Documentary films

in a religious procession to appease the spirit of his grandfather... Can one change anything today when nothing depends on him anymore?

The daily grind of several people from a town in the country. Their lives pass between the efforts to make both ends meet, family concerns and the pub. But there is a day each year, when people put aside their dull roles and start feeling themselves important and significant. They assume the leading parts in the Re-enactment: the traditional staging of the outbreak of the April Uprising, to mark the day of Koprivshtitsa town.

Made in commemoration of the 130th anniversary since the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the documentary features the memorials and monuments erected by the Russian Empire in Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Varna, Silistra, Stara Zagora, Sofia and the village of Shipka. Of them, the most popular are these in Sofia: in the Doctor’s Garden and Ruski Pamentnik (Russian Monument).

If spotting Tom Hanks at the Annual Academy Oscar Awards Ceremony held at Kodak Theatre, one inevitably sees a personable old man in a tuxedo, sitting next to him. He has greyish-blue eyes and holds himself upright. This man is Alan Wilson or… Hasan Ibrahimov, Tom’s father-in-law. Hasan is 76-year-old. He fled from Bulgaria, from the Kutsian labour camp, when he was 20. Since then, his body is there, while his soul has remained here. For 56 years now…

The documentary follows the course of lives of schoolmates from Kazanlak, who graduated in 1950. Against the background of the historical events in Bulgaria during the second half of the 20th century the characters of the film tell their life experiences achievements and disappointments, joys and sorrows.

A film about the Gypsy “middle” class: they are laughing with grief and crying with happiness. It feels like living in a Romany neighbourhood. The leading characters live in the urbanized part of the neighbourhood, the other part of which is a ghetto and there is a square with shops and cafes between them. The two parts live in comic contrast, sharing, of course, inevitable similarities. The film follows the events in the lives of four locals over a year.

A modern mixture of feature, documentary cinema and reality, in which the director films himself and three of his friends documenting their attempts to meet the one true love. On the verge of their 30s each one of them has had love disappointments, and together the four of them try to find the key to the-oneand-only love. The romantic “dramedy” also touches on the immigration theme, as the characters – three Bulgarians and one Macedonian – live in Helsinki, which becomes the scene of their love quest.

Few stories about Black Sea sailors, rich in dramatic tension and flashes of humour: in accordance with a EU programme for reducing finishing cutters, Alexander agreed to have his ship destroyed... Dimitar has spent 45 years at sea. In 1987 he bought a VHS Camcorder and for years recorded the life onboard the ships around the world. Hristo's fishing vessel was taken in 2012, near the Romanian coast, on charges of poaching. Zoya and Plamen are teachers. To survive on their meagre salaries they have been going out to sea in their fishing boat to catch rapa whelks for years.