once upon a time in the east
Script: Georgi Stoev; Director Demir Yanev
n e w l e v e l p r o d u c t i o n s
http://gstoev.net/film
TIME CODED SCRIPT
Interviews:
Palmi Ranchev……………………………… Writer, Boxing coach
General Atanas Atanasov…… Former Police Chief and SIC associate
Professor Andrey Pantev…… Historian, Member of Parliament
Atanas Orachev…………………………… Historian, Anthropologist
Ivailo Iliev………………………………… Former Group member
Haralan Alexandrov………………… Social anthropologist
Rumen Leonidov…………………………… Poet, Journalist
Georg Kraev…………………………………… Culturist
Dobrin Dodev………………………………… Lawyer, close associate to Georgi Stoev
Voiceover GEORGI STOEV……… Atanas Srebrev
Voiceover chronological…… Keneward Hill
ENGLISH VERSION
96 MINUTES.
[OPENING CREDITS, BLACK SCREEN]
00:00:10
Georgi Stoev
The secret services have an experience
of over 40 years…
suddenly they start mocking these guys,
entertaining themselves any way they like…
00:00:20
Georgi Stoev
I was never a mug…
I would like to add something
to the way you introduced me…
I am very happy to be here for the first time,
and that you’ll hear my words from me…
00:00:33
Georgi Stoev
The ones who are still alive have to be happy
that my books refer to them as people
not as some mythical monsters…
00:00:40
Georgi Stoev
We can’t say that all the secret services
created the structures
only certain people from the secret services
created these structures
00:00:50 [FILM TITLE, BLACK SCREEN]
00:00:57 [GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE EXT. SOFIA STREETS]
00:01:20 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raikova
You say killings and killers,
that you were part of these circles…
But do you really know one hitman?
00:01:27
Georgi Stoev
Oh, I even know two!
Not just one, two…
00:01:41
Veneta Raikova
How does one become a mafia boss?
You enter the centre of Sofia
proclaiming everyone works for you now?
00:01:46 [TV ARCHIVES CONT.]
Georgi Stoev
Impossible without the support of the police
or some political party activist…
00:02:02 [SWEEP, BRUSH]
00:02:03 [RECONSTRUCTION.KIDNAPPING. INT. CAR. DAY. SOFIA BLOCK]
00:02:33 [TV ARCHIVE]
News Broadcast
Manol Velev, husband to the
legendary sportswoman
Vesela Lecheva was gunned down today…
An unknown assailant shot him at point blank
range outside his office
in the centre of the city…
00:02:45
General Atanasov
We have information that not long ago
the leadership of the Interior Ministry
have warned particular crime bosses
to leave the country by January 2007
This is probably happening to the ones
that haven’t obeyed…
00:03:03 [ANDREY PANTEV INTERVIEW OVER EXT. GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE SOFIA]
Andrey Pantev
Everyone remembers this moment of time…
Just like the Americans remember where they were
when Kennedy was shot, Martin Luther King…
This is one of those explosive events…
00:03:22
Ivailo Iliev
It was the time of opportunity!
To make money faster and easier…
00:03:32
Georg Kraev
We can only paint ourselves, disguise ourselves…
To pretend to be others!
The mania to be Europeans… pure nonsense!
00:03:43
Rumen Leonidov
These books continued what Christo Kalchev began
and portrayed what exactly happened in Bulgaria…
The secret of the transition period…
in its real dimensions…
00:03:58 [TV ARCHIVE, G. STOEV MURDER]
00:04:03 [TV ARCHIVE, BAY MILE MURDER]
00:04:19 [PHOTOGRAPHS OF OTHER UNSOLVED MURDERS IN BULGARIA]
00:04:32 [BLACK SCREEN]
00:04:38 [INTERVIEWS]
Palmi Ranchev
The question is
when the transition period began?
00:04:44
Whether it was 1986 or 1989?
00:04:50
But if we accept the case of 1989,
I participated in that first demonstration,
where actually I met some nasty people…
00:05:07
One of them was really nasty,
what was the name of that freak?
He was a president candidate,
together with George Ganchev,
another such vaudeville figure,
but can’t remember his name, anyway…
00:05:27
I remember this guy
from one of his expeditions…
He was just returning from India
on a mission collecting some insects…
00:05:37 And he was zealously defending the Komsomol,
the Communist youth organization,
who had robbed the expedition of their money…
“Those guys are thieves, you fool!”
