed. It is the moment to draw the bottom line. The question is: Isn't the death of the spirit worse than of the body?

A small town in present-day Bulgaria. A mother and her two daughters are struggling to survive. The dreamy and distracted younger daughter often invents stories in order to make life more interesting. Unwittingly, she eventually gets caught in the trap of her own lies and destroys her older sister's well-ordered materialistic world. Meanwhile, the two sisters find out the truth about their mother

A common Bulgarian family spends a warm afternoon in the fall in a country house. The preparations for a dinner party are in full swing. The formal reason is that the son enlists in the Army and the real reason is to arrange a match between him and the daughter of the boss. All the schemes are frustrated as it turns out that the boy has already married another girl. Both the hosts and the guests lose control, unleashing a consecution of tragic or comic situations.

8-year-old Daria thinks she hears a mouse in the middle of the night. But when she wakes up her father for help, bigger family problems come to light.

A thirteen year old kid, "the boy", lives and works in a cemetery. The cemetery is his whole life, and growing up with the dead instills in him an obsession and respect for death. His friends depend on him: An unhappy old man, a former political prisoner yearning for death, and makeup artist for deceased, a former artist who dreams of painting a masterpiece. The boy does what he can to help them. The old man attempts suicide, but upon learning the date of his death and seeing his beautiful plot chosen for him by the boy, he is able to bear his life. Upon meeting the beautiful Maria, "the boy" gives the former artist a surprise date with her. But when Maria and the artist become closer, the boy realizes that she is the daughter of the old man. The kid thinks the old man would die unhappy if he knew of her existence and so decides to hide the truth.

The delicate story of the friendship between a man and a piglet, taking place in contemporary Bulgaria.

The film belongs to the 'migration cycle' in the Bulgarian cinema. It is about the drama of a group of women who have been left alone in their 'female kingdom' - a village deserted by its entire men folk.

Frivolous girl falls in love with a young construction worker. He trusts her and decides to include her in his team of workers. In the beginning, she is happy, but soon starts to feel the tensions between the people in the team. Hypocrisy and demagogy fill her with indignation and she does not keep silent about the shortcomings and mistakes of her colleagues. Gradually, her superiors become uneasy about her and the girl has to go. Her boyfriend offers her marriage, but she decides to take her own path and lead a worthy life. The movie was shot in 1966 but was censored by the communist government and released in theatres on 31st October 1988.

The contrast of a hippie style commune up in the mountain and a drug addicts rehab center in the valley. What could go wrong if someone escapes the rehab?

The horrifying conclusion to the Golden Age unfolds in a magnificently violent nightmare, signifying the birth of new era where darkness outshines the light. It's been a year since Griffith's imprisonment by the Kingdom of Midland. Once praised as the saviors of the Midland, the Band of the Hawk has been on the run and is on the brink of breaking apart. Much to everyone's surprise, Guts returns to the Hawks, and the search for Griffith begins!

Elena Nikolaevna Stakhova, a girl from a noble family, is full of lofty ideals. Seeking “active good” and heroism and not finding the use of her powers in her environment, she falls in love with the Bulgarian student Insarov, a poor commoner democrat. Elena completely devotes herself to her chosen one and follows him along his difficult path. After the wedding, the young people decide to leave for Bulgaria, where the struggle for freedom has been going on for 400 years. But, never having reached his homeland, Insarov dies...

The protagonist in this picture is legendary Bulgarian Khan Krum - a ruler in the beginning of IX century. In this period, Bulgaria ranked third in Europe in terms of territory and military power. It is Khan Krum who contributed to the union of Bulgarians and Slavs. He enforces unseen to that day laws against calumniators, thieves, violators. It stirs discontent among his closest men. The ruler is smart and just, but isn't he too severe? At what cost can one ensure order and progress in a state?

The society strongly opposes a new business - "professional woman". However, there is no shortage of customers. Three of the best employees of the company share their point of view. Who become the Monsters - those who sell or those who buy love?

Balgar is a brand known among the 10-18 age group, almost 100%. Balgar is a peculiar subculture phenomenon that in less than five years managed to become a favorite of tens and even hundreds of thousands of teenagers. And now come down from the computer to conquer the big screen. The first Bulgarian full-length animated film from more than 40 years. The first Bulgarian independent animated film. The first Bulgarian 3D Stereoscopic Movie.

Smart, angry, self-reliant Dida will stop at nothing to achieve a single tangible goal – to buy a plane ticket so she can join her estranged mother in the United States.

