Balkan cinemas
Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo,Macedonia,Slovenia and Croatia
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- DirectorDusan MakavejevStarsMilena DravicIvica VidovicJagoda KaloperAn homage to the work of psychologist Wilhelm Reich, matched with a story about a Yugoslavian girl's affair with a Russian skater. Sexual repression, social systems and the orgone theory are explored.
- DirectorZivojin PavlovicStarsMilena DravicIvica VidovicSeverin BijelicIdealistic young man supports the party and the new Yugoslavia's communist regime, but soon gets involved in various political and criminal machinations becoming more and more confused about what's right and what's wrong.
- DirectorAleksandar PetrovicStarsBekim FehmiuOlivera KatarinaVelimir 'Bata' ZivojinovicTensions arise in a Gypsy community when a local feather seller falls in love with a much younger girl.
- DirectorDusan MakavejevStarsEva RasSlobodan AligrudicRuzica SokicA young female starts a love relationship with a serious young man. However, while he is away on business, she gets lonely and succumbs to her colleague's desires.
- DirectorZivojin PavlovicStarsDragan NikolicRuzica SokicNeda SpasojevicThe story about Jimmy the Dingy, a young vagabond who works as a seasonal worker. Having been sacked from the job, his dreams are to become a singer. As most of the things in the Balkans happen, he is destined to failure.
- DirectorZelimir ZilnikStarsMilja VujanovicBogdan TirnanicCedomir RadovicA group of young persons are going to make a revolution, but in real life everything is not the same as in smart books.
- DirectorAleksandar PetrovicStarsVelimir 'Bata' ZivojinovicAli RanerSlobodan 'Cica' PerovicThree stories are set at the beginning, middle and the end of WW2. In all three of them the hero of the movie must witness the death of people he likes.
- DirectorDjordje KadijevicStarsJovan Janicijevic-BurdusAnka ZupancDusan JanicijevicIn a Serbian village on Christmas Day in 1943, the Chetniks accept two downed American pilots and give them hospitality. However, finding out that the Germans are looking for pilots, the Chetniks change attitude towards them, disarming and shutting them off, but the pilots were able to escape. Palming off the corpses of two other killed prisoners to the Germans, who have since captured the real pilots, the Chetniks make local people enraged, despite their captain's attempts to cover up this wrongdoing, done on a public holiday.
- DirectorLazar StojanovicStarsVukica DjilasSvetlana GligorijevicTomislav GotovacTom is a young guy from Zagreb, completely without money, trying to make films in Belgrade. He somehow manages to survive with a help of women. He doesn't believe in anybody, respects no one and is in constant conflict with the ruling system and order. After being left by a silly American girl, Tom binds with a woman whose husband is abroad. When she kicks him out, he moves in with her husband's sister, who later kills him in the attack of jealousy. All this is shown in the context of major historical events prior to 1968. with lots of archive footages of world leaders.
- DirectorMladomir 'Purisa' DjordjevicStarsLjubisa SamardzicNeda ArnericMilena DravicThe war has ended leaving a deep trace in people. Going through a different conflicts in the first days of peace - dealing with a former enemy's collaborators and executing traitors - a former soldier continues with killing even in peace. So, the war goes on, a struggle within himself and with the people around him.
- DirectorJovan JovanovicStarsDragan NikolicAleksandar GavricMaría BaxaFollows Stevan Nikolic, "Stiv", petty criminal born in Belgrade, always problematic, enemy of country's regime, influenced by society and movies(for example Godard's, even the movie looks like "Breathless" a little bit and Godard is mentioned once in the movie) and his rise to power along with drugs, sex and with the help of local police.
- DirectorJovan JovanovicMiodrag MilosevicStarsStanoje CebicFunny story of a unemployed metalworker, self-proclaimed Marxist fanatic, his views and whereabouts.
- DirectorVatroslav MimicaStarsZaim MuzaferijaUgljesa KojadinovicJolanda DjacicAn experimental film about peaceful and carefree life in a small Dalmatian town, which turns into bloodshed and horror on the Eve of Italian occupation of the country.
- DirectorMiodrag PopovicStarsLjerka DrazenovicJovan Janicijevic-BurdusDanilo 'Bata' StojkovicThe winds of war has passed and left a permanent deformation of the human psyche. Two brothers returned after the liberation of their village who that is the whole burnt and deserted. They confessed to each other that the war, as trophies, bring tasers ammunition. In all this madness begins the game with a shooting that much love. They are joined by a German who is hiding behind the rocks after the destruction of the village. And in this insane game killed all three.