But he was still so zealously defending them…
00:05:50
so I saw this guy on the tribune…
next to him was Anjel Wagenstein…
00:06:00 [PHOTOGRAPHS, WAGENSTEIN, K. WOLF, M. WOLF]
Palmi Ranchev
who is a very pleasant person,
an author, screenwriter…
thing is I knew he had
seven films with Konrad Wolf,
the brother of Marcus Wolf…
The notorious spy chief of Eastern Germany…
00:06:17 [BACK TO PALMI RANCHEV]
So I said to myself, holy shit…
How is this transition period beginning,
since these two guys are
applauding from the tribunes…
The truth is I didn’t have much
sympathy for the others as well…
00:06:32 [TV ARCHIVES, STREET DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE 1990s]
00:06:40 VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
After the fall of the Berlin wall,
communist rule collapsed...
The whole of Eastern Europe
was in the midst of change…
Democratic reforms, free market enterprise,
free speech and pluralism
all took to the streets
protesting and abiding
to the new democratic rules of engagement...
all with one common dream
to create a new democratic form of society…
00:07:03
As a former member of the Soviet bloc,
Bulgaria became one of the most lucid examples…
Within a few months time a number of
democratic parties came onto the scene...
to take part in the new elections…
00:07:13
At this destined moment of hope,
little was known that stoic capitalism
would come next…
00:07:19
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
All these social, economic,
political events and developments...
would later on be labeled
as the transition period…
00:07:40 [ATANAS ORACHEV INTERVIEW OVER TV ARCHIVE]
Atanas Orachev
I never accepted the term “transition”
to what is happening in Bulgaria…
00:07:50 [ATANAS ORACHEV INTERVIEW]
my view was and still remains
that the transition in Bulgaria
has all the chances yet to begin…
00:07:59 [PHOTOGRAPHS, STREET DEMONSTRATIONS 1990s]
I really maintain this because the framework of
the people in power was becoming evident…
It was the creation of a joint and common
psychosis of fear…
00:08:15 [BACK TO ATANAS ORACHEV]
this hasn’t ceased or ended until today…
on the contrary I dare to assert that
it is still functioning…
this psychosis of fear is the primary reason
things not working out well in Bulgaria…
00:08:32
Andrey Pantev
The whole of Eastern Europe lived through
this painful and prolonged process…
on the other hand transition periods are
universally, world renown and historical events…
00:08:50 Antiquity, Medieval Times, Modernism,
Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Nazism,
all these “isms” of the 19th and 20th Centuries
never passed over Bulgaria without
an active and even violent participation…
00:09:08 [RECONSTRUCTION, SUITCASES. EXT. DAY. HOTEL ENTRANCE.
MITAKA & A SUITCASE AT A WRESTLING EVENT SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka seemed sluggish, but nature
had granted him extraordinary reflexes
and a killer instinct…
He joined the sports school by accident
but reached the national
wrestling team very quickly…
He wasn’t among the most diligent,
he dodged practices, he smoked,
didn’t abide by the training rules…
But he was tolerated since his natural talents
made him a definite champion…
00:09:30 [RECONSTRUCTION, SUITCASES. INT. DAY. HOTEL LOBBY. MITAKA
& SUITCASE CHECKING IN THE HOTEL.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka wasn’t stupid, he knew personally
all the puppeteers of the post-totalitarian world of crime back from the days
of his sports career…
In those days they called them suitcases…
The suitcases travelled around with the wrestlers, they were sincere
national security agents, responsible
for preventing the guys from communicating
with suspicious western people…
and from the temptation of remaining
in the free world forever…
00:09:54
The wrestlers made up the nickname – suitcase...
Since they were always dragging
themselves as pieces of luggage…
Their only goal on the trip,
was to eat and drink to swindle some fraud
with some something…
Usually jeans and sports shoes,
stuff that was hard to find in Bulgaria…
00:10:09 [RECONSTRUCTION, SUITCASES. INT. HOTEL ROOMS. CORRIDOR. MITAKA & SUITCASE APPROACHING THEIR ROOM]
00:10:13
SUITCASE
Don’t jeopardize the home land, by starting up some jobbery stuff!
00:10:18
MITAKA
And you? What are you doing?