Misho becomes an orphan. The good people from the neighborhood take care of him until the child is placed in an orphanage. Everyone is trying to bring joy to the kid. However, Misho is searching for his mother's love in their eyes. Now the people are being kind to him, but there is always an invisible wall. Maybe uncle Elenko is the most sincere, since he shows his feelings in a tragic moment when Misho gets on a roof of a construction site. However, why does he care for Misho end with him convincing him to go to the orphanage?

An American action star from the 90's is shooting a movie in Bulgaria, while three of his (now grown up) fans try to meet their childhood idol. After a series of bad decisions, the three fans are between the Russian mafia, huge amount of drugs, and huge debt. So they decide to rob the Hollywood production which their childhood idol is shooting.

Robert Sternvall, a German journalist, returns to Artsakh in 2016 to cover the war which has been reignited after a 22-year ceasefire. In the result of his journalistic investigation, Robert meets Sophia, a young opera singer, who happens to be the daughter of missing photojournalist Edgar Martirosyan, whom Robert abandoned in captivity during the fall of the village of Talish in 1992. Robert and Sophia’s frequent rendezvouses ignite a passionate romance...

In а short but heroic campaign, Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev leads a band of rebels from the Danube to the Balkan Range.

Gaffer Yordan the Gerak is a wealthy farmer with a large family. The Geraks live in harmony as long as his wife is alive. After her death, disagreement and strife erupt among them. Two of the sons, Bozhan and Peter, demand the partition of their father's real estate. The third son, Pavel, who is doing his military service in the town, has become estranged from the land and from his family. When Pavel returns home only to ask money from his father, Gaffer Yordan discovers that he has been robbed. His sons trade accusations and come to blows. Pavel goes back to his mistress in the city. Elka, Pavel's wife, falls ill with a venereal disease she has contracted from his husband. On a dark and stormy night Elka is about to drown herself in the river when the Gerak's old farmhand takes her back home. Before long, Elka dies, as does Gaffer Yordan. Bozhan fells the centenarian pine tree in the yard of the family home, which symbolized the patriarchal ways of the Geraks.

The film is in 3 parts: 1) 'Eden' - Aliens from the planet Rhea have flown with a damaged spaceship to Earth, looking for intelligent beings. They find apemen and take one of them into their ship. 2) 'The Wanderer' - A crime writer, who is travelling to see his dying friend, picks up a strange hitchhiker. On his return from the sanatorium, his car goes off the road, but the stranger lifts it into the air and lands it back on the highway. Then he goes to the writer's house and shows him his supernatural abilities. 3) 'My First Day' - Len, an alien traveler arrives on Earth to share with humans the knowledge of their ancient civilization. He meets its inhabitants, who are served by robots and travel back in time, because their life is boring and meaningless. Every day his hostess Lena visits an ancient Slavic settlement and monitors its inhabitants. One day she appears before the hunter Bayan, who has been captivated by her beauty and takes her into his hut.

A lonely man, who spends all his time watching films, finds a way to get his hands on a copy of the lost film Cleopatra (1917), but will he be able to pay the price?

TILT is a love story set against the backdrop of the changing political and social environment in Europe in the late 80's and early 90's. Can this love survive the challenges of emigration, a violent homeland and immoral social atmosphere thanks to a gang of adventurous friends?

Radostin is the new boy at school. His peculiar charm and kindness attract everybody's attention and the school bullies start to feel jealous. In order to diminish his popularity, they spread a rumor about the cannibalistic past of Radostin's grandmother. The boy becomes the target of everybody's hatred.

The chilling true story of a 13 year old girl who is held captive for 8 months by pimps after being sold and trafficked by her adopted parents for sex slavery.

The rich villager Yuftalana discovers that someone has broken corn from the cornfield. By chance he sees the thief - a child of a poor man. Blinded by rage, Yuftalana kills him with a stone...

There is a small frontier post. A soldier abiding by the rules of the system gradually turns into a murderer.

A 70-year-old man, former mayor of a village, recalls his life: the difficult post-war years, the forced collectivisation of the land, the migration of the population. He has sacrificed his personal life trying to perform his office conscientiously.

Infidelity drama, male egos, lost dogs in Startsladden favorite Stefan Constantinescu’s arthouse gem about a man consumed by jealousy who risks losing everything while searching for the truth.

The film is a children comedy about six fat boys who experience great adventures while fighting hunger. They realize what friendship means and finally turn into little men.

Scenes from the life and revolutionary activity of poet Nikola Vaptzarov are shown against the background of political life in Bulgaria on the eve of World War II.