major

This is a children's film where impetus derives from young actor Veselin Prahov who made his debut at six in 'Dog in a Drawer'. Rada Moskova wrote both films and similarity between them lies in the main subject: the endeavor to preserve the last remains of the romantic civilization of childhood under the condition of modern city life. The action takes place during the summer holidays in a city quarter where the new blocks of flats are still surrounded by a few old houses, which still have cherry trees in the yard. The loft of one such house serves as secret hideout of group of young children. Living close-by is the well-known violinist Mincho Minchev (who plays himself in the film) with whom the children communicate well than with their own parents. The film ends with the question: what is going to happen once the bulldozers arrive and start demolishing the romantic houses which have been preserving our dreams and memories? Wouldn't they take away something of our childhood?

This film is the work of the best-known master of Bulgarian films for children, Dimitar Petrov, who won great popularity with 'The Captain' and ' Hedgehogs Are Born Without Spines'. In this film children are tying to find a home for the stray dog. In their efforts to find a home for the dog the children are actually defending their right to a world of their own in the midst of modern everyday life. They are wagging an involuntary struggle for the restoration of their link with nature. Finally the children lose their battle. However. the film does encourage the young viewer, teaching him to fight for the thing he loves. It also suggests to parents that children's desires often contain natural wisdom and reason.

This is a deeply personal film in which the director goes back to his own childhood in order to show us a bizarre world made up of real-life images and the fantasies of a child. Though essentially introspective, the film is much more of a philosophical speculation, in terms of various images and apparitions, about the spiritual traditions of the Bulgarian people and the peculiarities of a national character shaped by specific historical events. The central scene shows a multitudinous village wedding. A 'White Aunt' is being married to a 'Black Uncle'. To the mind of the child these are two polar images, which evolve into summary symbols of the Beautiful and the Ugly, the sublime and the deformed, the refined and the primitive in the spiritual heritage of the nation. Besides the wedding we are presented with a kaleidoscopic picture of a harvest and war, floods and hot summer days, childbirth, the death of centenarians and the life after death. This is a philosophical parable rendered in almost purely documentary terms: the cast includes no professional actors.