00:10:20
SUITCASE
Mine is a secret mission!
00:10:27 [RECONSTRUCTION, SUITCASES. INT. DAY. HOTEL ROOM. MITAKA & THE SUITCASE IN THEIR ROOM]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The truth was that the suitcases
didn’t want any competition…
The coaches were also playing along…
00:10:33
MITAKA
What are you doing, you imbecile?
Is this your secret mission?
00:10:36
SUITCASE
Your grandma bathed in shampoos eh?
You’ve become as tender as a woos…
You perfume yourselves just like the ladies!
A real wrestler has to smell of sweat,
blood and sperm…
00:10:50
MITAKA
And what should you smell of?
You prick?
00:10:55 [INTERVIEWS]
Palmi Ranchev
We were in New York,
there was no such specific guy…
But with us was a boxing referee
who was probably carrying out these functions…
00:11:06
He was also a dentist
and a member of the State Council…
“You can’t let these guys
go outside the rooms” he was saying…
“You have to lock them up…”!
00:11:18
“Are you crazy,
why lock them up?” I replied…
“This is New York, the centre of freedom…”
Something of a joke…
“Do you know what will happen
if the federation finds out?”
“They won’t find out, I won’t tell them
And if you don’t tell them…”
00:11:36 [EU EUROPE MAP ANIMATION; PHOTOGRAPHS, BULGARIA 1990s]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
With the liberation of the communist regimes
in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary...
The spirit of freedom soon enthralled
the streets of Bulgaria…
00:11:43
In the murky waters the fish that swam best
were the ones who swindled currency,
gold, jewelry, archeological artefacts,
antiques and any other smuggled goods…
00:11:52
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The most privileged were the spooks
and the informers of the
National Security establishment…
They single handedly ruled over the infamous
Magura and Kosmos hubs…
renowned places for swindling currencies,
gold and other valuable things…
practically everything was traded over there,
00:12:08
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The idea of the elders was quite simple…
the dodgers swindled here and abroad,
the wrestlers guarded their piece of mind…
00:12:17 [RECONSTRUCTION, SUITCASE & NATIONAL SECURITY AGENT #1
MEETING. EXT. DAY. SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE A SECRET SERVICE
BUILDING]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
However repulsive and disgusting
the suitcases were to the wrestlers…
With time they got accustomed to them
and many became their loyal mates…
00:12:25
During these pliant and complaisant years
they were referred to the elders
as reliable and trustworthy people
for all sorts of jobs…
00:12:32
The elders were higher level shitheads...
Colonels and Generals from the
Police and the secret services…
As well as political party people…
00:12:42
They were the ones
who managed to transform
the uneducated village
youths into mafia bosses…
00:12:51 [PHOTOGRAPHS, NATIONAL WRESTLING TEAM, ILIYA PAVLOV YOUTH, MULTIGROUP HQ, ILIYA PAVLOV AIRPORT, ILIYA PAVLOV MEETINGS MULTIGROUP]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
And that’s how it all started,
suddenly a few wrestlers of the
Olympic Hopefuls and the national team
woke up to their new destinies…
Shareholders, CEO’s and owners
of large companies and corporations…
00:13:03
The first ray of light struck
Iliya Pavlov aka Iliya the Tooth,
as known in the sports world…
with a Maltese passport in one hand…
he headed the newly established
enterprise - Multigroup...
