Historia de Bulgaria

This is an epic screen presentation showing the creation, the consolidation and the power of First Bulgarian Kingdom and the first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh.

The action takes place in Moscow, Berlin and Vienna in years 1932 and 1933, a time when the great Bulgarian revolutionary and internationalist Georgi Dimitrov was actively involved in establishing a broad alliance of democratic forces against the emerging threat of war and fascism. His activities were dangerous, involving great risks. Naturally, the Nazis tried to curtail his work. He was accused of setting the Reichstag on fire and at the Reichstag Fire Trial in 1933 Dimitrov dealt an enormous moral blow to fascism. The film reveals the spirit and the atmosphere at the beginning of the thirties (the film features documentary scenes) and carries a contemporary political message.

After the civil war in Russia, the white guard officer Aleksey emigrates to Bulgaria. He earns his living as a boatman. Nataliya Noykova, the wife of a mining engineer, is on holiday in the town. She and her friends hire Aleksey's boat. He falls for Nataliya and follows her. Aleksey works as a miner under the supervision of a man nicknamed The Hunchback. He fancies Rositza, granddaughter of the engine-driver Old Ivan, and makes rude passes at her. Aleksey rushes to her help. The two men fight... The workers are enjoying themselves at the festival of the colliery. Nataliya and Aleksey arrange for their next date. The Hunchback spies them. He blackmails Nataliya threatening reveal her secret to her husband if she does not agree to go to bed with him. Disgusted at his proposal she hits him. Nataliya send a letter to Aleksey through Rositza. The girl goes down to the pit and hands it to him. The Hunchback comes. Aleksey decides to kill him. He chases him through the galleries: the fleeing supervisor trips over some explosives, which go off. The Hunchback dies while Aleksey is badly injured. In a hospital, Aleksey is delirious: he reviews "the fire over Russia"...

1197. King Kaloyan ascends the throne in hard times for Bulgaria. The country is still recovering from a century of Byzantine subjugation. He is forced to carry out a very flexible foreign policy in order to strength his positions. Pope Innocent III recognizes him as Emperor (Tsar), but a little later the fourth Crusade crosses the country under Emperor Baldwin. A new conflict is coming. Tsar Kaloyan wages the decisive battle at Adrianople and wins.

There were times when stealing girls in these lands has been a worthy vocation, was a habit and a sort of custom in Bulgaria. Only the strongest and most experienced men took the profession up. A young and brave Bulgarian highlander was given the job to bring, no matter how, a certain beautiful girl to be married to somebody. Such a lad was Banko, the main character in movie. The film traces the vicissitudes of Banko. He has made a bargain to ambush and abduct the pretty Elitza and deliver her to the man who wants to marry her. The kidnapping is a success in the beginning, but the girl, Elitza, reveals a "manly" character. She puts up a stiff resistance. She fights against being taken to the weak-willed, stupid groom, who believes that the money can buy him everything. In the beginning she implores him to set her free and then threatens to jump into a ravine. At first Banko, who has become used to submissiveness of his victim, is taken aback by this sort of reaction, which runs counter to the established norms of a patriarchal code of conduct. Ultimately Banko and Elitza fall in love. This leads to the most dramatic and tragic events in their lives. His confusion evolves into a conflict between the call of duty and his emerging love for Elitza. To Banko this love, which seems to be reciprocated by his victim, is tantamount to the breaking of his word of honor. He runs the gauntlet of desire, suffering and doubt, and sees his profession in a different light. This is a film about the dawning of understanding in an unencumbered primitive mind, a turning point in the development of Eduard Sachariev who in his subsequent films has proceeded to examine the role of love as a motive force of man's surviving for freedom.

Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks, with different cultures, faiths and languages, are united in their reverence for one hero - Captain Petko Vojvoda. He is a fighter for freedom all over the world, for the independence of Bulgaria, for peace and equality in the Balkans.

In the 17th century, a Bulgarian Christian region is selected by the Ottoman rulers to serve as an example of conversion to Islam. A Janissary who was kidnapped from the village as a boy is sent to force the reluctant inhabitants to convert. The Turkish governor seeks a peaceful solution, but ultimately torture, violence, and rebellion break out.

A wife of a Bulgarian Army officer falls in love with a Serbian prisoner at the end of World War I.

