The Eighth (1969)
During World War II, a plane transfers Bulgarian antifascists from the USSR to Bulgaria. They jump with parachutes. The eighth paratrooper heads a guerilla group. In the group, there are doubts about the existence of a traitor. Initially, an innocent person is accused, but later the real traitor is caught and killed. Still, the most dangerous enemies of the guerillas are the colonel and the troops stationed in the nearby village. The battle between them and the guerillas is won by the latter who continue to fight for their cause.
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Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
The screenplay is based on real events in the life of the legendary partisan commander Chochoolu, who returns in Bulgaria from the Soviet Union at the beginning of WWII. One pitch-dark night, at the head of a small group of paratroopers, he jumps from a plane over the territory of Bulgaria, where amid great danger, and after many police ambushes, he manages to raise a partisan detachment and takes up the challenge of an armed struggle. The filmmakers are chosen the adventure story as the main vehicle in portraying the individual characters and drawing the collective image of the detachment. According to the canons of the genre the partisan commander has many good, even hyperbolic, qualities. He is brave, ingenious, honest, just and, above all, invisible. Some of his actions are quite incredible because they are much too risk. Psychological analysis has given way to action. The characters are sketched in just a few bold strokes since detailed characterization would have interfered with the dynamic flow of the story. Here is a film in which anti-fascist resistance theme has been interpreted in a fresh and spectacular manner.