First Lesson

A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...

The main character of this propaganda story is a farmer Mito Petrov, who joins an agricultural cooperative, but aspires to independent farming and cannot accept the innovations in agricultural work that are introduced by the management of the cooperative. The village rich, seeing his discontent, want to use Petrov's Mito to harm the cooperative. Petrov gives in to their pressure and leaves the collective farm, but in the end he admits his mistake.

In the 17th century, a Bulgarian Christian region is selected by the Ottoman rulers to serve as an example of conversion to Islam. A Janissary who was kidnapped from the village as a boy is sent to force the reluctant inhabitants to convert. The Turkish governor seeks a peaceful solution, but ultimately torture, violence, and rebellion break out.

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 fortunes of a group of partisans after the triumph of the socialist revolution.

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.

In 1940s wartime Bulgaria, a group of young student resistance fighters operate a secret printing press to distribute underground anti-fascist propaganda, while two members of the cell develop a romance that is continuously threatened by the surrounding political violence.

The three grotesque novels whose action takes place at different times of the recent past are united by a common thematic key – their protest against violence and militarism, expressed by means of a kind of absurd humor.

Ostrava - Kunčice , 1953: on the same day as the manifestation funeral for J. V. Stalin, the funeral of Brigadier Bédi Nevěřil, a tragic victim of the bureaucratic cadre machine... The story unfolds in the memoirs of another brigadier, former journalist Karel Kratochvil.

A social and psychological study of contemporary problems.

A hairdresser Gerda has an affair with Dr Nikodimov, a married man past his prime. Savarinova has had her hair done by Gerda in fashionable style. She is ill at ease at a family party. Her sister Mina has been the cause of her anxiety, because the young scientist Belokozhov prefers young and unaffected Mina. They go out to the park and have fun by themselves. Meanwhile, Nikodimov goes to see Gerda in her flat. She tells him what has been preying on her mind during their liaison. Nikodimov's wife comes there but he turns her away. He tells Gerda that he will move in with her for good. Heartbroken, the girl turns him away. Nikodimov goes to the hospital. In his office, he takes out an ampule of cyanide and drains it with a resolute gesture. Mina and Belokozhov discuss love in the park. It starts raining. Laughing, a boy and a girl walk towards the dawn.

The young Bulgarian Muslim woman Zyulker wants to study and become a teacher. Her father decides to arrange a marriage to her. After the wedding, she runs away and goes to the town. There she starts work in a hostel. Her husband takes her back. He beats and humiliates her. She gives birth to her child prematurely, takes the baby and goes to the school for Muslim in the town. She has to surmount many difficulties. The young woman meets her first teacher Stefanov. The two fall in love. With his help, Zyulker finishes her study successfully and makes up her mind to return to her native village as a teacher. Stefanov follows her and proposes to her. The two embrace.

The courage to preserve one's integrity in trying times.

Boris Morev dreams of money and power, he’ll do everything to reach the top, including leaving his beloved Irina, to marry the daughter of the local tobacco factory owner. With the death of his father-in-law and the illness of his wife, Morev becomes the new owner of "Nicotiana" and rules with an iron fist, resulting in massive labour strikes and murder. He ropes Irina back into his life, first as a mistress and later as his second wife, but his ambitions still come first as he plans on emerging as the biggest tobacco seller once the war is over. Irina’s love for Boris is fading and she finds a lover in one of the Germans Boris is trying to strike a deal with. Set against the backdrop of World War II and communist partisans fighting against the Nazi-allied Bulgarian monarchy, the film is a screen adaptation of the Bulgarian classic novel "Tobacco" released in 1954.

In a way of protesting for inhuman living conditions and the shortage of medications caused by the disintegration of Yugoslavia and its sanctions, a doctor in a hospital decides to close his clinic for mental illness. His wish is to return the patients to their homes or give them to someone who is willing to accept them temporarily.

This is a typical story from the 'cold war' era. A group of kids play on a quiet street in Sofia. From a nearby window falls a key. The helpful youngsters quickly return it to the owner, but in the haste switch the keys. The unintentional error disentangles a whole spy story. The young detectives doubt the good intentions of the man they tried to help. It turns out that the key is from a secret apartment where saboteurs are hiding. The secret network is exposed to the authorities and the kids feel like heroes.

