Time of Violence

Time of Violence
Time of Violence
	Film poster
Directed by	Ludmil Staikov
Written by	Georgi Danailov ; Anton Donchev (novel)
Produced by	Hristo Nenov
Starring	Yosif Sarchadzhiev ;
Cinematography	Radoslav Spasov
Edited by	Violeta Toshkova
Music by	Georgi Genkov
Distributed by	Boyana Film
Release date	28 March 1988;
Running time	288 minutes
Country	Bulgaria
Language	Bulgarian

Time of Violence (Bulgarian: Време на насилие, translit. Vreme na nasilie) is a 1988 Bulgarian film based on the novel Vreme razdelno (Време разделно, "Time of Parting") of Anton Donchev. It consists of two episodes with a combined length of 288 minutes. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.^[1] The film was selected as the Bulgarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.^[2]

Background[]

Production and release of Time of Violence had been concurrent with the Revival Process. The story is set in contemporary Smolyan Okrug, a region of substantial pomak (Bulgarian Muslim) population, underlining the prevailing theory that pomaks are ethnic Bulgarians accepted Islam, regardless of their self-designation.^[3]

Plot[]

The film is set in the Ottoman Empire, in 1668. As Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha concentrates his war efforts on the Cretan War, he grows paranoid of the Sultan's Christian subjects, convinced that they are an uncontrollable threat to the empire unless Islamized. One of the targets is Elindenya, a village located in a Rhodope valley where the Christian Bulgarians' way of life was for the most part left alone under the Ottoman governor Süleyman Agha's rule. A sipahi regiment is dispatched to the valley with the mission of converting the Christian population to Islam, by force if necessary. The extraordinary thing is that the regiment is led by Kara Ibrahim, a fanatical devshirme from Elindenya, and although Süleyman Agha, feeling that his self-ordained rule is at stake, objects to forced conversions, Kara Ibrahim favors measures of extreme brutality against the local Bulgarians, including his own family.