Tzvetana Maneva

An elderly painter wakes up in a wooden boat in the middle of the sea with no memory of who he is. The only thing he has in him is a letter he has yet to open to read. “Stand By Me” explores the depth of human connection, the fragility of memory, and the extraordinary courage it takes to love unconditionally in the face of an ever-changing reality.

A talented theatre director has been expelled from the capital for two years. And he has been sent to a small provincial theatre where he wants to put a play that his thoughts are obsessed with. This play talks about people who are being constantly watched and are living in constant fear of punishment. Gradually, the nightmares of the play begin to move into the life of the troupe...

In the late 1980s, stage actor Alexander Petrov is banned from theatre without any apparent reason. When he reappears, after the demise of the Communist regime, he discovers that he had been denounced by the one man he admired most, his master and friend. He discovers this fact at the very moment that he is called upon to deliver a funeral eulogy for the man. Devastated, Petrov declares that he is retiring from public life. That’s when Markov offers his help. An old acquaintance, Markov was a former director of the secret service, who has become a successful businessman. Now, in the mid-1990s, the country is wracked by unretstrained capitalism, along with violence and gang wars. Markov, an admirer of Petrov’s stage talents, offers to make him the leader of a new political party aiming at rescuing the country. Can this work? Is Markov the right man to be allied with? Petrov must make a fateful decision.

The end of the 70s. Anton Krastev, a DOP and his wife Diana are separated by the Iron curtain - she fled with their son Antoan to Western Berlin while he stayed in Bulgaria. She believes that Antoan can only be cured in Germany. But Anton can't live without his job. He works with the best film director who is a high ranking Communist. The State Security Services are keeping a zealous eye on Anton. His phone calls are being taped, his letters are being read. His close relations to the power people of the day make him even more suspicious. The State Security Services put an end to Anton's relation with his wife. Thorn apart, Anton and Diana go through love, alienation and hate. There comes a time though when the powerful friends of Anton lose their power and he loses everything that he's ever loved - his work, his wife and son. Thirty years later Anton shoots the story of his own life. But those who now direct the movie are the very same people who once persecuted him.

A film pioneer, Binka Zhelyazkova was at the forefront of political cinema under Bulgaria's Communist dictatorship. Though she remained faithful to the communist ideals she became an avid critic of the regime and brought upon herself the wrath of its censorship. As a result four of her nine films were shelved and released to the public only after the fall of the regime in 1989, and Binka Zhelyazkova became known as the bad girl of Bulgarian cinema. A provocative portrait that reveals the pressures and complexities that arise when art is made under totalitarianism.

Two trains uncontrollably move towards each other within temporal boundaries of a human life. One of them is taking a genial young man to his unforeseen future; he would marry his beloved; have a son; become a brilliant doctor; do his duty and save the live of enemies of the communist regime; get a 20-years sentence for that. Prison would turn out to be an unbearable nightmare; his wife would eventually give in to the tortures of the authorities and seek divorce; this would mean no one to visit him in prison. 15 years without any news about his child, only a snapshot of his family on which the tree of them are smiling and happy.

It is a story about a group of friends who live in a small seaport town. Their lifestyle is rigorous, their joys are simple and their sex life is raw. Their concepts of man's dignity, friendship and duty are wrong and primitive. The film helps us to understand and forgive them.

Impure Blood (Serbian: Нечиста крв, Nečista krv) is a 1996 film adaptation of the Impure Blood novel written by Borisav Stanković. It is concerned with themes of Serbian south, in the reforming in late 19th century.

Six stories about the modern Bulgarian family.

Two girls with the same name—Nadezhda [Hope]—live in the same apartment. Great Nadezhda is isolated from other people. She has no other aspirations than to marry a man much older than her. Over time, she will realize that this is her father, whom her mother is hiding. A small Nadezhda is the complete opposite of a great Nadezhda. She lives for others. Take care of Grandpa. She opposes rudeness and meanness. Gradually, the two girls change places. They become two parts of one whole.