- DirectorVojislav 'Kokan' RakonjacStarsSpela RozinMarko TodorovicDusica ZegaracOne night, after disastrous road accident, the eyewitnesses were claiming that they saw a woman behind the steering wheel. It was actually the four teenagers who have stolen Peugeot 404 to drive around for fun, but the girl who was with them left the car in the middle of highway. The boys have been chased by the police and they've crashed fatally. The police continues their intense search to find the fourth person.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsRade SerbedzijaErland JosephsonDusica ZegaracThis is a true story of the famous Variola epidemic outbreak in Belgrade.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsMustafa NadarevicAnica DobraMilorad Mandic-MandaPiano teacher is deeply traumatised by the events of his childhood, as well as by political oppression in his youth. Decades later, all those traumas lead to carnage.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsDimitrije VojnovLazar RistovskiPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicA 10-year-old boy goes through variety of silly situations and confusions during the peak of Marshal Tito's cult of personality in 1950's Yugoslavia.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsTihomir StanicJelena DjokicDragan NikolicYear 1993, the bleakest time of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A group of actors from Belgrade, utterly unaware of what they're setting themselves up for, embark on a search for quick earnings - on a "tour" around the Serbian Krajina. However, there they are thrust into the heart of war and begin to wander from war front to war front, from one army to the next.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsDragan NikolicBogdan DiklicGorica PopovicOne week in a life of Branimir Mitrovic "Floyd", a young rally driver from the National Class (up to 785cc), dreaming of promotion to the higher category. He lives a carefree life of a Belgrade dandy boy, neglecting his girlfriend, avoiding his draft calls, and refusing to deal with any life responsibility in general. The decisive race on Saturday is only what he cares about.
- DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsRade MarkovicBogdan DiklicDragan NikolicDuring the excavation of ancient Roman ruins, an old archaeology professor accidentally opens the gate between our world and the world of the dead.
- DirectorEmir KusturicaStarsBajram SeverdzanSrdjan 'Zika' TodorovicBranka KaticMatko and his son Zare live on the banks of the Danube river and get by through hustling and basically doing anything to make a living. In order to pay off a business debt Matko agrees to marry off Zare to the sister of a local gangster.
- DirectorAnte BabajaStarsManca KosirVelimir 'Bata' ZivojinovicFabijan SovagovicBeautiful but ailing girl is married to a harsh man who doesn't care for her. Only after she dies does he realize that he actually loves her.
- DirectorBostjan HladnikStarsDusa PockajMiha BalohRado NakrstPeter is the dark brooding type. Leading a vacuous, shapeless life, he longs for the ideal woman, while at the same time, half heartedly continuing with his habitual girlfriend, Marusa , who is considerably older, a fact that Peter is quick to point out. As an ageing actress, struggling for parts in her local theatre, she oozes insecurity and breathes uncertainty. Together, they spend their time in the local restaurant, smoking, drinking and trading verbal blows. "I bet you'll just end up a drunk," she tells Peter each time. Peter just grins and tells her how old she looks. Compounded by a thankless director who soon shows her the door, Marusa finds her identity being squeezed harder and harder against the wall. To escape, Peter and Marusa dream...
- DirectorSrdjan DragojevicStarsDragan BjelogrlicNikola KojoDragan MaksimovicDuring the war in Bosnia, two childhood friends eventually become enemies, as the tragic and devastating circumstances of the war put them on the opposite sides and expose the most gruesome and cruel aspects of the human nature.
- DirectorEmir KusturicaStarsMoreno De BartoliPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicMirjana KaranovicA family is deeply affected by the father's extramarital affairs and the turbulent consequences of the Tito-Stalin split.
- DirectorJasmila ZbanicStarsMirjana KaranovicLuna Zimic MijovicLeon LucevA woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Bosnian War.
- DirectorSlobodan SijanStarsPavle VuisicDragan NikolicDanilo 'Bata' StojkovicIt's April 5, 1941, somewhere in Serbia. A group of people go on a bus to Belgrade, on a journey that will change their lives forever.
- DirectorDusan KovacevicBozidar 'Bota' NikolicStarsDanilo 'Bata' StojkovicBora TodorovicMira BanjacConvinced that his subtenant is a spy and an enemy of the state, a man falls into deep paranoia which leads to absurd and destructive chain of events.
- DirectorSlobodan SijanStarsBogdan DiklicDanilo 'Bata' StojkovicPavle VuisicThe Topalovic family has been in the burial business for generations. When the old (150 yrs old) Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.
- DirectorKrsto PapicStarsDavor JanjicAlma PricaMiodrag KrivokapicIt's the end of the 1980s, and Martin is being asked from his dying uncle Stipan to bury him with the presence of priest. Martin remembers the way they lost the contact in 1951 - Stipan informed on him when he wrote a composition in the school, expressing doubts about the land reform. He had got a bullet in the groin by accident; his pregnant wife fled to Trieste and then to Australia where she gave a birth to their son John.
- DirectorLudmil StaikovStarsRousy ChanevIvan KrystevAnya PenchevaIn 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.
- DirectorDimitar PetrovStarsIvaylo DzhambazovNeyko NeykovPetar PeychevThree novels deal with the mentality of the children, their agitations, and the merry and sad things in their everyday life. The movie is created with a lot of humor, cheerfulness, and great love for the kids.
