Vulo Radev(1923-2001)

Vulo Radev (1 January 1923 - 28 March 2001) was a Bulgarian film director, writer and cinematographer. Radev was born in a village Lesidren. In 1953, Radev graduated from the filming faculty of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. His first film, a documentary, appeared in 1952. Radev later filmed Citizens of Dimitrovgrad (1956), On the Eve (1959, adapted from I. S. Turgenev's novel), and Tobacco (1962). In his first own film, The Peach Thief (1964, adapted from Emiliyan Stanev's novella), Vulo Radev expresses his anguish for modern man (along the lines of Godart and Antonioni) through the love story between the Serbian Officer Ivo, a prisoner of war at the concentration camp of the Bulgarians, and Lisa, the wife of the city's commander - a great love story amidst the inhuman hatred of war. The critics praise the excellent artistic knowledge; sensitivity in conception and structure of the subject matter; as well as excellent guiding of actors. As a chamber piece, the drama was made in the style of the then popular realistic psychological literature. Radev used the same style in his next film The King and The General (1966), a story of the conflict between King Boris III and General Zaimov, who tried in the beginning of the World War II to prevent both Bulgarian's alliance with Germany and its entry into the war against Soviet Union. Radev broke a number of conventions in this film too. Other films directed by him include The Longest Night (1967), Doomed Souls (1975, adapted from Dimitar Dimov's novella), and The Black Angels (1970). In 1981, he directed Adaptation, a film addressing issues of insanity. Radev received the Dimitrov Prize in 1969.