I bought the film recently and visioned it yesterday. I was deeply impressed, sad and angry at the same time. The unbelievable cruelty of it all. One has not to be Bulgarian to realize all the horror of the situation, to feel the helplessness, sadness and hopelessness of the people attacked. It doesn't remind me of anything, except.. fear. The fear that is being instilled to all of us by ISIS...in Syria. Obviously the system of the people of Allah hasn't changed in centuries.Taking young boys and use them as executors, making little monsters of them. It happens to-day. Cruelty all over, no mercy for anyone who doesn't adhere to their view of religion. The shouts of Allahou Akbar are heard again in our time."L'Histoire se répète" it is obvious. Never has any film been so actual in 2015. The film is grand, magnificent if not so horrible a topic and so prophetic of what I hope may stop some day and never visit any of us. The film is at the same time "History" and "Actuality". Fearfull.

I attended the North American premiere of this film at the Seattle International Film Festival in 1989. It remains 20 years later as one of my fondest cinematic experiences.This is film making at its best. An epic with intensely drawn characters and exceptionally memorable scenes. Essentially, the Bulgarian Lawrence of Arabia and a film worthy of comparison to Lean's masterpiece.Many of the comments about this film are from Bulgarians, and I cannot personalize the film in the same manner that they have done so. To me, as an American, the film explored the issue of why Christianity and Islam were in inherent conflict when they are in many respects similar. When I saw the film in 1989 this was purely an interesting intellectual question. After 9/11 the film has taken on a whole new dimension for me. Clearly with 9/11, the wars that have followed and the wave of Islamic terrorism across the globe, the issue remains well worth exploring.If anyone out there can tell me how to get a copy of the film, please email me.

Totally disagree that the movie is not representing a true story. Even a slight research about the topic can give the same answers, only not so well described. And sure a Turk would say it wasn't true but...don't forget the movie is about Ottoman Empire, not Turkey, don't kill the work of Ataturk who struggled so much to bring Turkey back to the modern life and far from EXACTLY this. Whether it was successful or not is not a subject of the movie. The movie is historical and is showing the events of that time. Apart from the truth in the topic, the movie is a legend in the Bulgarian movie industry, the book is even more touching! Recommending the movie to everyone just know that after watching it, you would probably feel very strange and wondering how such things were allowed to happen. The actors' play in excellent too.

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!