- DirectorMetodi AndonovStarsKatya PaskalevaAnton GorchevMilen PenevThe film sends us to the 17th century when Bulgaria was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Four hoodlums break into the house of the shepherd Karaivan, raping and killing his wife in full view of their little girl, Maria. Karaivan decides to take the law into his own hands and becomes enslaved by his violent wish for revenge. He burns their house with his wife's body inside and abandons the gentle life they had shared, choosing instead to take his daughter to live in a rough hut high in the hills. He raises Maria as a boy, training her to fight so that she can kill in cold blood and help her father avenge her mother's murder. Nine years pass before the two locate and kill three of the four perpetrators. At each body they leave a goat horn as the symbol of their revenge. While on a mission to kill the last one at his rich oriental house, Maria becomes the unwitting witness of a love scene and change comes over her. Now, from time to time she secretly dons a beautiful women dress and exults in her newly found femininity. She falls in love with young shepherd and the hate begins to melt from her heart. When Karaivan discovers the change that is taking place in her it is already late. He tries to bring Maria back to him and their life of revenge, with disastrous results.
- DirectorChristo ChristovStarsGrigor VachkovDimitar IkonomovBogdan SpasovThis film is a dramatic, colorful parable about migration from the countryside to the urban areas, revealing the deep-rooted attachment of the peasant Ivan Efreytorov to the patriarchal way of life. The newly built dam has submerged his village and his fellow villagers move in prefabricated blocks of flats in the neighboring town. Left alone with his father and his son, Efreytorov is resisting fiercely the imminent change and does not want to leave his native house. Though the native village has disappeared under the water of lake, it still exists in his memories. In his mind's eye he sees the mythological scenes which combine in almost surrealist fashion with his visions of the contemporary world, memories of his dead wife and images of nature in which animals - the dog, the cow, the horse - figure very prominently. After the death of his father and the escape of his son to the town, Efreytorov sees that all his ties with the past are broken. The implacable march of time compels the man of tradition to beat a heartbreaking retreat.
- DirectorNikolay VolevStarsIrini JambonasHristo ShopovRashko MladenovMargarit and Margarita are high school senior students. They are madly in love. And so proud and independent that they are often in trouble with their parents and teachers. They quit school to live life their own way, only to face a world or corruption and brutality. Margarit would make no compromise and would not get involved in a game with shady rules. Margarita is more willing to do so in the name of their future together. A big manager takes her under his wing and shows himself to be a corrupt womanizer. Margarit cannot stand the debauchery of their 'protector' and kills him. After his sentence he puts an end to his life and unable to live her life this way, so does Margarita.
- DirectorRangel VulchanovStarsStoyan AleksievGeorgi KaloyanchevKaterina EvroThis is a philosophical, eccentric and fantastic comedy. This is a fantastic escape from the reality and a dream-rebellion of the fantasy.
- DirectorLudmil StaikovStarsStoyko PeevAntony GenovVassil MihajlovThis is an epic screen presentation showing the creation, the consolidation and the power of First Bulgarian Kingdom and the first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh.
- DirectorChristo ChristovStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyVania TzvetkovaYevgeniya BarakovaIn this picture, the barrier epitomizes the line between reality and dreams, the pattern of harmony and happiness. The delicate, pretty, sensitive Dorotea and the sedate middle-aged composer Antoni meet by chance. He gives her shelter in his house. Famous composer falls under the spell of young Dorothea: A pretty, thin-skinned, though quite an eccentric girl. Antoni becomes the witness of a series of strange and wonderful events. She is maintaining she is able to fly, drawing him into her half real world, when miracles are worked. It turns out that Dorotea has the supernatural gift of divining and forecasting people thoughts and intentions. Gradually Antoni overcomes his initial confusion and becomes used to the parapsychological states of the girl. He penetrates her acutely sensitive inner world where the supernatural becomes natural and the impossible possible. And when he learns that Dorotea can fly, he joins her and flies with her. During this experiment he feels a surge of creativity and happiness for the first time in many years. Is all this real or imaginary? Embarrassed, as he is, he leaves on a short trip, and when finally resolved to come back to her, it is too late. Why is it that Dorotea is found dead apparently having fallen after one of her flights?
- DirectorZornitsa SophiaStarsVesela KazakovaAssen BlatechkiZlatina TodevaA 16-old girl runs away from a dangerous man and gets into a faraway village near the border. Soon she finds out the only inhabitants there - nine old men and women - make their living by growing marijuana and the village is actually an illegal plantation belonging to the man she runs away from. However, she decides to stay there and nothing remains the same. A girl is afraid of her past, both disgusting and attracting her. She is afraid of her present, both suffocating her and giving her wings. And she is afraid of the future as it projects both her nightmares and her dreams. This film is about the only 'bullet against fear' - love.
- DirectorIlian SimeonovStarsVladimir GeorgievSamuel FinziItschak FintziA 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.
- DirectorJavor GardevStarsZachary BaharovTanya IlievaVladimir PenevMoth is freed on parole after spending time in prison on wrongful conviction of murder. Jailed shortly before the Bulgarian communist coup of 1944, he now finds himself in a new and alien world - the totalitarian Sofia of the 60s. His first night of freedom draws the map of a diabolical city full of decaying neighborhoods, gloomy streets and a bizarre parade of characters.
- DirectorKamen KalevStarsChristo ChristovOvanes TorosianSaadet AksoyThrough 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.
