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Once Upon a Time in the East

Once Upon a Time in the East is a Bulgarian documentary film based on the books by the late Georgi Stoev. The feature-length documentary tells the story of the Bulgarian transition period and includes reconstructions, TV archive from Bulgarian National Television (BNT), NOVA TV, bTV and features interviews with contemporary Bulgarian figures like Palmi Ranchev, Atanas Orachev, Rumen Leonidov, Haralan Alexandrov, Andrey Pantev and Georg Kraev. Other witnesses and participants in the power structures tell their stories of the establishment of VIS & SIC and the fierce brutality that is required to survive the days of the transition.

Plot

Bulgaria being part of the Eastern bloc joined the race for freedom and democracy during the 1990s. Thousands flooded the streets speaking their minds with blistering hopes of developing new democratic forms of society. Within a few years the new systems of government transformed released criminals, prisoners and other sportsmen, mainly wrestlers into groups of street gangs, racketeers and security companies. With these gangs of thugs the newly appointed democrats privatized the country... 20 years later one man stood out to tell his and their story...

    Cast

    More details

    author
    director Demir Yanev
    editor Lubomir Todorov
    genre crime
    keywords flood speak street gang
    musicBy Vasil Genev
    producer Demir Yanev
    recordedAt Bulgaria
    theme documentary