Unwanted by her mother, Viktoria is being born with no umbilical cord and doesn't need Boryana until the hardships of life bind them together.

This is a story of strange, impossible, inexplicable love between a Muslim Turk woman and a non-Muslim Bulgarian man. Ivan (the Bulgarian) is a pure and romantic young fellow, who gets caught up in the so-called "regeneration process" (when ethnic Turks' names were forcibly changed to Bulgarian ones).

The war exploits of French captain Conan and his men during World War I and during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.

Spring of 1913. Balkan War. Turkish armored ship terrorizes the Bulgarian army with it's long range cannons.

Bulgaria. 13th century. The people, driven to utter despair, rise in arms. They elect Ivaylo - a poor peasant but gifted military commander - as their leader. Ivaylo's army overruns the Tatar invaders and the royal troops. In a decisive battle with the royal army, Ivaylo defeats and slays King Konstantin Asen. To prevent a betrayal on the feudal nobles, who intend to open the gates of the royal capital to Byzantine army, Ivaylo sacrifices his personal happiness, abandons his sweetheart and agrees to marry the widowed queen.

In 651, Khan Kubrat died and the Khazars accelerated their raids upon Great Bulgaria. His five sons split the Bulgarian tribe and each led his to find new land where they could live in peace. Khan Asparukh, the youngest son, went west and, after an arduous journey lasting for years, southward across the River Danube, into Moesia. In 680-81, in alliance with the Slavs, he inflicted stunning defeats on the Roman legions and forced the Byzantine Empire to recognize the formation of the new state of Bulgaria in the lands where it still exists today.

Through Georgi (a juvenile) and Itso (an adult), we take a quick glance (about one and a half hour quick) at what happens in post cold-war Bulgaria.

The film takes us back to the days of Bulgarian Resistance during Second World War. Beautiful love between two young people burns out against the background of the Nazi reality.

A film about the last days of six women - six political prisoners. Each of them expects the coming execution in her own way. A film about human deeds under extreme circumstances.

Skopje 1941, the city is occupied by the Germans and their Bulgarian allies. Zoran, a boy of 11, witnesses the horrors of war. Zoran's father is away fighting in the partisan army. Zoran's mother and a German officer develop a special affection for one another.

A twelve-year-old boy escapes from a Bulgarian Communist concentration camp and sets out on a journey to reach Denmark.

"The Tree of Life" is a historic family drama, whose action began with the announcement of the Independence of Bulgaria in 1908. The action follows the history of a crowded and wealthy urban family against the backdrop of key events for the Bulgarian history.

During World War II, a plane transfers Bulgarian antifascists from the USSR to Bulgaria. They jump with parachutes. The eighth paratrooper heads a guerrilla group. In the group, there are doubts about the existence of a traitor. Initially, an innocent person is accused, but later the real traitor is caught and killed. Still, the most dangerous enemies of the guerrillas are the colonel and the troops stationed in the nearby village. The battle between them and the guerrillas is won by the latter who continue to fight for their cause.

A mother, forced to abandon her child and home, leads a rebellious band and inflicts her own justice in the brutal men's world of 19th century.

Trained young policeman goes undercover in the gang of the most dangerous mafia boss in Bulgaria.

