Best Bulgarian documentary movies

The documentary film follows the life and career of Milen Tsvetkov against the backdrop of historical events in Bulgaria that have transformed journalism and the media market in the country since 1989.

Back to Berlin is the first biker flick-meets-holocaust feature documentary. Eleven motor bikers have a mission to take the Maccabiah torch from Israel to the site of the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, for the first Jewish Olympic Games on German soil. They will retrace the heroic journeys of the original 1930s' Maccabiah riders and discover how they or their families survived the Holocaust.

Three friends use their last summer as teenagers to rediscover Bulgaria like they have never seen it before by going on a big road trip and getting lost on purpose.

The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: Two ambitious lawyers face each other in the trial of Milorad Krstić, who’s accused of committing war crimes as a commander in the Bosnian war. The defender, Mikhail Finn, has managed to refute all the accusations against his client. Convinced of Krstic´s guilt, Catherine Lagrange, the prosecutor, summons a young man with incriminating evidence against Krstić. He claims to have been abandoned by his parents as a child and to have been one of Krstić’s soldiers. Defender Finn starts to investigate in order to verify the witness’ testimony – and soon encounters the young man’s family. Inspired by a true story.

The young Demir dreams of a wedding. But his Roma tower block at the outskirts of a provincial town in Bulgaria is no place for romance. 25 years ago it had all it takes for panel socialist heaven: from parquet floors to intercom, the coveted hot water central, street lamps, benches under murmuring apple trees. Someone called the place Paradise Hotel - and the name stuck. But with the years the block gradually changed. The parquet disappeared. The water stopped. The lights went off. But each of the 1 500 inhabitants has a plan how to get back the dream of Paradise Lost. And if you cross the field behind Paradise Hotel where heaven and earth meet, you will see Bozhidar "The God Given" who protects everyone from evil and excessive happiness in a documentary about panel integration, love, misery, a lot of dreams, a little lyrics and one Gypsy wedding.

Audrius Mickevičius puts the horribly disfigured face of his murdered brother at the start of his film. It is almost a meditation about the question whether a final act like murder can be atoned for in a temporal order – and whether the passing of time allows the victim’s family to forgive. Mickevičius uses the example of two lifers (one of them gets married and wants to have children, the other pours his whole passion into an idea of craftsmanship) and a philosopher with prison experience to make that strange state of suspended life comprehensible.

Robin is pregnant but doesn't want to be a mother. Katerina and Gaia are single but want a child. Kiki suffers from an incurable disease and wants her life to end with dignity. The procedures they hope to get access to – abortion, IVF and euthanasia – are only available and legal in other countries. Therefore, they resort to so-called medical tourism.

The life and death of socialist architectural monsters. An epic fairy-tale in five chapters.

Anyone else in his place would have given up, but not him. Just a month after narrowly surviving being hit by a car, high-altitude mountaineer and research-zoologist Boyan Petrov starts his recovery and long preparation to continue his dream: climbing all the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. Without supplementary oxygen and 3 times cancer survivor, he has climbed all 10 of the 14 eight-thousanders. Now it's time for the world's giant - Everest. For this purpose, Boyan starts his journey by "warming-up" with the lowest peak among them - the so-called "dwarf" Shishapangma. Number 11 on his bucket list. An unexpected twist of fate leads to his disappearance a few meters under the peak which activates an unprecedented interstate rescue mission and helicopter searches between the countries of Nepal, China, and Bulgaria.

Georgi and the Butterflies tells the story of a man and his dream. This man is Dr Georgi Lulchev, a psychiatrist, neurologist, Chinese medicine man, administrator, amateur chef, entrepreneur and Director of the Home for Psychologically Disabled Men. His dream is to organise a farm in the yard of the home, where the patients can raise snails, ostriches and pheasants, produce silk fibres and soybean food. This is a story full of optimism, snails, ostriches, silk, charity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, soybean food, schizophrenics, oligophrenics, psychopaths, Korean investors, Western hunters, misery, acupuncture and compassion. Compassion, business, butterflies.

The hard life of a hardcore football hooligan in a Bulgarian mining town where operations have long since shut down and the future looks bleak. But is there another side to his tough and violent facade?

The road linking Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania corresponds to the site of a huge EU infrastructure project called Corridor #8. Corridor No. 8+ is a mosaic film combining fragments from the everyday lives of the characters who live along this non-existent Balkan road. MUBI

We have witnessed how a Roma baby Ilya was left by his mum for an international adoption in 1993. 20 years later the young Frenchman came to Bulgaria to visit his mother and his seven brothers and sisters. An emotional film for the collision of cultures. Other Bulgarian children found parents abroad while shooting "The Long Way Home".

Nikolai Popovski from Kocherinovo wished he could fly since he was a child. Without any proper training, he invents and builds the first Bulgarian helicopter in his father's yard.

