Ivan Barnev

A military satire inspired by wild real-life events from the 1990s when, in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of communism, a task force comprised of high-ranking Bulgarian army officers and psychics embarked on a top-secret military operation in the small village of Tsarichina to dig up an elusive alien artifact that would change the course of history and make Bulgaria great again.

Vasil has just lost his long-time partner in life, his wife Ivanka. When a woman at her funeral proclaims that the dead woman called her cellphone, Vasil seeks out the help of a well-known psychic in order to try to contact his wife. His son Pavel tries to bring him to his senses, but Vasil stubbornly insists on doing things his own way… Following the internationally successful The Lesson and Glory, Grozeva and Valchanov return with an intimate family drama about the difficulties of connecting with those close to us. As the picture slowly gathers momentum, its story unfolds many of the carefully arranged absurd or comic situations typical for the Bulgarian filmmaking duo.

Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always discreet and use what he learns to his own advantage; but the turbulent tides of history will continually stand in his way.

The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. Aimless, he assumes another man’s identity as a gardener on a Portuguese estate, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner, stepping into a new life that isn’t his own.

One night – seemingly just like any other. Two police officers find the body of the well-known drug addict Lazar near the railroad tracks in Sofia. This is how the night of 9 November, 2019 begins – 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the regime change in Bulgaria. Three teams of police officers are patrolling the streets of Sofia, doing their job as they believe is right, while facing the challenges posed by contemporary Bulgarian reality.

When a sick factory worker becomes the first confirmed COVID-19 case in her rural Bulgarian town, she is scapegoated and ostracized by her employers, family, and entire community as the virus spreads and casualties mount.

After a night of wild partying and missing their train, the group of students is invited to board another which happens to be heading their way. Once on board, members of the team begin to go missing, and their would-be saviors claim to have no idea what could have happened to them... When they discover the truth, it is too late to escape and they must fight for their lives against their captors to put an end to their ride to hell.

An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin.

Moth is freed on parole after spending time in prison on a 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.

Blaga is a seventy-year-old recently widowed former teacher and a woman of firm morals. When telephone scammers con her out of the money that she had saved for her husband’s grave, her moral compass slowly begins to lose its bearings…

A couple and their teenage son eke out a living on a hilltop, doing the laundry for local hotels, despite the intermittent water supply. Their simple life is overturned by the arrival of a father-and-daughter team of diviner and well-digger, who promise to bring an end to this precarious existence by finding a source on their arid hill. But ultimately, these newcomers quench a thirst far greater than than the simple need for water.

Set against the backdrop of a violent gang war, the police commissioner must find who is killing young children before the next innocent victim dies.

After years of saving from the petty bribes they collect, sixty-year-old Marina and Gosha from Bulgaria dream of travelling to Saint Petersburg for the White Nights. When Russia invades Ukraine and the travel agency vanishes with all their savings, their dream collapses along with their illusion of control over their morals and their relationship.

At the airport, Slavi tells his life's story to a young customs officer. As children, Nelly promises Slavi to marry him. The two teenagers are passionately in love with each other but after some time Nelly falls in love with another guy. Slavi takes up drinking and gets into trouble with the Bulgarian militia (police) because of his family background. This is when he decides to defect to the West. After staying at a refugee camp in Austria and another desperate love, he sets out to the United States. There Slavi makes some new friends who help him buy a truck. He hits the roads of America, where he comes across an Indian who sells him an arrow. The vender tells him this amulet will bring his love back. Eventually, Slavi comes back to Bulgaria, where communism has collapsed. His beloved Nelly lives alone with her daughter. One day Slavi meets her again...

After his mother's death, Ivo, a 13 year old boy, develops super sensitivity along with his big imagination and difficult character. He runs away from his home and forms a friendship with the unemployed Ivan, who turns into his guardian angel.

On a rainy spring day, Irina returns to the seaside town where she used to spend the summer holidays as a child. There she meets Boris, whom she has not seen for 20 years. The two set out to rediscover the past, which may change their future.

Bori (17) refuses to be harassed by the boys. Her artistic, but unstable mother does not give her the support she needs. Her caring grandfather enrolls her in a judo school. There, she realizes that before beating others, one must win the battles within oneself.

An undocumented immigrant arrives in Cyprus, thinking he is in Italy. A story evolves around him, involving people who live in the margins society, and a veil of hypocrisy is created.

A man, his business partner, and his wife are enlisted to transport an unknown object from a Russian military base, only to discover that the object is a giant, genetically-altered python.

The story of a Summer shared by six young people. It all begins with their escapes from the bleak and dreary City. Each one of them escapes East of Hell... to the point farthest away, the sea coast, a clean and pristine beach. The clean beach brings them together and reopens the prospective of hope to them all. But is such an escape at all possible?

A road movie set in present day Bulgaria, a country remains optimistic, mainly because all the realists and pessimists have left. At a meeting with his banker, a small business owner, who drives a cab to make ends meet, discovers the bribe he will have to pay to get a loan has doubled. The ethics board that reviewed his complaint about extortion now wants its share of the action. At his wit's end, he shoots the banker and then himself. The incident sparks national debate on talk radio about how despair has taken over civil society. Meanwhile, six taxi drivers and their passengers move through the night, each in hope of finding a brighter way forward.