- DirectorDragomir SholevStarsTzvetan DaskalovSilvia GerinaIrena HristoskovaThis is a story of a family and two intruders.
- DirectorKonstantin BojanovStarsAngela NedyalkovOvanes TorosianMartin BrambachTwo troubled teens hitchhike across Bulgaria.
- DirectorVulo RadevStarsJan EnglertEdit SzalayRousy ChanevThe 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.
- DirectorBinka ZhelyazkovaStarsKosta TsonevYanina KashevaKliment DenchevThe story begins with a serious disillusionment experienced by a young girl at her school-leaving farewell ball. Apostol, an architect on this side of forty, meets by chance Bella at a swimming pool on the night of her graduation party. The generation gap is a wide one, but Bella falls sway to his intelligence, friends, his life-style and the respect everybody shows for her. Boyan is an actor and comic impersonator. The complex relationships among the three characters hover between friendship and love and involve certain professional motifs. The architect, an even-tempered man, is dispirited because the bold design decisions he has been taking have been regularly rejected. The overly playful actor surrounded by dummies and stage-pros, builds his life exclusively on outer effects. But deep inside he is sad because he knows that he has no real talent. Bella, unexpectedly mature for her age, cannot remain indifferent to the falsehoods and the indifferent attitude to life. She is in conflict with her own mother - a shallow television journalist. Bella's unconscious protest finds its real bearings only when she gets a glimpse of anti-fascist past of the architect who is already infatuated with her. At the end, she marries his best friend, Boyan, though Apostol would be the most important person in her lifetime. The film is notable for the vivid symbolism of its imagery. The swimming pool is not only the place of the action but also a metaphor of human life.
- DirectorGueorgui StoyanovStarsPavel PopandovKonstantin KotsevNikola AnastasovThis film continues the tendency to produce paradoxical comedies of anti-fascism which started with Gueorgui Stoyanov's early work in late sixties. In the last days of World War II the provincial teacher Panteley arrives in Sofia to visit a cousin. Accidentally he becomes involved in the conflicts of the times. Out of pure humanity Panteley takes a wounded person to the nearest hospital where he leaves his passport as well. The wounded person proves to be a resistance fighter. Left without identity papers Panteley goes underground. This is the beginning of his "amateur" resistance in a string of comic situations. They reveal the absurdity of the clash between sound reason and the fascist police system. In his search for a way out, and constantly threatened with arrest, Panteley performs a series of courageous acts without being aware of it. He thus lives to see Victory Day but his lack of identity papers faces him once again with the risk of being suspected.
- DirectorLudmil StaikovStarsLyuben ChatalovRousy ChanevSusana KotzurikovaThe intricate relations between an Artist, an Actress and a Poet are seen against the background of one of the most dramatic events in the recent history of Bulgaria: uprising, which broke out in 1923. Plainclothesmen murder the Poet because his verses are marked by individualist rebellion. The Artist loses his best friend and at this point of realistic first half of the film comes to the end. The second half develops on a metaphorical and fantastic level. After his meeting with the peasant Danil who has gone crazy, the Artist's illusion that art can be separate from life crumbles. He sees the rapid crushing of uprising and the suffering of the people with fearsome force and clarity. The Artist comes to understand that the reality can be a much richer source of creative inspiration than the artificially closed world of the elitist intelligentsia of his time. The film, notable for the unusual atmosphere of Konstantin Pavlov's magical lyricism is an attempt on the part of director Lyudmil Staykov at 'reconciling' two heterogeneous cinematic styles by means of montage.
- DirectorGeorgi DjulgerovStarsRousy ChanevGrigor VachkovKatia IvanovaEarly 20th c. This is an era of seething passions, aspirations for freedom and national self-identification. Uprising are incited, blood is shed. The picture features national leaders who become heroes as early as in their lifetime. The protagonist is rank-and-file Macedonian who is unwittingly swept by the events. Later, it was his conscious choice. He was a witness of changes, crucial for the nation. He comes across legendary personalities. He gets enchanted and disappointed. He is seeking for the right answers, rethinks what he saw and experienced to tell his story in his simple, but candid and wise words of his own.
- DirectorZako HeskiyaStarsKiril VariyskiViktor ChouchkovIliya PenevThis is a sensitive film about human solidarity filled with humor and poetry.
- DirectorLyudmil KirkovStarsGeorgi Georgiev-GetzPlamena GetovaKonstantin KotsevA social and psychological study of contemporary problems.
- DirectorBorislav PunchevStarsKosta TsonevNevena KokanovaJan NowickiThe screenplay is based on real events, which took place in the town of Ohrid towards the end of the Second World War. A retreating German military unit has brought along a group of 25 Bulgarian prisoners of war. With the assistance of the local people the Bulgarians manage to escape and hide in the older quarter of Varosha. The searching yields no result because it is impossible to distinguish the prisoners, who have been given civilian clothes from the citizen of the town. The German commandment of Ohrid holds a group of prominent local citizens as hostages and delivers an ultimatum: return the prisoners by sunset or Varosha will be razed the ground. In the tense hours that follow the people of Ohrid are faced with a dreadful dilemma: they can save the town by committing an ignominious betrayal or preserve their honor and sacrifice their homes. Then a new ultimatum is issued: the require 10 kg gold as a ransom. The citizens must part with their last pieces of jeweler and precious keepsakes. The theme of the mass heroism of ordinary people who choose human dignity rather than security is conveyed in a context of relentlessly mounting suspense.