In 1933 Berlin, Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov is caught up in the Reichstag fire trials when Nazis seek to frame communists. Despite orchestrated provocations and mass repression, Dimitrov’s defiant courtroom defense exposes the baseless charges, forcing his acquittal and securing him political asylum in the Soviet Union.

Stationed in a secluded Bulgarian village in 1943, Walter – a German Wehrmacht sergeant and artist – lives in almost idyllic distance from the war. Then a transit camp is set up for Jews arriving from Greece. When Ruth, one of the internees, asks Walter to help a pregnant woman, the two form an unlikely bond.

In a white ward in a clinic, a lifetime balance on the verge of death. Memories are herding together in the mind of seriously ill Aleksandrov, a scientist, who evaluates and reevaluates his own life: friendships, loves, career. Images of his youth are crowding in: of his beloved, of his children, of evenings spent with his friends, ups and downs. And no one is able to say if all this made any difference.

A discovery complicates the relations in a family.

Marinov is found dead, and suspects include Baev, Dimov, and Zhana. The Inspector, who deals with life’s dark side, investigates. Despite his loneliness, he shows compassion, especially towards Zhana. Ultimately, he concludes Marinov committed suicide and demonstrates that people can embrace higher morality. Based on the detective book by Bogomil Raynov.

The first love between two very different characters is the prism through which we are shown the point of view of the film-makers who denounce war and plead for simple human happiness.

An extremely honest forest ranger fights for the trust to the very end.

A tenement house needs to have steam heating installed. The residents find the necessary workers to do it, sign the contract and pay them in advance. The workers show up and start their job, but disappear immediately. Panic-stricken, the residents set up to search for them, only to find the workers in jail. Totally desperate, their only chance is to come up with an ingenious plan how to bring the work to the end.

The 10-year-old Yan Bibiyan does mischief and escapades under the influence of the devil kin Fyut. He meets devils, wizards, and witches, which amuses him a lot. But his experiences teach him that goodness is the human quality, which makes life really beautiful and cheerful.

Preparations for a carnival are under way in a Bulgarian town. People are very excited. They are head over heels in the forthcoming celebration and gradually, they lose their self-identities and adopt that of masks they put on. All of a sudden, a Stranger lands in the little town. Coming from another planet, he has the ability to impersonate the true image of everyone who violates another man. Misunderstandings and comical situations succeed each other. Quite a number of 'bad guys' come out...

The middle-aged poor painter Tsokov doesn't believe in marriage, something completely unacceptable in a cramped socialist society.

During World War II, a mountain village priest, Pop Vecherko, unwittingly shelters a disguised partisan and helps run an underground press that prints the Communist Manifesto under the guise of hagiography. When a misdelivered package reaches the Synod and triggers mass arrests of clergy, a chance grenade explosion orchestrated by local children creates chaos, allowing Vecherko and his unsuspecting ally, the mayor, to slip away unnoticed.

Misho becomes an orphan. The good people from the neighborhood take care of him until the child is placed in an orphanage. Everyone is trying to bring joy to the kid. However, Misho is searching for his mother's love in their eyes. Now the people are being kind to him, but there is always an invisible wall. Maybe uncle Elenko is the most sincere, since he shows his feelings in a tragic moment when Misho gets on a roof of a construction site. However, why does he care for Misho end with him convincing him to go to the orphanage?

A Bulgarian secret service agent is sent undercover to a big Western European company.

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

A fishing boat comes back to the port. Fishermen are crestfallen, as they have caught only one very little fish. To save face, they fib they have 300 kilo of mackerel on board the boat. In their will to report a success, the port administration decides to pad out the weight. So, the very little fish is grossly exaggerated into tons of belted bonito, then into dolphin and ultimately, into a whale. Which results in celebrations, honors and awards... There, naturally, is no any whale. Instead of brilliant display of an unprecedented success, the white collars make a brilliant display of their unparalleled foolishness.