In a small Bulgarian village troubled by the ongoing refugee crisis, a local postman runs for mayor—and learns that even minor deeds can outweigh good intentions.

The epic story of a village turned concentration camp, turned a city, turned nuclear power plant and of its population. A world instantly transformed by ideologies, regimes and dreams of economic prosperity. The tales of characters whose lives intersect in a sinister past, nuclear future and the stinging mosquitoes flying through time, sealing their fate together.

The documentary chronicles the life of Christian Takov amid the historical events of the last decades in Bulgaria. The film features a number of meticulously sourced and never before published footage and documents, as well as a series of interviews with the family, colleagues, friends and associates of Takov.

Welcome to the picturesque world of the Kaldarash Roma – a closed community of no more than 1 million people all over the world. 'Concrete Pharaohs' take us on a journey into the lifestyle and traditions of the most hidden and intriguing Roma communities. A charismatic Gypsy baron will walk us through his stories and his new house. We will learn the hot trends in Roma tombstone design. We will go down into the underground homes of African granite, furnished with beds, wardrobes, stereos and a charged cell phone – a direct line to the other world. A celebration of life and afterlife in all of their manifestations.

Bumpy are the pot-holed roads of Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. Doctor Krassi, nurse Mila and driver Plamen fly over them daily at break-neck speed. Together the three form one of 13 ambulance teams providing assistance to over two million people. They zoom around the city on double shifts from one emergency to the next. Ilian Metev’s camera is not aimed at those in need of help – their dignity remains preserved. He focuses instead upon the rescue team Krassi, Mila and Plamen and their wild rides across the city on a never-ending battle with time – a feat almost impossible without humour. The ambulance team fight against a ramshackle health system with passion, selflessness and sometimes near resignation. Ilian Metlev accompanied the trio for more than two years to find images that make poetry of the human figure and this depiction of reality.

In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.

Elitza Gueorguieva films the making of the novel that her Belarusian alter-ego Aliona begins about her father, a maritime adventurer, physicist and dreamer, who disappeared off the Turkish coast in 1995.

This documentary tells the intimate stories of a singing group and three jazz musicians in Bulgaria as they embark on their artistic journeys.

A documentary about the Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, who won the International Booker Prize in 2023 for his novel Time Shelter.

With the population in decline, a traditional way of life is ending in a remote, rundown Bulgarian village. This poetic and at times tragicomic film follows the last remaining inhabitants from the perspective of several domesticated animals. There’s a great deal of attention given to sound, light and movement: an overflowing bucket, sunlight dancing in rustling foliage, the ticking sound of ants on the move, and a cowbell clanging in the wind.

Once a year, the Bulgarian tradition of Kukeri unites a small village as residents wear intricate masks and costumes and dance at night. Killian Lassablière chronicles the practice in his short documentary.

A cinematic, character-driven insight to what it meant to produce and to own a car in communist times: the Socialist propaganda dreams and the hard reality of living that dream. The freedom that these slow and clumsy vehicles were giving to their owners; the cars as an instrument in the Cold War battle; legends and homemade tune-ups as an attempt to stand at least a little bit off the crowd.

"The back salto ruined my life. Maybe I should do a front one?" The story of phenomenal Bulgarian weightlifter Angel Guenchev's Olympics rise and subsequent fall from grace. Refusing to submit to the fate of a petty criminal in the post-1989 turmoil, he starts from scratch in search of redemption.

Love & Engineering is for everyone who has experienced uncertainty, had a crush on someone or been on a date. The film asks what are our so-called “feelings” and can we can control them or not. Challenges of the dating world are approached through the perspective of male engineers: how to encounter people in the real world? The film reveals that falling in love happens in three phases and that charming your date could be just a matter of adept hacking skills!

Doycho is the last person inhabiting a remote village in the heart of the Balkan mountains, where his neighbours are animals and best friend is a Ram.

The Soviet occupation of Bulgaria (1944-1947) causing the greatest political, financial and moral turning point in the new Bulgarian history.

A dramatic documentary about both the dark and the bright sides of the genius; about the ups and downs of a Bulgarian winner, who is a last-ditcher by nature; about the mission to be a leader, taking the lead in crucial moments; about the real events and the myths; about national self-confidence and national nihilism.

Short Bulgarian documentary shown at Cannes 1961.