- DirectorBorislav SharalievStarsStefan DanailovBoris LukanovAneta PetrovskaThe picture features the life and deeds of Boris I - strong historic personality, which completes his mission to the full and at the end of his life receives holy orders. Prince Boris I is ruling in the late 9th century. In his youth, he, the brilliant statesman and diplomat, is experiencing heavy defeats in the wars he wages against his neighbors. Nonetheless, he manages not to cede any territories to the enemies. Under his rule, Bulgaria breaks with paganism and joins the Christian community, paying an exorbitant price, a heavy death toll, but there is no other way. The adoption of Christianity in 864 was a historical event of great significance. It guaranteed Boris I much need peace with the Eastern Roman Empire and allowed him to merge the numerous tribes inhabiting the country into a unified nationality and later to found a state. Boris I introduced the Slav script, thus turning Bulgaria into the cradle of Slav culture. Stiff resistance, however, met his actions. The former pagan, now Christian king was forced to crush it. Almost half of the then privileged aristocracy - 52 Bulgarian families - were mercilessly killed. Guided solely by his great ambitions Boris blinded and imprisoned his first-born son Vladimir-Rasate who dared against him and instead crowned his youngest son Simeon. It was during his reign that the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture began. This is an epic work dealing with the spiritual ups and downs of a nation and the drama of a great statesman.
- DirectorNikolay VolevStarsVelko KynevIvan VelkovMaria StatulovaThis is a film about the general collision between the generations. The film tells us the story of a 14 year old boy and his father, and the way they fight over all the problems.
- DirectorKrassimir KroumovStarsRumen TraykovPetar PopyordanovBarbara ProkopyukThe protagonist is a manager of a small town movie theatre. He is tortured by the childhood trauma of having abandoned his mentally ill brother in the flames of a fire in the chaos of it all and feels isolated with his severe survivor's guilt. Once, while welcoming a Norwegian film crew, a similar accident brings back all of this for him to deal with - a homeless person who lives in the heating room at the cinema suffocates to death there and in the process of investigating, the manager comes to shape his own identity around the events to follow. Guilt appears stronger than ever. Yet, after his brother dies, he goes through a lot of grief to realize finally that all life exists for a reason, comes to face his guilty conscience and to reunite with his old and only friend Laky the artist.
- DirectorDocho BodzhakovStarsJozef KronerBoyan KovachevLyuben ChatalovThis film deals with a dying man who reveals to his young friend, a child of 8, the fairy world of music. The immortal theme of art is related to the problems of morality, honesty and beauty.
- DirectorHristian NochevIlian SimeonovStarsPetar PopyordanovElena PetrovaMarian ValevThere is a small frontier post. A soldier abiding by the rules of the system gradually turns into a murderer.
- DirectorIvan NichevStarsStefan DanailovKaterina DidaskalouVassil MihajlovThis is a funny and woeful story, resembling an old Jewish anecdote, aiming to wrap a comical framework around the dark side of life. At the time, the poorest neighborhood of Plovdiv (an ancient town in Bulgaria) represented a unique European recess, a realm of perfect ethnic harmony among Bulgarians, Armenians, Turks, Jews, Gypsies and Greeks. A priest, a rabbi and a hodjah and an Antichrist nicknamed the Boozer are smitten with the same full-bosomed Turkish woman. Along with their rivalry, squabbles and good fellowship a Jewish boy and an Armenian girl fall in love for the first time. The political winds of the era will blow away the idyll separating the 12-year-old lovers. After many years, the Jew and the Armenian woman meet again in a different world.
- DirectorEduard ZaharievStarsItschak FintziNikolai UrumovVirginija KelmelyteGrowing old is an art in itself, How difficult is it to cast off the habits and perceptions of lifetime to keep up with the demands of a new age? In this New Age, is everything permitted?
- DirectorIvaylo HristovLyudmil TodorovStarsDeyan DonkovValeri YordanovIvan RadoevThree friends, Maro, Shpera and Yuri are unemployed and hardly make ends meet. They have complicated and hysterical relationships with the people closest to them. They seem to have emigrated from their families and their country. Provoked by a mysterious telephone call, they set out on a journey, filled with the hope to change their lives.
- DirectorKristina GrozevaPetar ValchanovStarsMargita GoshevaIvan BarnevIvan SavovIn a small Bulgarian town Nadezhda, a young teacher, is looking for the robber in her class so she can teach him a lesson about right and wrong. But when she gets in debt to loan sharks, can she find the right way out herself?
- DirectorZahari ZhandovStarsBogomil SimeonovSlavka SlavovaGinka StanchevaCustoms, jealousy, friendship and love haul up the lives of the villagers in Bulgarian countryside.
