An evening with the director Nikolay Vassilev: Screening of “The Other War” and “Vakluš”

The Bulgarian Cultural Institute London is pleased to invite you to an evening with the director Nikolay Vassilev, on October 5, 2024, at the Sofia Gallery of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute London. Come to the screening of the documentary “The Other War” at 5:00 p.m. and the screening of the documentary “Vacluš” at 6:00 p.m.

Book a seat HERE

5:00 p.m.

“The Other War”

Documentary, Bulgaria, 2022, 30′

Subtitles: English

The film confronts poignant situations of human misery and helplessness with the joy of a helping hand and human empathy.

The film follows one of the missions of the charity organization “Angels for Bulgaria” – medical teams that go around remote villages deprived of access to medical care, a particularly big problem in the conditions of an epidemic.

Through the eyes of the medical teams, the authors of “The Other War” – director Nikolay Vassilev, cameraman Borislav Georgiev and producer Maria Cherneva – tell about an unsuspected part of Bulgaria, where life is a matter of survival.

6:00 p.m.

“Vacluš”

Documentary, Bulgaria, 2023, 100′

Subtitles: English

After the premiere of “Sofia Film Fest” last year, “Vacluš” made its meetings with the audience all over Bulgaria with extremely strong interest. It became the most-watched film of the festival’s documentary selection and ranked as the second most-watched documentary of the decade on the National Film Center’s list. It has been selected for participation in 31 festivals around the world. There are now 11 awards from America, France, India, Bolivia, Sweden, Switzerland and the Philippines.

In June, the film returned from a 16-city tour of the US and Canada. The one hundred and thirty-fourth screening will be in London, where the director will personally present “Vacluš”.

The documentary “Vacluš” was filmed in the period 1998 – 2022 and contains unseen archival footage from the life of the famous spiritual leader Vaklush Tolev. The film is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth and is a story about the life path and ideas of one of Bulgaria’s most enigmatic personalities.

The author of “Vacluš” is Nikolay Vassilev – one of the most prominent documentary directors in Bulgaria. His meeting with Vaklush Tolev marked the beginning of almost 20 years of filming unique documentary footage from the life of the spiritual Master, whose ideas, according to the director, will change the world.

In the documentary, viewers will see Petar Stoyanov – President of Bulgaria in the period 1997-2002, Dr. Ilko Semerdzhiev – Minister of Health in the period 1999-2001, Prof. Dr. Maria Slavova – lawyer and lecturer at SU “St. Cl. Ohridski”, Ognyan Minchev – political scientist and doctor of sociological sciences, Prof. Ivan Zhelev – theologian, associate professor Dr. Ivan Bachvarov – physicist and teacher at SU “St. Cl. Ohridski”, associate professor Dr. Kiril Kolikov – mathematician and teacher at PU “Paisiy Hilendarski, Boyko Stankushev – journalist, etc.

Vaklush Tolev, who is called the Teacher of Wisdom, is a theologian by education, public figure, lecturer and author of numerous works with religious-philosophical and cultural-historical themes. Having passed through prisons and camps of communism, he claims that suffering does not exist, it is development. Pursued by the repressive apparatus of State Security as an “enemy of the people”, he teaches that there is no evil – it is unevolved good. Theology ends with tribulations, but for him, man is not a sinner, as religions teach, but a god in development. After the changes in Bulgaria, he was invited to teach at the Plovdiv and Sofia universities. There, in his lectures on the history of spiritual knowledge, he often recalls the inscription on the Delphic temple “Know thyself and thou shalt know the gods and the world.” He himself experienced this knowledge and formulated his teaching, which he called the “Way of Wisdom”. In 1998, Vaklush Tolev submitted a proposal to the UN to include a new clause for the protection of the rights of the soul in the “Charter of Human Rights”.

Nikolay Vasilev is a screenwriter and director, extremely active in finding exciting characters and plots. For his film “Tales” he was awarded in 2010. with the “Jameson” award at the Sofia Film Fest for the best Bulgarian short film. In his creative biography, there are dozens more award-winning films that can be described as inspirational: “The Good Samaritan”, “The Road to Thebes”, “High”, “The Good Hell”, “Spare Wings”, “Overshadowing” and others.

In 2019, his film “Theo’s Formula”, dedicated to the famous physics teacher from Kazanlak Teodosi Teodosiev, became a sign that filled cinemas not only in Bulgaria, but also outside its borders. In 2021. Nikolay Vassilev presented “Being the Master”, an exciting portrait of Vladimir Dimitrov the Master, as well as his latest film “Gladiator” dedicated to the two-time Olympic champion Boyan Radev.