The 10 best Bulgarian movies

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.

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.

After witnessing his wife's rape and murder during Ottoman rule, a traumatized Bulgarian knight, Kara Ivan, retreats to the mountains where he raises his young daughter alone among the goats.

A boy from a poor Sofia neighborhood - Rado who is orphan and has committed several petty crimes - is sent to a borstal, or, to put it otherwise becomes a juvenile prisoner. Unfortunately, however, he cannot reconcile his uncomplicated pride, sense of justice with the kind of education provided by people who are more often than not deprived of sensibility and human warmth. The order there is repulsive, the boy is seeking for freedom and often makes escapes. During one of the escapes he meets the love of his lifetime. Suddenly Rado falls in love with Benny, a student, the daughter of well educated and sophisticated family (at least, this is the first impression) and this intensify his desire for freedom and independence. Naturally, conflict is not slow to appear. The parents of Benny are panic-stricken when getting aware of the fact. They are resolved to separate the couple. Their parental love is sincere but the reality is phony and cruel. The boy's hopes are thwarted for good and vacuity reigns in the mind of the girl. Dead set on putting an end to the 'unequal' union, Benny's mother forces the girl to have an abortion. The fruit of a 'reckless' love is killed and the first genuinely powerful feelings between two young people betrayed. The makers of this dramatic and moving film (also remarkable for the superb performance of the actors) denounce the old-fashioned social prejudices and present lobe and faith in man as scared symbols, which everyone should treasure.

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.

The misfortunes of a couple of guys who form a music group and think they can get rich and famous easy.

Two young people living in the country decide to move to the big city by all means. They set off hitch-hiking, but on the road uncertainty and remorse seize them. Is that the right decision? In their journey they face both good intentions and perfidy. Do they finally arrive in the big city or come back to their village?

Ivan and Anna move to Sofia with their two children. At first the family decide to stay at the summer house of a friend of Ivan's. And it's all going quite well until Vlado arrives - a young man who dropped out of university and came to work in the same factory Anna started work at. Ivan feels the way his wife acts with him has changed and learns about the reason why from an anonymous letter. Vlado comes to speak openly about his feelings for Anna in her home and asks her to marry him. Family crisis ensues. Has Anna been cheating on her husband or not? Should he be jealous or keep his violent rage under control? These issues come to spill over to the whole household, friends circle, colleagues... At the end, Anna finds it too hard to leave the nest and stays with Ivan.

The vacationers at a winter wonderland struggle to survive after an avalanche of snow crashes into their ski resort. Their holiday then turns into a game of survival.

The story of Alex, who, with the help of his charismatic grandfather, Bai Dan, embarks on a journey in search of his real self.