- DirectorNikola KorabovStarsNevena KokanovaYordan MatevMiroslava StoyanovaThe film is a screen version of the novel by Dimitar Dimov (1909-1966) and deals with the conflicts and contradictions in Bulgarian society during a period stretching from the early thirties to the end of the Second World War.
- DirectorVulo RadevStarsNevena KokanovaRade MarkovicMikhail MikhaylovA wife of a Bulgarian Army officer falls in love with a Serbian prisoner at the end of World War I.
- DirectorMaya VitkovaStarsIrmena ChichikovaDaria VitkovaKalina VitkovaUnwanted by her mother, Viktoria is being born with no umbilical cord and doesn't need Boryana until the hardships of life bind them together.
- DirectorGeorgi DjulgerovStarsRousy ChanevPlamen DonchevMaria StatulovaThe action takes place during the socialist period in Bulgaria. The central character, nicknamed the Cock is an artistic personality, a man of strong character known as the king of the pickpockets. His keen sense of personal freedom comes up against the universally accepted norms of behavior. The Cock likes a game, adventure and danger, while socialist society needs obedience. The Cock makes a stand against this order; he does not want to play his games according to rules. He is telling his story of two decades: his imprisonment, his love affairs. To him love is a fateful meeting of two persons and has nothing to do with Philistinism. The Cock is an amiable chap though being an adventurer, trickster, and an artist by nature, irresponsible and asocial. In the mean time he wastes his gift on virtuoso thefts and monumental banquets which regularly land him in jail. The Cock, who used to live outside the law, now tries to play the rules of the game. He trades favors with the prison staff and ends up betraying his friends.In the end the filmmakers allow him to die a dignified death. During an escape attempt before dying he saves the life of a child. His dream of life comes to an absurd end.
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsSasha KrusharskaJürgen FrohriepErik S. KleinThe tragic love of a Jewish girl and a Nazi officer is presented as a symbol of human purity defeated by fascism and racial prejudice.
- DirectorRangel VulchanovStarsAlbena StavrevaAni VulchanovaAntoaneta StanchevaThis film is about an imaginary actors exam. In order to choose the best one the exam jury uses even immoral ways of selecting - spying, making conflicts, humiliating the applicants, taking advantage of its power.
- DirectorDocho BodzhakovStarsLyuben ChatalovVania TzvetkovaPetar PopyordanovThis is a picture of some horrible events in Bulgaria after the WW2, when as if in the name of the future dictatorship, rules came.
- DirectorEvgeni MihailovStarsParaskeva DjukelovaPlamena GetovaMikhael DontchevMother (Lily), son (Malín) and stepfather, and a poor relation between the latter two. Lily always refused to tell who was Malín's real father. But Malín gradually uncovered the secret. Lily and Ivan were very much in love but never had any opportunity to sleep together. After Ivan was drafted Lily disappeared. She was raped by the son of a communist official and became pregnant. The People's Tribunal decided that the rapist and the raped should marry. To avoid the shame of being an unmarried mother Lily resigned to her fate. But the husband did not even attend the wedding ceremony and feast. After this insult Lily refused to sleep with him. Then he sent her in a concentration camp. She witnessed a prisoner being tortured to death. Later she was confined to a mental hospital. But she made it clear to a young doctor that she would do anything for him if he helped her out. He accepted the deal. But Lily's freedom might not have lasted long if she had posed as the respectable married woman she was. Though the price of concealing it was also heavy. If she took a real job her identity would be disclosed. She could only take poorly paid homework. She had to be glad that any man would accept her. And she could never tell the truth to her son.
- DirectorIglika TriffonovaStarsPhillip AvramovAna PapadopuluPeter AntonovIvan's best friend, Kamen, is in an American hospital, in coma after an accident. Since he's denied a visa to the USA and can't stay by his side in his last moments, Ivan decides to set off for Bulgaria countryside, taking the camera Kamen has given him. There's a legend in Kamen's place of birth - a small mountain village - that one song could bring people back to life. Ivan starts a journey to find it and record it, collecting a myriad of stories along the way. Will he succeed?
- DirectorIvan NichevStarsElena PetrovaAleksandr MorfovVasil Vasilev-ZuekaTwo German-Jewish children flee Nazi Germany in the early 1940s and try to escape to Palestine via Bulgaria. When their uncle dies during the journey, they are taken in by a troupe of travelling performers.
- DirectorRadoslav SpassovStarsVesela KazakovaValeri YordanovNejat IslerThis 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).
- DirectorMilena AndonovaStarsBonka Ilieva-BoniDiana DobrevaAngelina SlavovaDona, Lukrecie and Tana - three women of different origins and destinies, whose stories unfold at different times. The tale of the Romany woman Dona begins in the 1960s. The only assets this beautiful and vital woman has are her three children fathered by different men. In order to secure a livelihood for them, she moves in with an older, but disabled man, who turns out to be a pervert. Ten years later, the ambitious Lukrecie is trying to avoid employment in the village. After she becomes pregnant by a prospective suitor, she meets an attractive young man who offers her a life abroad, something she had always dreamed of. Lukrecie resolves her situation in the most appalling way. Tana, the wife of a prosperous businessman, vainly longs to have a child. On the advice of a friend, she goes off to a spa, whose miraculous reputation is attributable to a skillful masseur. Her husband, however, is unmoved by the joyful news. Three stories offering three insights into the tragic outcome of relationships between men and women, which give rise to both longed-for and unwanted children.
