Zhivko Garvanov

A story about the struggle to save Bulgarian Jews during World War II

Gosho Kalimanski, a clerk living the big city, finds difficulties to stand the endless noise around him.

Gynecology clinic in Sofia, Bulgaria. On one of the floors several women are waiting for their turn to get an abortion. And on the other floor, four older women struggle to preserve the life they carry. Toni must decide whether to give birth to a child who will not have a father.

In a small village where nothing has changed in the last few decades, a film crew arrives to shoot a historical drama. So, along with actors, producers, makeup artists and all the rest from the crew, a lot of hustle and bustle rushes into the sleepy village. It turns into a historical battle field itself. Everybody gets involved in the action - the young and the old alike get dressed into period costumes and armed with fake swords, suffer deadly wounds. The script also features an episode of ritualistic sacrifice and the offering is to be the village farmers' pride, a bull called Julius Caesar. The armies of defenders and enemies of the ritualistic animal clash at such an epic scale that it does feel like a massacre took place. As they say, blind Saturday is upon us and people do lose their minds...

Knyaz Boris I reached the most important spiritual insight - the country needed a single language and script. It accepts students of Cyril and Methodius, creating Ohrid and Preslav Literary School. What other nations took centuries, for bulgarians takes place only about 20 years after their baptizing - introduced a Slavonic Alphabet.

In the trial against Boris, Lazar is the main witness for the prosecution. The two are the comrades-in-arms. Now they are opponents, because of a conflict concerning a coal conveyor where they work. Lazar is afraid of taking risks. Boris, however, is not afraid of taking responsibility where innovation is at stake. The conflict ceases to be confined to production problems and grows into dispute over commitment to principle and ethics. After harrowing hesitations the main witness Lazar gives evidence in Boris's defense.

Part one of this two-part epic follows the life and deeds of Boris I – a strong historic personality, which completes his mission to the full and at the end of his life receives holy orders.

The action takes place in a small town situated between a river with a romantic past and a cement plant with an industrial future, which is attracting new workers. Some of them go to live with the good-hearted Old Vangel. These are all people who have lived through many frustrations and made bad names for them. Two of them arrive straight from prison. It appears that it is a failure that has taught them to value freedom, to yield easily to pleasures of life and to temptation. The dramatic effect of the film is felt when this happy band goes face to face with the practical things of life and the prejudices of the people around them. They also clash with several people in small town whose life is passed uneventfully and who have working without looking around lest evil should lead them astray and destroy their property. The filmmakers examine two attitudes to life, each imperfect in its own way, thus making us consider the possible ways of achieving harmony.