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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.
After yet another failed attempt at producing gold, the alchemist Sir Lavoie, leaves the capital to seek the advice of a colleague in another city. His house is left to his three servants: the maid Doll, the footman Face and the lackey Satl. They decide to get rich by posing as alchemists and helping people solve their problems, even though they understand nothing of alchemy.
A documentary about the life and music of the great Bulgarian folk-jazz clarinet player Ivo Papasov - Ibryama.
An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.
In the not-so-distant past, two young artistes went on their way, leaving Bulgaria in search of dreams to which they were determined to devote their lives—an art, one to which they aspired. Among the bohemia of the Bulgarian artistic circle in Paris, through the music of the Russian cabarets shortly before they slid into obscurity, they encountered the legendary personalities who feature in this film.
"Sun Ray Over Paris" is an intimate portrait of Lachezar Oshavkov – painter, musician and traveler – who left Bulgaria in 1968 and made Paris his spiritual home. Through art, memory and encounters across continents, the film explores exile, solitude and the fragile hope that creativity offers.
Who says that cats and dogs are enemies? The dog Spass and the cat Nelly live happily under one roof. The harmony lasts until once, enraptured with games, they ruin the apartment.
The fundamental questions of human life about guilt, repentance, and redemption are posed in the two documentary essay - about the grief of the women from Sliven Prison who give birth to their children behind bars. Binka Zhelyazkova diagnoses the public through the stories of her heroines. The film does not appear on the screens after their creation, but only after the changes in 1989.
"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.