Nikola Dadov

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.

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 an epic screen presentation showing the creation, the consolidation and the power of First Bulgarian Kingdom and the first Bulgarian ruler Khan Asparuh. This is the first part of the film trilogy about the events before the creation of the Bulgarian state in the middle of the VII century. Volga Bulgaria is straining under the attacks of the Khazars. Following the testament of his father, the sons of Khan Kubrat looking for a new home for their tribes. The youngest of them - Asparukh, wander 20 years in search of "land forever" for his people and reaches the mouth of the Danube. The film is narrated by captured Byzantine chronicler Belisarius, which should Asparukh in his journeys. Byzantine witnessed the heroic efforts of the Bulgarians to win the land south of the Danube and to create their new country.

Having remained alone in his village house, old Gatyo must move in with his son and daughter-in-law in their flat in the city. They receive him with great understanding and sympathy but cannot find the key to his heart. Torn out of his natural environment and left bewilderingly rootless, this good man cannot adapt himself to the urban way of life. He does not like the mayonnaise he is offered, does not know how to use the lift. The people hurrying in the streets seem to him indifferent, and some even sly and deceitful. He sees the city as a place full of hostile people and inanimate objects. He badly misses the warm human touch of his village. Death is the only possible solution to the tragic conflict of this peasant, crucified between the archaic and the modern, and unable to adapt to the urban lifestyle.

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.

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

The beginning of the 18th century. Bulgaria is under the Ottoman bondage. The monks of the Monastery of Hilendar on Mount Athos warn the young monk Paisiy to beware of the "pestilent chapel". On his deathbed, the abbot conjures Paisiy to search for Slavonic books. The young monk goes from one monastery to another in search of ancient books. He breaks into the "pestilent chapel" and finds there stacks of old Bulgarian books telling of the wisdom of Bulgarians kings, and of the power and civilization of the Bulgarian Empire and its past glory. His fellow-monks try to burn the books but Paisiy manages to escape. His Slav-Bulgarian History circulates in handwritten copies through the captive country and the Bulgarians becomes truly aware of their national identity.

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.