- DirectorIvan AndonovStarsHristo ShopovGeorgi StaykovSofiya KuzevaThe 1960s was the time of Beatles and Rolling Stones, the time of sexual revolution. These events have their echo in Bulgarian English-learning school. The school order provokes a protest of the students due to the narrow-minded teachers.
- DirectorLyudmil KirkovStarsVelko KynevFilip TrifonovPavel PopandovThe misfortunes of a couple of guys who form a music group and think they can get rich and famous easy.
- DirectorIvan AndonovStarsTodor KolevNevena KokanovaStefan MavrodiyevHe is well educated, charming, and gallant - a dream for each lonely lady. In reality he is a skillful swindler, who robs naive women. Cheating merchants with guilty consciences are his targets as well. This is the elusive protagonist of the movie. He constantly changes his name, stages his own death, and travels from town to town. His exploits are myriad and his life is an endless adventure. Yet, he remains an amiable swindler, an unrealized actor, whose only goal is make his life more interesting.
- DirectorNikolay VolevStarsTodor KolevYordanka StefanovaItschak FintziThis film is a comedy about a poor man, named Poorco. Poorco always fails in his attempt to escape from poverty. The film illustrates the social and the moral atmosphere in Bulgaria during the 1930's.
- DirectorNikolay VolevStarsTodor KolevPavel PopandovYordanka KuzmanovaProf. Denev is a talented scientist, but he cannot divide his time between the social and the scientific life. Suddenly he gets the idea to bring his cousin Ivan from the village. They look exactly alike. Ivan makes appearances at social events while the professor is working on his research. Initially not very confident, but with enthusiasm Ivan carries out his duties and his desire for material gains becomes huge. When the double threatens Denev's personal life, he throws him out.
- DirectorIvan AndonovStarsStefan DanailovTzvetana ManevaMariana DimitrovaA couple of young ladies decide to obtain a driving license. The film is a true comedy of relations, caused between the driving-teacher and the beginner-drivers.
- DirectorPeter DonevStarsVelko KynevGeorgi KaloyanchevTatyana LolovaA country town gets excited because of a bank robbery - eight million levs have been stolen from the local bank. A sensational piece of news jolts a small provincial town out of his lethargy. It is the chance of the lifetime of Inspector Tyuhchev. He arrives at scene of the crime and the inquest gets underway with such professionalism that even Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot would have envied him. He has the opportunity to show real professionalism, to make a brilliant display before his fellow-townsmen. Who is the thief? The cashier, the bank manager, the cabaret singer, the French teacher or, God forbid, the mayor himself? Yet, the methods of Inspector are more or less ridiculous, rather than efficient. After a series of funny and unexpected twists and turns, the Inspector tracks down the thief, who turns out to be none other than Doctor Velizar Kardushev, his landlord, whom the Inspector had all along taken into his confidence. All the time the millions had been stashed under the mattress of the Inspector's bed. So far, so good! But suddenly the new arrives that Kardushev's father has in meantime become a minister in the capital. At this point the Inspector faces a new trial: what to do with Kardushev, since he can take advantage of the cushy job in the capital which he can obtain with the assistance of the thief's father? And is it possible to become a hero with a minister's son as a robber?
- DirectorNikola RudarovStarsIvan IvanovVania TzvetkovaValcho KamarashevThis is a psychological whodunit. The action is tense and there are many ups and downs. Vas, a young militiaman, has to pose as a ex-prisoner and infiltrate an international gang of smugglers at work in Bulgaria. Vas is involved in shady deals: in a web for smuggling drugs. The traffic in drugs is perfectly organized, every one along the chain is being checked up and shadowed. An elderly gentlemen, a harmless nuisance on the face of it, turns out to be one of the bosses. Vas's role as a double agent, in doing his efforts to become a trusted man among the dangerous criminals, faces him with many trials and he risks his life on several occasions. And no matter how strange it may appear, it is among these people that Vas meets the girl he falls in love with. A beautiful girl is tangled in the traffic web. She also falls in love with Vas. Just like the audience, the girl Sunny is not aware of the true personality of Vas in the racket. Gradually she realizes the futility of her present life. Before she manages to change it completely Sunny dies at the very moment when the criminals are caught. Vas copes with his task, the smugglers are detained, but the girl gets killed.
- DirectorIrina AktashevaHristo PiskovStarsVeliko StoianovLyuben ChatalovStefan StefanovThis film shows serious moral problems in the society which become visible in an extreme situation, when happiness, trust, sense of life are so precious.
- DirectorDimitar PetrovStarsVeselin PrahovMartin StoyanovEmil DimitrovThis film reminds us that childhood is the best period in human's life. The story is filled with love for the children and colored with special child humor.
- DirectorIvan AndonovStarsFilip TrifonovVania TzvetkovaPetar PopyordanovThe authors of the film discuss the question where the limits of moral compromise lie.
