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Visualizations of “Hooligans”. A Bulgarian Film of the 1960s
of time and space—the juveniles had to become genuinely interested in the general
running of the boarding school and to internalize the socialist discipline (Fig. 3).
Based on the views of Korczak, an important component of self-government
was the establishment of rules to be followed by both staff and inmates. Thus, in
1963, the Council of commanders (12 pupils) suggested that all the staff make
a journey and leave the students alone for three days. After discussing it within
the council of the pedagogues, the director accepted the proposal, even if the regu¬
lation stated that the students in the LES must be under constant supervision.
When they returned to the school, the pedagogues were surprised: “The completely
cleaned area around the memorial fountain, the gardens, and the whitewashed
farm building appealed to us. The dining room was festively arranged. The young
cooks had prepared a delicious dinner.”*4
The director, following the prescribed (educational) theories and methods, tried
to organize a curriculum of differentiated educational and correctional work with
the children, which aimed at establishing positive behavioral models and insist¬
ing on showing respect toward every student. But respect and confidence in the
students—seen by some of the staff as “others”, “hooligans”, “immoral”—were not
unequivocally accepted. Too much trust was perceived by some members of the
staff as hindering the establishment of strong enough discipline. Ihe biggest con¬
troversy was the system of self-government and the imposition of “the comrade’s
court” as educational measures. The comrade’s court was a penal practice, but at
the same time it aimed to discontinue forms of physical violence inflicted by the
staff, such as beatings, closing in the basement, depriving children of food, and
by the children themselves. Grancharov was criticized for letting the youth make
important decisions through the court and the student’s council.
The reality in LES “Violeta Yakova” in the first half of the 1960s was a con¬
tradictory one—the strict centralization and hierarchy paradoxically allowed the
implementation of (limited) alternative decisions according to the personality of
the director.
From the Reality Back to the Film
The reality of the above described real LES provoked Oliver to write the script. The
director and the educator had their prototypes, as did the main student character,
Ana. The film allows insights into better understanding how a social critique was
DA Pernik, F. 1017, op. 1, ae. 9: 26-27.
® DA Pernik, F. 705, op. 1, ae. 1: 17 gr., 18, 41, 43.
3° Unlike the information in the archival documents of the boarding school about the director Gran¬
charov, prototype of Kondov, the information about the student-prototype of Ana is scarce, mentioned is
only that with 18 years in 1967 (two years after finishing the film), “the prototype of the She-Wolf lives
and works in the town Yambol” in southeast Bulgaria (DA Pernik, E 705, op. 1, ae. 1: 19).
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