The full-length documentary presents the stages in the historical development of the city of Sofia from the earliest artefacts of 6000 BC till now, telling of the archaeological discoveries, achievements in architecture and town planning, in science and the arts, interlacing episodes from the documentary series 5 Minutes Sofia. KAMEN VODENICHAROV (b. 1966), actor/director/producer, studied Puppetry at NATFA, Sofia, in the classes of Prof. Nikolina Georgieva and specialised in Film and TV Directing in the classes of Acad. Lyudmil Staykov. He is one of the founders of the widely popular Cuckoo student TV show. MISHO LANZHEV (b. 1959), director/animator, after completing his studies at NATFA, Sofia, worked for popular TV shows and films. He is one of the directors of the documentary series 5 Minutes Sofia. Festivals & Awards: IFF Sofia 2019; Best Documentary, White Nights FF, St. Petersburg, Russia

This is a modern pirate story complete with a captain, a mutinous crew of outlaws, a princess, her wedding dress and untold riches. Only one thing is missing: the ship. According to legend, Vulchan, a 19th-century gypsy pirate, attacked three convoys laden with gold. He robbed them, sunk them and hid his treasure by the coast. Fast forward to present day. Captain Jack, an ex-con himself, leads a motley bunch of homeless outcasts—alcoholics and petty criminals—in a search for the hidden loot. But their hopes of riches and glory are threatened when the brother of the Bulgarian Prime Minister announces plans to build a new mega tourist resort by the Black Sea.

It is a film about one of the ethnic cleansing in the Balkan Peninsula, which took place in in Bulgaria. The consequences of it are lasting till now. In the mid 80-ies the Bulgarian communist authorities started to forcefully change the Turkish names of about one million ethnic Turks into Bulgarian ones, in an attempt to resolve the ethnic problems that had been piled up for years. The film tells the stories about three women and their divided families. Each of them experienced in her own way this tragedy.

A documentary about the life in a gypsy ghetto in Bulgaria. Unemployment among the people reaches up to 90 %. The only hope for some of them is the church. There they pray for miracle to happen. And a miracle has happened. A real prince is coming to the ghetto....

A young Bulgarian girl digs into her grandfather's turbulent life in an attempt to unravel the past and find answers and explanations for the catastrophic fall of communism.

This documentary was subjected to condemnation and attempts for institutional censorship as soon as it was done. The film observes how one man makes a career using another in the totalitarian society of Communist Bulgaria.

A short documentary about Rakovski street in Sofia.

A father killed his son. In a state of alcoholic delirium, a young man murdered his friend. A 21 year-old boy shot a policeman. Faced with their death sentence, they tell about what happens with them at the moment when they are between death and ... death.

The author's idea is to use four colors-red, black, white and yellow - to tell about the richness of folk art.

In 1987, a group of students broke the Pantheon of dead anti-fascists in the sea garden of Burgas. Due to the public position and the authority of the parents, the incident was hidden, and the photos of the documentary investigation were suspended.

Archival footage of the 40s of the 20th century alternates with the narrative of the main character. He received his military service as an internal intelligence courier. The hero recalls the Inquisition of the arrested, who were interrogated in the building at the address "Tetevenska" 24. The film is a portrait of a little man caught in the twists and turns of history. The hero is torn between the pain of his memories and the need to expose them to the ideological canons of the 80s. For the background of this drama, the impassive faces of today's residents of this house are very far from what ever happened in it. —Georgi Djulgerov

A short documentary film about Czech-Bulgarian painter Ivan Mrkvička

The homeless, underground residents at a post-communist train station and their intimate confessions. A film not about misery, but the lust for life and color even at the depths of human despair.

A film poem in four parts following the first four days after Algeria's independence in 1962. Footage of the nationwide celebrations is intercut with footage shot among the fighters of the Algerian Army of National Liberation, refugees exiled to the mountains of Tunisia and Morocco, and ordinary people from the towns and villages of Algeria.

"Nani-na, sleep tight" is the song Bulgarian mothers sing to their little babies. It is obvious that the same song is sung to the little babies in the women's prison in Sliven where the great Bulgarian director Binka Zhelyazkova made two documentaries, the first one named "Nani-Na" /"Lullaby"/ with the incredible true stories of the prisoners in that facility. Immediately forbidden, this movie plus the other one - "Lice i opako" or "The Bright and Dark Side of Things" also made the same year were shown 8 years later when the socialist regime wrongly named as communist one fell apart in 1989. Sadly, Binka Zhelyazkova made no other movie after 1990 until her death in 2011. Deeply insulted by the Bulgarian authorities she decided to decline from cinematographic work, which is something very frustrating indeed, given that all her movies are now evergreen classics.

The film goes beyond the traditional facade of sport's battle for medals and explores the ethical dimensions of the efforts of the trainer and her modern and rhythmic gymnastics competitors, the price of success, the meaning of hard labor and Golgotha's vocation.The film reveals the hardships of the daily training routine of a rhythmic gymnastics group, repeating their moves over and over again while working towards perfection. There are short interviews with Neshka Robeva and Lilly Ignatova. We can see ambition and envy, the secret workings of being a referee at the European Championship in Wien, the impact of politics in sports completions favoring the USSR... The three girls on the winner's podium - Aneliya Ralenkova, Dilyana Georgieva and Lilly Ignatova, are seen at the end holding hands.