eastern european movies 2.0

Impersonating a knight is one of the favorite games of nine-year-old protagonist. Now as Don Quixote, now as D'Artagnan he is fighting evil, he is searching for justice and defending the weak. Together with his friends, packed in cardboard armor, they play all day long. As he is playing, however, he unwittingly witnesses the relation between his parents and gradually comes to understand that the world of the adults is far removed from the canons of knightly honor. His parents love him, but never seem to find the time to listen to his concerns. The deceit, corruption and luck of respect in his own family alienate the small boy. The only adult, whom the boy trusts, is his uncle to whom he is attached by a genuine, equal, man-to-man friendship. He takes him to the cinema and theater performances and talks to him like with his peer. Will this sensitive kid ever succeed in building an internal armor against selfishness and rudeness?

A film about the funny adventures of a group of children, spending their holidays at the seaside.

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

Psychological drama. A critical situation confronts the individual with a plethora of moral, social and political problems.

The film belongs to the 'migration cycle' in the Bulgarian cinema. It is about the drama of a group of women who have been left alone in their 'female kingdom' - a village deserted by its entire men folk.

The picture features the life and deeds of Boris I - strong historic personality, which completes his mission to the full and at the end of his life receives holy orders. Prince Boris I is ruling in the late 9th century. In his youth, he, the brilliant statesman and diplomat, is experiencing heavy defeats in the wars he wages against his neighbors. Nonetheless, he manages not to cede any territories to the enemies. Under his rule, Bulgaria breaks with paganism and joins the Christian community, paying an exorbitant price, a heavy death toll, but there is no other way. The adoption of Christianity in 864 was a historical event of great significance. It guaranteed Boris I much need peace with the Eastern Roman Empire and allowed him to merge the numerous tribes inhabiting the country into a unified nationality and later to found a state. Boris I introduced the Slav script, thus turning Bulgaria into the cradle of Slav culture. Stiff resistance, however, met his actions. The former pagan, now Christian king was forced to crush it. Almost half of the then privileged aristocracy - 52 Bulgarian families - were mercilessly killed. Guided solely by his great ambitions Boris blinded and imprisoned his first-born son Vladimir-Rasate who dared against him and instead crowned his youngest son Simeon. It was during his reign that the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture began. This is an epic work dealing with the spiritual ups and downs of a nation and the drama of a great statesman.

The events of the film are related to the Civil War in Spain. This is a film about the beauty of love - exotic and tragic and the maze of human feelings.

The action takes place during the socialist period in Bulgaria. The central character, nicknamed the Cock is an artistic personality, a man of strong character known as the king of the pickpockets. His keen sense of personal freedom comes up against the universally accepted norms of behavior. The Cock likes a game, adventure and danger, while socialist society needs obedience. The Cock makes a stand against this order; he does not want to play his games according to rules. He is telling his story of two decades: his imprisonment, his love affairs. To him love is a fateful meeting of two persons and has nothing to do with Philistinism. The Cock is an amiable chap though being an adventurer, trickster, and an artist by nature, irresponsible and asocial. In the mean time he wastes his gift on virtuoso thefts and monumental banquets which regularly land him in jail. The Cock, who used to live outside the law, now tries to play the rules of the game. He trades favors with the prison staff and ends up betraying his friends.In the end the filmmakers allow him to die a dignified death. During an escape attempt before dying he saves the life of a child. His dream of life comes to an absurd end.

Maria is having great difficulty getting on with her parents because of their blind, consumerist approach to life. Traumatized by continuous family dramas, having experienced the disappointments of firs love, Maria decides to go up the mountain to a holiday home. There she meets a conceited architect, a shy teacher, a finical jurist, and a timid journalist (all of them representatives of the intelligentsia) who are domineered by the manager of the holiday home and his 'problems'. Maria's resignation changes into a rebellion against impersonal submission and sheep-like compliance with those who hold power. Thus Maria endures a long period of introspections and builds up the strength of her character. She finds moral support in her memory about her aunt Irina who once took part in the antifascist struggle as a partisan and later died as a doctor in the Vietnam War. Her life becomes the supreme example of how one should live for the sensitive Maria.

In this picture, the barrier epitomizes the line between reality and dreams, the pattern of harmony and happiness. The delicate, pretty, sensitive Dorotea and the sedate middle-aged composer Antoni meet by chance. He gives her shelter in his house. Famous composer falls under the spell of young Dorothea: A pretty, thin-skinned, though quite an eccentric girl. Antoni becomes the witness of a series of strange and wonderful events. She is maintaining she is able to fly, drawing him into her half real world, when miracles are worked. It turns out that Dorotea has the supernatural gift of divining and forecasting people thoughts and intentions. Gradually Antoni overcomes his initial confusion and becomes used to the parapsychological states of the girl. He penetrates her acutely sensitive inner world where the supernatural becomes natural and the impossible possible. And when he learns that Dorotea can fly, he joins her and flies with her. During this experiment he feels a surge of creativity and happiness for the first time in many years. Is all this real or imaginary? Embarrassed, as he is, he leaves on a short trip, and when finally resolved to come back to her, it is too late. Why is it that Dorotea is found dead apparently having fallen after one of her flights?

This is a story of lifetime. A story full of spiritual power biography, behind which stays a whole age in the national development of Bulgaria.

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.

A wife of a Bulgarian Army officer falls in love with a Serbian prisoner at the end of World War I.

The misfortunes of a couple of guys who form a music group and think they can get rich and famous easy.

The 1960s was the time of Beatles and Rolling Stones, the time of sexual revolution. These events have their echo in Bulgarian English-learning school. The school order provokes a protest of the students due to the narrow-minded teachers.

This film is a comedy about a poor man, named Poorco. Poorco always fails in his attempt to escape from poverty. The film illustrates the social and the moral atmosphere in Bulgaria during the 1930's.

After witnessing his wife's rape and murder during Ottoman rule, a traumatized Bulgarian knight, Kara Ivan, retreats to the mountains where he raises his young daughter alone among the goats.

This is an epic screen presentation showing the creation, the consolidation and the power of First Bulgarian Kingdom and the first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh.

Pista, a lonely bachelor, working in a Post office, takes to drinking to get over his small stature and unsightly appearance. He is hopelessly in love with his colleague Viera, who in turn is haplessly in love with Pista's friend Vinco. With fate being his adversary, he tries to make up for his situation with humor.

After an accidental explosion in the lab, its inventor slips in and out of dream-like hallucinations, realizing that he had given the formula to one of his colleagues, who he tries to stop before it is too late.

Three adolescent war orphans seclude themselves in an anarchic and playful existence of denial and juvenile joy.

Jakub, a dreamer and budding magician, juggles between parcels and services rendered to the villagers. His eyes cross that of the beautiful gypsy Jolanka. Together, they will try to live a first and big love, despite the pressure of their respective communities.

A group of artists meets a beautiful and mysterious woman called Anabella, and all of them experience passion, dreams and get inspired by her.

Rumor has it that the house of Prague hide secret obtain the philosopher's stone, and complex multi-level labyrinth of underground tunnels and cellars keep many unsolved mysteries and untold treasures.

This film was made as a kind of a "protest-song" against the panic fear of getting old and also against flirtation. The main character (played by Leos Sucharípa) is an elderly man, admittedly competent, but not very responsible. In the continuous fear, he is trying to do as much as he can but, instead of confidence, he only finds out that in the real life one cannot just take but must give as well. Last but not least, one must be able to resign to his age.