00:13:15 [PHOTOGRAPHS CONT.]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
Besieging almost every possible
business venture in the country…
from electricity, steel, coal, oil and gas
to telecommunications, sports,
art and literature…
It was the time of freedom and change,
the time of unlimited possibilities…
00:13:30 [PHOTOGRAPHS, CELEBRATIONS ONE YEAR SIC, BROTHERS GEORGI & VASIL ILIEVI, GRISHA GANCHEV, PHILIP NAYDENOV FATIQ, SPOOKS GUARDING DAMON HILL, GEORGI ILIEV & ILIYA PAVLOV, PETAR MLADENOV – FIRST BULGARIAN PRESIDENT]
With the blink of an eye a batch
of new security companies
flooded not only the streets, but every
other aspect of Bulgarian business…
Leaders of such companies were brothers
Vasil and Georgi Ilievi, Grish Ganchev,
Philip Nayenov - Fatiq
00:13:49
Ivo Karamanski was known as the
Godfather in eastern Europe
He was the ring leader of the petty car
thieves in Hungary and Czechoslovakia
00:13:57
All these former wrestlers of the Olympic
Hopefuls were reinforced by brigades of
former berets, cops, spooks and all
kinds of secret service agents…
some even released criminals
under the amnesty of the first
Bulgarian president
00:14:13 [PHOTOGRAPHS, ILIYA PAVLOV & HIS DRIVER, GEORGI ILIEV &
HRISTO STOICHKOV, GEORGI ILIEV WEDDING, TV MAFIA PHOTOS]
To some these structures and groups
of companies were the patriotic
offspring guarding Bulgaria’s
assets from foreign investors
and the Russian mob…
To others, however, they were
just the ordinary gangs and racketeers,
00:14:24 [PHOTOGRAPHS CONT.]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
Since they also ran the smuggling channels,
the stolen cars, the drugs and the
illegal weapon sales…
The so called mafia…
00:14:40 [IVAILO ILIEV INTERVIEW OVER MAFIA PHOTOS]
00:14:42 [GENERAL VIEW SEQUENCE TOWN OF KOPRIVSHTICA]
Ivailo Iliev
That was the time of the power structures
and the way to make some money…
was to join these groups,
the so called brigades…
We made a company – SECURITY GROUP…
concluding security contracts...
and later on insurance contracts
when VIS and SIC were established…
The truth is that business owners
and other shop owners had really
nothing to be guarded against…
00:15:13 [INTERVIEWS]
Ivailo Iliev
Just from the groups and brigades themselves,
so nothing happens to them…
For example to break down and demolish
the whole enterprise, establishment…
So they accepted, it was by force…
00:15:50
Not that they wanted to,
it wasn’t by their own request or desire…
when 5 cars suddenly park beside
your enterprise and 20 guys jump out…
and ask you if you need some insurance,
or something might happen to your enterprise…
00:16:19 [SWEEP. BRUSH]
00:16:20 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raikova
Are you part of the mug circle,
lets start from there…?
00:16:25 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Georgi Stoev
I’m not part of the mugs,
but I’ve been part of that system…
I participated in the security companies,
the insurance companies, the gambling business…
If we say that the mugs were doing
all these things,
then I’m part of the mugs…
00:16:39 [SWEEP. BRUSH]
00:16:40 [RECONSTRUCTION, MASTER BUDA. EXT. SERBIA. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka was fed up of working
with his former sports buddies...
They always conformed to what
the elderly from Sofia were directing…
They never dared to take on some
additional jobs without
accounting for the money…
or God forbid to start
some business with the Serbs…
00:16:55 [INT. SERBIAN RESTAURANT]
This was forbidden by the elderly
since the big money was there…
So in Serbia Mitaka and Poly got together,
and their first job came from master Buda...
A notorious elder from the Serbian underground…
00:17:06
POLY
Listen now master Buda…
tell us what job you’ve got for us…
we’re not on a date…
00:17:14
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka was furious...
He lost months in gaining
master Buda’s trust...
He participated in two robberies
with his people where he received almost nothing…
00:17:23
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Nights on end he drank their disgusting brandy
and ate their tasteless burgers,
just to receive some crucial job,
and now this Poly was ruining everything…
00:17:31
MASTER BUDA
But you’re right,
work before everything else, right?
We have a small problem,
One of our people is in our way…
00:17:40
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
From hereinafter the bargaining began
just like through the edge of a razor…
The Serbian proposed 15,000
Poly declined and asked for 30,000
and offered to master Buda
to do the job himself,
if it wasn’t to his liking…
00:17:52
POLY
Master let’s not deceive ourselves,
you want to remove one of your own…
00:17:58
MASTER BUDA
That’s right…
00:18:00
POLY
Then you’ll take his place…
00:18:03
MASTER BUDA
OK, buddy, if I give you 30,000
will you stop with the questions…?
