Georgi Danailov Movies
- 1989
The Bulgarian Whither Now? concerns itself with a group of applicants to a government drama school. The audience never sees the judges, but the results of the audition process are all too clear. Desperate for acceptance, the aspiring actors are willing to undergo any and all degradations to prove their worth. A subplot concerns a young applicant who, arriving too late for the auditions, goes to extreme lengths to sneak into the school building. Whither Now? was originally released as A Sega Nakude. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Over two-dozen students go through auditions to enter a coveted drama school in this allegorical drama. They take to the stage and react to the instructions of a man at a microphone who parades them past a panel of judges they never see. When one student is eliminated for his political beliefs, the students begin to question the panel's decision and their own value systems. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ani Vulchanova, Albena Stavrena, (more)
- 1988
This historical epic drama from director Ludmil Staikov recalls the violence of 17th-century Bulgaria when the invading Turks forced Islam on the country's Christian population. Ten-year-old Christian boys were rounded up to become part of the sultan's personal army, a practice reviled by the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians have two choices; renounce their Christian beliefs or die. Monal (Ivan Krustev) is a shepherd who leads a heroic but ill-fated resistance movement against the Ottoman oppressors. At Monal's wedding, the guests are threatened with torture and rape by the Turks. Those refusing to embrace Islam are impaled, beheaded, drawn and quartered in a graphically violent scene. The women's fate is implied and not shown on screen. Shown at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, many Turks protested the graphic portrayal of their ancestors being sadistic torturers and murderers. Despite their objections, history has proven the Turks to be among the most fearsome fighters of all time. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yossif Surchadijev, Ivan Krustev, (more)
- 1986
In an intriguing drama with no winners at the end, Andreev (Filip Trifonov) is a young and aspiring lawyer who takes on the job of local magistrate in a small town. His curiosity is piqued when he finds out the man who preceded him as magistrate is now in prison. After he starts to innocently investigate the reason why, he comes up against evasion and double-talk from anyone he approaches. Now really onto the case, he unearths evidence that the mayor of the town is more guilty than innocent. Yet when everyone, even the imprisoned man, asks him to drop his inquiries he stubbornly continues on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Loukanov, Lyubomir Kabakchiev, (more)
- 1986
In this comedy, a mathematician is so bored and burnt-out with his career that he rebels, first by crawling under a table during an interminable faculty meeting and then by throwing his telephone away, locking his wife out of their apartment, and running off on his own. At this point, the comedy takes a turn when the rebellious mathematician follows a strange wheel and meets a goatherd who shelters him in his humble abode. Events change from a bit odd to totally bizarre as the mathematician continues on his journey of escape. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stoyan Alexiev, Georgi Kaloyanchev, (more)
- 1981
The Queen of Turnovo is set in medieval times, in the appropriately medieval city of Turnovo, and is drawn from a novella by Emilian Stanev called "Diary with a Continuation." As this quasi-historical drama unfolds, the handsome and well-born Doctor Stariradev (Stefan Danailov), somewhat of a scoundrel and ladies' man, has just returned to Turnovo from his medical training - and his carousing - in Paris. His rounds include checking out the health of the inhabitants of the local bordello, from whence he continues on to his peasant clientele, whom he alienates without trying very hard. His young and truly beautiful maid Marina Camelia Todorova is attracted to him (she is in the throes of deciding on a divorce and may have been a little vulnerable to the doctor's charms). Surprisingly enough, the otherwise profligate doctor returns her affections and they are happy for awhile. His low character carries the day, however, when he decides to marry another woman since a maid would never be acceptable to a society with rigid standards for someone of his family background and standing. Although the choice may have been noble in some sense, his wife contracts tuberculosis and starts to slowly waste away, and then the doctor is shot and wounded by the maid's husband, who has found out about their relationship. The doctor mourns his wife's sickness which he cannot cure, he must forever walk with a cane due to his gunshot injury, and Marina, the maid whom he loved has had to go to work in the bordello to survive. Meanwhile, Marina has lost her husband, the doctor she loved, and what little respect society accorded her - she had been called the "Queen of Turnovo" because of her stunning beauty. The mutual suffering of Marina and Doctor Stariradev takes on nearly allegorical proportions as the story slowly wends its way to the last scene. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georgi Danailov
- 1981
A novella titled Incident in a Quiet Street by Pavel Vezhinov was the basis for Marianna Evstatieva's Crime in Yellow, and for an earlier, 1956 film of the same story by Peter Vassilev. A group of young children in modern Sophia realize that one of their companions has disappeared and their joint detective work zeroes in on only one conclusion: the little boy was kidnapped by a man in a yellow car. As they narrow their leads, they find out that the "missing" boy was really in a car accident that involved a driver who was a doctor. Instead of taking the boy to the hospital as was necessary, the doctor took him home to nurse him back to health because he did not want to make a report on what happened. Once the troop of little Nancy Drews discovers the truth, they innovatively kidnap the doctor's daughter to exchange for their friend - and they do not stop until their objectives are attained, one way or another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1980
A routine drama about misguided love on several sides, Pochti Lyubovna Istorya features a lowly factory worker in love with her boss' son, the boss' attempts to oust the woman, and the son's own view of his lover. No one seems to be in agreement. The boss has the woman kidnapped and returned to her remote village and that does keep her away from his son. He tries adding cash to his demands to stay away, and that does not work. Almost nothing works until the son himself gets into the act and tries to introduce the uneducated, simple woman he loves to his sophisticated university friends. That gives her a jolt of badly needed reality. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marianna Dimitrova
- 1978
Impatient with stupidity of any kind, whether in his patients or in the officials who guide his career, the surgeon of this tale acts according to principles, but those same principles may bring about the end of his career. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mihail Mihailov, Anton Radichev, (more)
- 1975
This film chronicles the post-divorce experiences of a 14-year old lad who, when asked during the proceedings who he wanted to live with said "with nobody." Consequently, he moves between the separate homes of his mother, father, and a terminally ill uncle. With growing maturity, he also begins to understand the temperamental differences which drove his parents apart. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
