Ivan Bratanov

In 1940s wartime Bulgaria, a group of young student resistance fighters operate a secret printing press to distribute underground anti-fascist propaganda, while two members of the cell develop a romance that is continuously threatened by the surrounding political violence.

Anthology film based on six short stories by writer Elin Pelin. At the end of a market day, Stoyan learns that after ten years of marriage he has a son. Leaving the inn with his wife Penka, they find a baby girl thrown into their cart. There is no end to the poor man's joy. She too will be raised. Drought kills the land and the people. Grandfather Korchan and Lazar Dabaka decide to build a windmill. Lazar and his bride are traveling by cart to visit their godparents. They spend an unforgettable night under the starry sky.

The wife of a Bulgarian POW camp's warden falls in love with a Serbian prisoner at the end of World War I.

A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...

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.

The young Bulgarian Muslim woman Zyulker wants to study and become a teacher. Her father decides to arrange a marriage to her. After the wedding, she runs away and goes to the town. There she starts work in a hostel. Her husband takes her back. He beats and humiliates her. She gives birth to her child prematurely, takes the baby and goes to the school for Muslim in the town. She has to surmount many difficulties. The young woman meets her first teacher Stefanov. The two fall in love. With his help, Zyulker finishes her study successfully and makes up her mind to return to her native village as a teacher. Stefanov follows her and proposes to her. The two embrace.

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.

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.

Chased by the military police force, the partisans Boyka and Anton take refuge in a cave. A grenade explosion dislodges the rock, which seals off the passage.

The famous violinist Dorothy Lambert arrives in Bulgaria. She is accompanied by her manager Ted Smiles. The Bulgarian Intelligence Service receives an encrypted message that an agent codenamed Dolly will attempt to contact the chief of residence of a foreign intelligence agency in Bulgaria.

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

The main character of this propaganda story is a farmer Mito Petrov, who joins an agricultural cooperative, but aspires to independent farming and cannot accept the innovations in agricultural work that are introduced by the management of the cooperative. The village rich, seeing his discontent, want to use Petrov's Mito to harm the cooperative. Petrov gives in to their pressure and leaves the collective farm, but in the end he admits his mistake.

A bandit chief falls in love with a wealthy man's daughter.

Nine volunteers begin digging a tunnel through rugged mountain terrain. The group includes three miners. The others have come from different parts of the country for different reasons. When winter comes, a blizzard makes the road impassable and the truck with supplies cannot reach them in time. With only a hundred metres to dig, the tunnel collapsed. Everybody leaves the construction site, except the communist Damjan. In town they check in at the mine and are due to start work in two days. During these two days, one by one, they are overwhelmed with shame for leaving the tunnel, and finally return to Damjan to finish their work despite all the difficulties.

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.

Members of a partisan underground unit struggle during the anti-fascist Bulgarian Resistance of World War II.

An antifascist resister escapes from a train transporting him to his execution, evades capture with the help of a sympathetic peasant and soldier, and eventually joins a partisan unit despite numerous obstacles.

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.

The construction of the first socialist town in Bulgaria - Dimitrovgrad.

Scenes from the life and revolutionary activity of poet Nikola Vaptzarov are shown against the background of political life in Bulgaria on the eve of World War II.

The horrors of war seen through the eyes of a sensitive twelve-year-old girl who loses everyone she loves.

In the House of Marriages, the young couples are paraded one after other. The newlyweds sign the register, kiss and receive congratulations. The picture fades out and another house takes shape: house of executions. An antifascist resister condemned to die marries his beloved minutes before facing the firing squad.

Each individual member of a rural cooperative family is entitled to a plot of land for personal use. The large Sedmak family lives together, but the eldest son Kram wants them to fictitiously split up in order to get more land. Despite his parents' reluctance, Krum and his wife leave. Krum and his family maintain a separate household, although the whole family continues to dine together. Unaware of what has happened is his younger brother Nayden, who is in love with the cooperative chairman's daughter. One day the Sedmaks forget to lock the door, and the chairman Geras enters and sees them eating dinner together. The fraud is uncovered... The chairman forbids his daughter Yanka to meet Nayden. After the fateful dinner, there is a rift in the Sedmak family. Nayden leaves his father's house. Sandy and Kram confess their guilt. Yanka, after some thought, returns to Nayden. They leave together to study in the city....

An entire town rallies to help save a young boy after he becomes stuck in a river.

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.

The action takes place during the Second World War. Unexpectedly in a train compartment a fugitive - British captive - appears among the passengers. The human solidarity is stronger than the fear, and they do their best to save him.

The students Yoshkata and Petar share rooms and wartime privations in a poor man's street. Over a glass of vine, Yoshkata often talks about the stage life of genuine beauty. The student is unaware of the passion with which Vaska, the barmaid at the local pub, burns for him. Petar is a member of an antifascist combat unit. The pupil Katya loves him. Petar carries out a sabotage action and comes home wounded. Yoshkata manages to deceive the Germans who rush into their flat that they have been drinking and playing cards throughout the evening. He saves his friend. However, the secret agent notices the doctor's visits. When the police arrive to arrest Petar, Yoshkata tries to resist them and the agent shoots him dead. Petar goes underground. On the day of the liberation, all the residents of the poor man's street celebrate, and Katya and Petar happily reunited. Vaska is there, too, a baby in her arms, the fruit of her love with Yoshkata...

An ordinary girl Dimka works on the cooperative farm. Her father Yordan, an honest man, is accused of a serious crime against the cooperative farm. He is brought to a comrades' court. No one doubts that the innocent man will be "exposed" and convicted. Yordan is ready to withstand the worst of injustice with silent dignity. Her daughter asks for help her boyfriend. He is the most authoritative and respected work team leader. He, however, refuses to help, fearing that this might affect his career. Dimka remembered Yoshkata, a nondescript village youth who makes everybody laugh but is very disinterested. So far, Dimka has spurned his undeclared love. Now this same "harmless joker" fights the injustice and upsets the carefully planned frame-up. The father is saved from disgrace. Dimka finds her only true love.

Plamen's parents are separated. His father is an old river wolf, his mother a nurse in the big city. The boy's longing for his father keeps him going. His studies don't go well. One day Plamen sneaks onto his father's barge and secretly sets sail with him. On this long and very interesting voyage, Plamen befriends his father, and when they have to return to Varna, the boy is happy: he hopes that all three of them will be together again.

During the anti-fascist struggle, in 1944, a partisan detachment receives Soviet weapons and ammunition delivered by airplanes. Some of the weapons must be transferred to another partisan detachment. This task is entrusted to a peasant potter. Overcoming enormous difficulties and failing to meet the contact with the password, the peasant nevertheless delivers the weapons to their destination.

The former partisan, officer Petko, became the chairman of the collective farm, establishing the cooperative economy, to overcome the resistance of kulaks and slackers who “ruined the economy“, and how with the help of friends Petko managed to unite people and establish work.