- DirectorVulo RadevStarsEli SkorchevaAntony GenovIvan GrigorovA gifted young psychiatrist sets up a group for people deemed 'insane' and uses new methods to help them integrate with society at large.
- DirectorIvan NichevStarsKliment CorbadzievSimeon SavovMonika BudjonovaA young boy and his girlfriend live with political terror in Bulgaria in 1952.
- DirectorYanko YankovStarsKameliya TodorovaStefan DanailovEli SkorchevaThe action takes place at the beginning of the 20th century in the provincial Bulgarian town, Turnovo. A rich young doctor suffers because of his love to his housemaid. Meanwhile the First World War is beginning.
- DirectorVladislav IkonomovStarsEwa SzykulskaStefan MavrodiyevStefan DanailovA gray border, dull village. Time seems to have stopped in this place. The appearance of a beautiful woman breaks the monotonous way of life and challenges the colorless group of men and makes them come out of their shells.
- DirectorGrisha OstrovskiTodor StoyanovStarsZhorzheta ChakarovaIvan AndonovNevena KokanovaThree separate novels are dealing with the never-ending problem of men's infidelity. How should women behave when men take a fancy to them? The picture ends in funny, sometimes comical, yet wise answer.
- DirectorBorislav SharalievStarsApostol KaramitevOleg KovachevMariya RusalievaImpersonating a knight is one of the favorite games of nine-year-old protagonist. Now as Don Quixote, now as D'Artagnan he is fighting evil, he is searching for justice and defending the weak. Together with his friends, packed in cardboard armor, they play all day long. As he is playing, however, he unwittingly witnesses the relation between his parents and gradually comes to understand that the world of the adults is far removed from the canons of knightly honor. His parents love him, but never seem to find the time to listen to his concerns. The deceit, corruption and luck of respect in his own family alienate the small boy. The only adult, whom the boy trusts, is his uncle to whom he is attached by a genuine, equal, man-to-man friendship. He takes him to the cinema and theater performances and talks to him like with his peer. Will this sensitive kid ever succeed in building an internal armor against selfishness and rudeness?
- DirectorIrina AktashevaHristo PiskovStarsPepa NikolovaAsen KisimovKiril GospodinovA freedom-loving young woman falls in love with a young ship builder worker. He recognizes she lacks stability in her life and decides to hire her on his team of workers. In the beginning, she is happy, but soon starts to feel the tensions between the workers on the team. She becomes disgusted by the mismatch between the official party line and the actual atmosphere at work. She sees the way everyone lies to themselves, and cannot ignore the hollow nature of party slogans their false pathos. The company manager, at first eager to use her as PR, wants her fired so he can restore order in the work team. Her boyfriend who hired her on the team resists firing her and argues with the boss over this decision. He proposes marriage to her, but she escapes so she can live life on her terms - with complete honesty and without compromise.
- DirectorVladimir YanchevStarsApostol KaramitevGinka StanchevaLyubomir BobchevskiThe main heroes are twin brothers. The first is responsible young fellow and excellent footballer. The second one is an undependable gambler. The police are after him. A pretty girl stands in between them. She has profoundly fallen for the footballer. By coincidence, the twins change places, which result in a formidable mess and funny situations. Ultimately, all the misunderstandings are settled and the couple re-joins.
- DirectorZako HeskiyaStarsNikola AnastasovKiril GospodinovGeorgi PartsalevIn 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.
- DirectorBorislav SharalievStarsIvan IvanovYanina KashevaValcho KamarashevA 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.
- DirectorLyudmil KirkovStarsNevena KokanovaFilip TrifonovSashka BratanovaThe action centers on Ran and his schoolmates who are in the last year of school. They are only a few days away from the day when they will have to make a decisive choice: what are they going to be, and what is more important, how are they going to live? In the whirlpool of meetings with different people and mainly with three women, the filmmakers are trying to see the future of their main character. His schoolmate Mariana wants to lead him into family life. The pop singer Neli is the very incarnation of adventurism. However, he is most deeply touched by the salesgirl in the near-by coffee shop Tintyava. This is a wordless affair in which each glance exchanged betrays the piercing excitement of impossible love.
- DirectorEduard ZaharievStarsItschak FintziNikola TodevGeorgi RusevThis satirical comedy with grotesque situations ridicules the socialist bureaucracy.
- DirectorBinka ZhelyazkovaStarsGeorgi KaloyanchevGrigor VachkovIvan BratanovA large balloon suddenly appears above villages and fields and grabs the attention of the peasants. They start liking the sudden guest from nowhere for the beauty of the free existence. A policeman comes and the dreams of freedom vanish.
- DirectorDimitar MitovskiStarsAlan FordRalph BrownTomas AranaA concert to celebrate Bulgaria joining the EU is being planned at the Embassy in London and it is the job of VARADIN, the new ambassador, to ensure the Queen attends. But with corrupt staff, criminal gangs operating out of the kitchen, falling in love with a stripper and a little misunderstanding with a PR firm that provides look-alike royalties - his simple task turns into a chaotic nightmare.