Zeit der Gewalt

The movie is indeed one of the biggest Bulgarian classics. As they say, if you're Bulgarian, you must have watched it. And if your heart doesn't tremble when you watch it, you're not a Bulgarian.

On the other hand, I like very much one quote from one of its resumes: "The film is painted on a large, sweeping canvas, with many characters and subplots, all cleverly woven into a single story. And, surprisingly, this isn't a "vile Turk" story. Director Ludmil Staikov has much more ambitious goals, including an examination of the power of religion and of the destructiveness of violence and fanaticism. Not all of the Christians are good, nor all of the Muslims bad." And I agree with this, the movie is not black and white - neither in real colour, nor in character's colour. Even the "most evil characters" have their inner struggles and their reasons, while even the "nicest characters" have their flaws and weaknesses. Like all human beings...

So, the script is great, the acting is great, the music is touching, the scenery is magnificent - no wonder this is one of the very few Bulgarian movies (if not the only one), which have foreign subtitles in its DVD set.

P.S. Indeed, the movie is definitely not for minors, not only because of the scenes of violence, but also because they would hardly understand its true meaning.

This is one of the most sad movies on all time. Unfortunately you have to be Bulgarian to understand how sad the movie is. Or at least - you have to be keen in The Bolkans history and what the Bulgarian people have gone through. I am sorry to disappoint the writer of some of the comments about the movie - but in fact - it does show what exactly the Turkish army have done with the young bulgarians. Taking small children and making them a fanatic killers who are absolutely trust to the Turkish emperor has been done for over hundred of years. And the movie shows the whole pain and drama of the Bulgarian families who lost their children.

This movie explains the story of the people that lived in the region of Rodopi mountains in Bulgaria during the 17-th century. This is a region in south-central contemporary Bulgaria. All the facts presented in the movie are true, I don't mean now the small details but the general idea - What used to happen during the period, that the movie describes. I read somewhere a comment for the movie, sounding like this: "The movie is interesting, but the happenings are not real." Well I will give you one incontestable fact in favor of the main line of the movie: Bulgaria falls finally under the Otoman conquerors in 1396 and gains its independence in 1878. The population before the first date is only consisted of orthodox Christians. Now in contemporary Bulgaria, besides the ethnic Turks also known as Bulgarian Turks, there is a specific group of people that speak Bulgarian language as their native language but their fate is Islam. These people are mainly located in the Rodopi mountains, where the story of the movie goes. History of the Balkans is full of blood and violence. We can live now in peace and on good terms, but this doesn't mean to strike the history out, because we all should know where we come from.

This, shown also in Cannes (Un certain regard), film is about personal and group tragedy. It perplexes and unfolds, complicates and simplifies the main character's contradictory points of view.

It is a very intensive story about important historical events happened 3 centuries ago and barely known to people today. It also reveals forgotten personal values in modern life like honor, self-conscious, independence, deep love.

It is an epic film showing beautiful feelings weaved into a political and religious drama.

It is time of violence. Time of blood and vengeance. Time when life doesn't matter but only the last thing left: People's faith.

The best Bulgarian movie ever made-well,there is a lot of propaganda of course,but still the movie is excellent.Bulgarians must remember their history and origins.The performance of Karaibrahim and the priest is very good and the soundtrack is not bad also.I have never seen a movie like this made in the neighbour countries of Yugoslavia,Romania or even Greece.I guess the communist regime injected a big amount of money in this project-everybody knows that at this time half a million ethnic Turkish Bulgarian citizens were forced to leave the country and the other part were repressed,names changed.Still it is a really emotional artwork!