Alphabet of Hope

A retired opera female singer terrorizes people and animals because of her love for a 20-year old boy (in the days of the Total Solar Eclipse 1999).

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.

The story of Alex, who, with the help of his charismatic grandfather, embarks on a journey in search of his real self.

Iva works in a clothing factory in rural Bulgaria battling a persistent, yet mysterious illness. When it is revealed that she is the first case of COVID in her small town, the news spirals into an endless j’accuse— first from the factory owners eager to shift responsibility, then from her fellow co-workers, her son, and eventually her entire community, even though Iva hasn’t left her small town in years. With Iva’s public demonization escalating as the first victims of the virus emerge, she is quickly turned into a social outcast.

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 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.

This is the story of Mityo and his son Vasko, who live in a poor area, near to the Bulgarian-Turkish-Greek Border. Mityo had lost everything that has mattered to him – his wife, his work, the confidence of his son, Vasko. In order to get him back, Mityo has to find forgiveness and pay for his sin, done 25 years ago.

Roman returns to the land near the Ukrainian border he has just inherited from his grandfather. Fully decided to sell this vast but desolate property, he is warned by the local cop that his grandfather was a local crime lord and his men will not let go of the land - and their smuggling business - without a fight.

Documentary about the Occupation, as seen through the eyes of the occupiers. Five countries from the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia in 1968. Fifty years later, five directors from these five countries shoot five short films about the invasion from the perspective of the people who played the part of the occupiers.

A few stories about sailors, rich in dramatic tension and flashes of humour, taking place in the span of one year along the coast and in the waters of the Black Sea. Due to the EU’s programme for reducing finishing cutters, Alexander agreed to have his ship destroyed… The day after the destruction Alexander starts building a new boat. A year later it is ready. Dimitar has spent 45 years at sea. In 1987 he bought a VHS Camcorder and for years recorded the life on the ships around the world. Hristo’s fishing vessel is taken in 2012, near to the Romanian coast, on charges of poaching. The lawsuits go on for years. Zoya and Plamen are teachers. To survive on their meager salaries they have been going out to sea in their fishing boat to catch rapa whelks for years. The wife is the captain of the boat, Plamen is the diver, who looks for whelks.

The film explores the hurdles facing organ transplant recipients in Bulgaria, once among Eastern Europe’s leaders in the medical procedure, but now ranking last on the continent for the number of transplants performed.

In his free time George Shopov takes care of the abandoned graves of legendary Bulgarian artists and politicians.