The BULGARIAN 20th Century documentary series consists of 12 episodes. On the basis of the existing film, video and photo archive, an entertaining and comprehensible plot is built on each topic. The author's comment does not impose on the viewer extreme and unambiguous political evaluations. Considering the events on the European and world stage, each episode explores the purely Bulgarian dimension and meaning of what is happening. The documentary series traces the world major processes and how they affect Bulgaria. This comparison revels the role and place of Bulgarian politics, culture and personalities in the world history. Episode #1 THE FIRST BALKAN WAR 1912 - UNITED Bulgaria has just gained its independence and is facing a gigantic test - the First Balkan War. Will the young country endure the military might of the vast Ottoman Empire? Are we as Bulgarians scared of the discontent of European powers? Is there a future for the union of Balkan states? The answers to these questions lie in the unique archival footage, shown for the first time, which will bring us back to the difficult years for Bulgaria at the beginning of the 20th century. Episode #2 THE SECOND BALKAN WAR 1913 - DISUNITED Unique film and photo archive from the Second Balkan War, also called "Inter-Allied". Fratricidal battle for Macedonia, Dobrudja and Eastern Thrace. Sealed in the footage is the tremendous anguish and despair of the Bulgarian people. How Bulgaria reaches its first national catastrophe. Episode #3 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918 - FOUR HARD YEARS Are the Balkans really the "gunpowder dump" of Europe? In the years of the First World War, provoked by the assassination in Sarajevo, the answer is probably "Yes." Bulgaria again at a crossroads. A war "while the leaves drop out of the trees" or four years in the trenches with mud, lice, diseases and thousands of victims. National unity or a new national catastrophe? Episode #4 THE AGRICULTURAL ROAD OF BULGARIA The World after the First World War. Multifaceted, interesting, unpredictable. Another national catastrophe again put Bulgaria at a crossroads. A large, worried and pale Bulgarian signs the Treaty of Neuilly. Aleksandar Stamboliyski. Peasant leader, anti-war agitator, prisoner "for life", Prime Minister. Episode #5 A COUP CALLED "PEOPLE'S TALK-ASSEMBLY" Bulgaria in the 1920s. A look at the past without nostalgia. Tragic history of civil conflicts and national disunity. The grim chronicle of "Ninth of June" coup. Alexander Stamboliyski - another Bulgarian Prime Minister victim of cruel political assassination. The September Uprising - a naive strategic mistake or cynical political game with the fates of thousands human beings. The attack in the church "Holy Sunday" - the worst terrorist act in Bulgarian history. Hundreds of innocent victims of the explosion and thousands killed and missing in the backlash of the authorities. Episode #6 THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE 30'S In the 30s Sofia is transformed from a muddy, rural town to a European capital. Europe rejoices under the looming shadow of war. People like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel and Luis Bunuel turn the era into an "A Moveable Feast". They hooligan attack the stereotypes of classical art and create a cultural identity of the 20th century. In the period between the wars the Bulgarian fine arts, music, cinema, secular life gradually took a place in the world cultural process. Episode #7 FASCIST OR NATIONAL SOCIALISM The Thirties of the 20th Century. Establishing totalitarian dictatorships in Europe. How these processes are reflected in the lives of Bulgarians. The Rise of Mussolini, Hitler and Franco. The Reichstag fire and the Leipzig process. The coup of May 19, 1934. The assassination of King Alexander I in Marseille. Episode #8 COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL AND BULGARIA On the eve of World War II. The great game between Stalin and Hitler. World domination of Germany or World Socialist Revolution. The role of the Comintern and who will outwit whom. Episode #9 The Economy of Bulgaria in the 30's In the 1930s, the prosperity of nations was now measured not only by the strength of the army. The level of electrification, standard of living, production of steel and fabrics, roads, railways, the number of cars, planes, radios and telephones are becoming the criteria for the power of states. Where is Bulgaria in this new world? Episode #10 BULGARIAN DIPLOMACY TO THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II The shadow of the World War II looms over the world. In recent months, complex diplomatic manoeuvres have been running between the European Great Powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Peacetime diplomacy is at an end. In some places in Europe, guns are already spoken. Despite all efforts of diplomats and statesmen, Bulgaria will not stay away from the storm of war. And we may never know for sure the answer to the question: "Could our country have another fate?" Episode #11 THE TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IN THE 20TH CENTURY The road from the Roman chariot to the phaeton is 2000 years, but from the phaeton to the space shuttle less than 100 years. We will briefly talk about this tremendous leap in people's lifestyles without being able, in such a brief form, to elucidate the impact of change on the spiritual and intimate world of man. How this giddy century of technological revolutions looks like in the narrow confines of Bulgaria in the periphery of Europe? Episode #12 THOSE YEARS This is the beginning of World War II. Nazi Germany occupies Poland. Italy is at war with Albania. Bulgaria is at the crossroads between the promises and threats of Hitler and Stalin. We are entering the Tripartite Pact. The National Assembly adopts anti-Jewish laws. The Wehrmacht troops crossed Bulgaria and successfully attacked Greece. We get the Black Sea and Vardar Macedonia (Bulgaria has already acquired South Dobrudja). The days of euphoria. Soon, the Bulgarians will painfully understand that Hitler's gifts are expensive. They will be paid for with the blood, misery and broken destinies of millions of ordinary peopl