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Anelia Kassabova
Visualizations of “Hooligans”.
A Bulgarian Film of the 1960s
On September 13, 1965 the film Valchitsata (‘The She-Wolf?)! was screened in So¬
fia. The subject of the film were the attitudes towards the Other— the “difficult”,
the “bad and dangerous” youth. For the very first time the topic of a correctional
boarding school, trudovo-vazpitatelno uchilishte (labor-educational school’, LES),
for juvenile offenders became visualized in socialist Bulgaria.
Although the critics noticed “shortcomings” and “weaknesses” of the film, the
experts evaluated it as a high achievement of the Bulgarian cinema (Andreykov
1965: 41). Viewed by 1.27 million people (Yanakiev 2003: 299), the film was un¬
doubtedly a success of its time. The critiques indicated the complicated fate of the
film and its long road to realization. Less discussed in the 1960s, and nowadays,
is the fact that the film was based on a “true story”.’ Scriptwriter Haim Oliver was
inspired for the topic and the main characters by real facts, so the film led me to
the prototypes.
I shall consider the movie from a cultural-historical perspective that treats films
not only from an aesthetic, artistic-creative point of view as visual and textual prod¬
ucts but also from a social perspective. The interesting circumstances around the
film allow it to be seen in the light of the complex interconnection between visual
representation and social reality (Garbolevski 2011). From this perspective the ar¬
ticle will offer insight into both the functioning of the complicated process of film
making in socialist Bulgaria of the 1960s and the reality of an LES of the same
period.
With a view to complement the existing literature, the article is based primar¬
ily on archival documents to be found in the Bulgarian Agency State Archives: on
the one hand, the minutes of the meetings of the artistic council and, on the other
hand, archival materials of the prototype of the school in the film, LES Vranya
Stena.
The Long History of the Film Making
The power of images—verbal and visual, static and moving—to transmit certain
(political, ideological) messages is used by any government. Authoritarian and
totalitarian regimes intensify the pressure on artists, tending to use art as an
' Script-writers Haim Oliver and Rangel Valchanov, director Rangel Valchanov, and operator Dimo
Kolarov.
: Words of scriptwriter Oliver at a meeting of the artistic council in 1964 (IsDA F. 404, op. 4, ae. 290: 59).