What could i say about this magnificent movie? This is the story about courage people, who live between the Orient and the West Europe. There is no place like that and if you see this movie you will understand that. In the end of 14th century the Bulgarians lost their independence. The conquerors are Osman Turks. Their device is " Burn, kill and destroy "! Before them the Bulgarians have the strongest and most powerful country on the Balkans and in all East Europe. Their culture is advanced, they have the first alphabet among the Slavs. Now a lot of the Slavs have their Cyrillic alphabet- Serbs,Rusians,Ukranians,Belarusians,Macedonians( that belong to the Bulgarian ethnic group )and else.They defend bravely and selflessly their territories but finally lost the war.The Bulgarians are orthodox Christians but the Turks are Muslims.Important part of the aggressor's politics is to convert Bulgarians to Mohamme-denims,because only thereby they could become the slaves of Turk's empire. So,this will be the the biggest hardship for this breve and selfless Balkan people. Shell they survive and defend their culture and lives you will understand only if you see the movie. Believe me, this movie will crush you down!Do not miss it!

This movie represents the historical reality in the Bulgarian's life during the five century slavery of the Ottoman empire. Probably in the most historical textbooks you won't find the poor reality and the suffering of the people, only facts, which can't describe the real life of the Bulgarians. xxx SPOILERS xxx The movie represents the history of one village in the Rodopi mountains. The population is forced to change it's religion - from Christianity to Islam. All the events are based on the real stories, collected by the author from the people living nowadays in these mountains. If you are interested in the history events, probably this movie will be very interesting for you. It's a masterpiece based on TRUE facts, not an imaginary story. Warning: the movie contains a lot scenes of violence and it's not recommended to be seen of children.

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 movie is very true to the book it's based on, Vreme razdelno (Time of Division) by Anton Donchev, and the casting is near flawless. Very good soundtrack too. Highly recommended.As to how representative it is of Bulgarian history, I beg to differ from the user who commented before me. The Rhodopa mountains (which is where the movie takes place) are, to this day, populated by Bulgarian "turks," that is, Bulgarians converted to Islam in the 1500-1600 period. Some of them, when interviewed, relate stories (dating back to the period in question and carried across generations) that are very reminiscent of the picture painted by Vreme razdelno. It's no coincidence (or accident) that the book claims to be based on the accounts of two people who witnessed the events described. Anton Donchev did his own bit of extensive research before setting out to write the book (as he usually does, he specializes in the history genre) - what he found out is reflected in the book, and hence the movie. Whether the accounts of those who suffered the conversion to Islam (as retold by their descendants) can be defined as harsh or "historically inaccurate" is obviously a question of perspective. However, the fact remains some of those accounts are what's reflected in the book (and the movie). Claims that they are fiction are, to put it mildly, overblown.