Stefan arrives in Memphis and moves in with Dima and Georgi, whose house is a hotel for immigrants. They sway Stefan to stay in town, although Chicago is a distant dream. He meets Rada. A fight breaks out and he must leave. He appreciates more of his community and returns on the Day of Atonement. They remain stronger together, than apart.

Lilly steals the keys of her new teacher and in an act of revenge trashes his home. She is surprised by his blind and ill-tempered mother and Lilly lies that she is in fact his fiancée. This makes the mother very happy and eventually, Lilly finds herself bound to visit her regularly.

Tarika lives with her father and her grandmother in a small hut near the border far away from the local village. Marked by her “butterfly wings”, a rare bone condition she inherited from her mother, the girl has been the source of the community’s superstition forever. When the local cattle is struck down by a mysterious disease, fear starts spreading among the villagers...

A group of Bulgarian soldiers go on a mission during the Balkan War.

The Megalodon shark. A prehistoric killing machine 60 feet long, flashing 200 pounds of teeth and weighing over 20 tons. It's the deadliest predator the world has ever seen. The scientists say it's been extinct for more than 10,000 years. The scientists are wrong. In the darkness of the deep, an underwater research station has been viciously destroyed. Now a tough team of daring divers led by Spencer Northcutt [Antonio Sabato Jr. "Melrose Place"] is taking an experimental sub to war. It's killer instinct vs. sophisticated technology, deadly jaws vs. harpoon-tipped torpedoes, mega-shark vs. modern man is a thrilling extreme deep sea fight to the death.

The end of the 70s. Anton Krastev, a DOP and his wife Diana are separated by the Iron curtain - she fled with their son Antoan to Western Berlin while he stayed in Bulgaria. She believes that Antoan can only be cured in Germany. But Anton can't live without his job. He works with the best film director who is a high ranking Communist. The State Security Services are keeping a zealous eye on Anton. His phone calls are being taped, his letters are being read. His close relations to the power people of the day make him even more suspicious. The State Security Services put an end to Anton's relation with his wife. Thorn apart, Anton and Diana go through love, alienation and hate. There comes a time though when the powerful friends of Anton lose their power and he loses everything that he's ever loved - his work, his wife and son. Thirty years later Anton shoots the story of his own life. But those who now direct the movie are the very same people who once persecuted him.

Vasil is a Bulgarian immigrant who lives on the street in Spain. Intelligent and charismatic, he has an amazing talent for chess and bridge, so much so, in fact, that despite being homeless, he manages to make a name for himself in an exclusive and prestigious club in the city.

Maria-Eleonora is an actress. During a film premiere she leaves the screening hall and crashes her car into the concrete wall of a parking lot, killing herself. Her longtime friend and aspiring film director Peter try to find out the reasons behind this dramatic act and interviews her relatives, colleagues, closest friends. He adds to the interviews video footage that he himself shot during their life together and some film scenes in which Maria-Eleonora took small supporting parts. Thus, Peter creates the film "Scenes from the life of an actress". Peter learns that everyone has a story about what happened, but no one really knew the deceased actress. Peter didn't knew her too.

Smart, angry, self-reliant Dida will stop at nothing to achieve a single tangible goal – to buy a plane ticket so she can join her estranged mother in the United States.

8 minutes and 19 seconds – that’s all the time we have until the news about the death of the sun reaches us. That's what it takes for the light to travel from there to here. And then the darkness comes… But the theme of this Apocalypse is not necessarily going to be expressed through a global cataclysm, horsemen of the apocalypse, angels of death, fire and destruction. It will rather be shown as something very personal, intimate and almost silent.

The trumpet player, Jonah, moves into the remains of his grandfather's house near where the treasure is hidden. In a tunnel under the house he finds a stone with a bird engraved on it and a map with an inscription in Arabic: "To have a house of gold, fall onto the sky and find the twin!" A copy of the same map brings Rumba and Emma to the same place. Rumba is Bulgarian and a passionate treasure-hunter. His wife is American and studies Bulgarian folklore as a way to fight globalization. Rumba wants to buy Jonah's property so he can find the treasure.

Prisoners are hoping to be saved by the people who sentenced them.

A paramedic in a psychiatric clinic routinely performs duties related to three patients with severe mental disorders. Taking care of them on a daily basis, the paramedic imperceptibly begins to empathize with their emotions. Frightened by what he sees, he begins to question his own sanity...

Bulgaria, the night of October 18, 1922. A rampageous young man - an American, is forced to get off the Orient Express at a small station. The chief of the railway station and his daughter are quite unwilling to put up the stranger. Gradually, the American wins their trust. When the father understands that his daughter has decided to go away to Paris with the American, he makes a potion to sedate him and gets him on a train on the sly. In the morning all that has left from the guest is a piece of paper, which reads "Ernest Hemingway".

The film is dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges, one of the giants of the written word of the 20th century. Borrowed and altered from the work of Borges and others, from world history and literature - Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, the (anti)utopian new world, the "civilization of the spectacle.", they intertwine with Borges's theories of the cyclicality of time and the infinity of the universe.

The film's motto is: "The world of the elderly is a world that is constantly shrinking. Little things become big. Few people are important to us, but they are very important." Federico Fellini.

A tragic comedy about an orphan girl who knows nothing better than the animal way but at the end comes to realize her only chance - to be human.