Kunka Baeva

Маргаритка

The boy Stefan brings the supper to his father in village council office. From the frontier post comes the news that bandits have crossed the border. The boy goes back home. He and his sister prepare to go to bed. A blizzard is raging outside. A wounded stranger comes to the house in search of shelter. The mother dresses his wounds and gives him food. It becomes clear that he is not the lieutenant from the frontier post that he claims to be. Stefan jumps from the window and dashes to the frontier post. The mother tries to keep the saboteur as long as possible. The two quarrels. He hits her with the submachine gun. He attempts to escape, but the border guards have already surrounded the house.

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.

The Soviet army is approaching the Bulgarian border. Many government ministers and army officers prepare to flee the country. The partisans take over the key administrative buildings. At the War Ministry, the commander of the armored brigade Major Essev hesitates between his sense of honor as an officer and his patriotic duty. He takes the side of the partisans.

A Bulgarian village before the First World War. The young and ambitious farmer Enyo loves the beautiful but poor Tsveta. His brother and his wife arrange their engagement. The hunchback girl Stanka, daughter of the richest man in the village, is in love with Enyo. Because of her father's lands Enyo decides to end his engagement with Tsveta and starts building up his farm.

The action takes place in the last years of the Second World War, immediately before the socialist revolution in Bulgaria. It centers on the life of the middle-class family of Lazarov, which is torn by the sharp political contradictions taking place against the background of the popular struggle against fascism. The father Vitan goes through terrible mental traumas, which are the price, he has to pay for his illusions that in such clashes one can remain neutral and free from politics. The partisans execute the son Boris - a fascist officer, a sadist and a murderer. The daughter Lily is forced to search for her place in the conflict between the representatives of two hostile worlds - that of fascist brother and her husband - a communist and a revolutionary.

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.

Anthology film based on six short stories by writer Elin Pelin.

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

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.

Bizarre events happen in an isolated village.

Ponko is one of the newly rich who made their fortune gambling as an elite player in a small town. In order to avoid dealing with other competitive players of the same kind, he settled a deal for himself to do time at a low security detention facility. He can still be in charge of his deal from prison with the help of his wife Rada. Yet, he bets and loses Rada to another prisoner at a game, which gives that man the right to spend a night with her, as well as to join the elite of players he is part of. Rada has feelings for Ponko's cousin but when she brings some money she has won at a game to him, she learns that he made a deal with Ponko to take care of her while he is in prison. She tries to get out of the vicious circle of crime but fails to do so. The corrupt world of blurred concepts of good and evil has engulfed them all and turned them into predators and victims of its poison.

Venice Film Festival 1955

A quite line in the capital city. A little girl, Veseto, slips out of home unnoticed, attracted by the voices of children playing in the yard. when the kids get tired of playing hide-and-seek, they scatter and Veseto sets out in a long stroll across the city, full of exciting adventures. She talks to a chimney sweep, stops to look at some land surveyors at work, watches an interesting football game at the stadium, enjoys herself at the fair, extemporizes as an actress and has a trying experience on a building site. All the people in the neighborhood start looking for the lost child. In the evening, Veseto reappears. She is back to the arms of her mother, while the people in the neighborhood prove by deeds their human solidarity, their love for children and their resolve to struggle for peace, a must for children's future all over the world.