Lyubomir Bobchevski

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.

Hitar Petar escapes every hard time the life gives him by using his quick mind.

The 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.

Strahil is a leader of a rebel band. The Turkish governor abducts beautiful girl Ivana for his harem. The outlaws hold the governor's child to ransom. The governor promises to Strahil neither to attack the peasants, nor to persecute them if he settles down to a peaceful life. Together with Ivana Strahil goes back to his father house... One day a group of people, driven by Turkish soldiers on their way to do forced labor, passes by Strahil house. Women and children wail. Strahil rushes at a soldier and kills him. There is an exchange of fire: Ivana is helping him. A large number of mounted troops surround Strahil's house. His band hurries to the village. Ivana hides in the cellar and fires. She hits the Turkish governor. The rebels rescue Ivana. The governor rises in a last effort and fires at Ivana. Dying Ivana manages to tell Strahil that she wants him to bury her in their favorite glade and return to the band. Strahil raises his hand to take an oath over Ivana's dead body.

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 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.

This is a typical story from the 'cold war' era. A group of kids play on a quiet street in Sofia. From a nearby window falls a key. The helpful youngsters quickly return it to the owner, but in the haste switch the keys. The unintentional error disentangles a whole spy story. The young detectives doubt the good intentions of the man they tried to help. It turns out that the key is from a secret apartment where saboteurs are hiding. The secret network is exposed to the authorities and the kids feel like heroes.

A truck driver falls in love with the woman he nearly hit.

Venice Film Festival 1955

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.

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.