00:18:06
POLY
Of course for 30,000 I’ll even
forget that I ever met you…
00:18:10
MASTER BUDA
You have them then…
00:18:18 [RECONSTRUCTION SERBIAN MURDERED. EXT. SERBIA. NIGHT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
It was near 02:30 after midnight…
Mitaka had shrugged
behind a children’s playground
near a long block of flats,
where the shiny BMW came to park…
00:18:48 [PHOTOGRAPHS, IVO KARAMANSKI]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Somewhere around this time
Karo returned to Bulgaria…
Now he trudged on heavily, spoke slowly
and insisted to be called Mr. Karamanski…
But his former workers had already
created their own structures…
00:19:01 [PHOTOGRAPHS, VASIL ILIEV & THE PEAR AT A WRESTLING AWARD CEREMONY, VIS OFFICES IN SOFIA, ANDREY LUKANOV IN PARLIAMENT, GEN. LUBEN GOTZEV IN THE 1990s]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
All wrestlers including MARGINA, DIMA
and the WALLACH were behind Vasil Iliev and VIS…
And all this was created by Andrey Karlovich Lukanov and General Luben Gotzev...
A former Interior Minister
and a Minister of Foreign Affairs…
00:19:16 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SLAVI THE KARATE MEN, SLAVI & PROFESSOR TSVETANOV, PROFESSOR TSVETANOV AT A COCKTAIL WITH PRESIDENT JELU JELEV, HRISTO
STOICHKOV AND OTHERS]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Karamanski swept across to Slavi
the Karate manand they made a coalition…
Behind Slavi stood a tiny man
with glasses and a communist suit
with an appearance of an Italian mob
figure of the 1980s…
An associate Professor at Law – Tzvetanov,
a sports figure with ambitions
to control the lottery and the crime world,
he seemed a jerk but was a classy villain…
00:19:35 [PHOTOGRAPHS, VESSELS ARRESTED DURING THE YUGO EMBARGO ON THE DANUBE, THE PEAR AT A WRESTLING MATCH, RECONSTRUCTING A SNIPER SHOT OF THE PEARS DEATH, THE PEAR’S MERCEDES CAR SMASHED AT HIS DEATH]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Due to the big money in the Yugo-embargo however
the war was soon right on track…
The first to go down was the Pear,
the former wrestler of the national team
controlling part of the smuggling channels
but due to his independence
a friendly bullet caught up
with him while driving over 100 km per hour…
00:19:53 [INTERVIEWS]
Andrey Pantev
The state was in such coherence
with the ideology,
the apparatus structure…
that it was very hard
to discern one from the other…
00:20:06
That’s why many poets and writers were
outraged that nobody will be paying them
to praise and glorify the homeland, up above,
from a helicopter paid by the state…
00:20:26
No, you will praise and glorify the homeland
and receive your fees only if your poems,
novels and writings are being read,
meaning being purchased…
00:20:38
Georg Kraev
But how, which are
those cultural mechanisms?
Culture means to tame,
how do you tame your past?
00:20:49
How do you transform it into an image?
Now and here!
How do you make the construct and why?
What are the goals of the construct?
Pension?
00:21:02 [RECONSTRUCTION, G. STOEV & THE BRIGADES.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
After an injury during the wrestling years
I stopped my training…
The coach didn’t support me and I too
turned out with the VIS brigades…
00:21:10
After a few operations however
we moved across to the boxers
Thinking we would make more money…
Life with the boxers was quite fun
but also hopelessly penniless…
00:21:22 [RECONSTRUCTION, G.STOEV JOINS POLY’S BRIGADES; POLY’S OFFICE. INT. DAY.]
POLY
Listen well guys…
I am running an insurance company
which isn’t doing very well…
I want you to hunt down all the car thieves
and take control over them…
00:21:35
GEORGI STOEV
What happens if they resist?
00:21:37
POLY
You beat them until they
steal all middle class cars…
They’ll store all the cars in the garages
and you’ll make inventory lists…
They won’t be able to sell any car
without my permission…
00:21:49
BRIGADIER #1
What will Vasil say if he learns
we’re working for you?
00:21:51
POLY
Don’t worry about Vasil,
that’s my problem!
00:21:53
BRIGADIER #2
What about Madjoe...?
00:21:55
POLY
Fuck Madjoe!
00:21:57
BRIGADIER #3
What about Karamanski?
00:21:59
POLY
Karamanski…?
You’re all working for Poly now…
Tell this to anyone who is holding you
accountable for something!
Then I’ll be holding him accountable!
I just want you to do
the jobs perfectly and that’s it…
00:22:14 [RECONSTRUCTION GLOSSY CARS, EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Eventually we ended up with Poly…
With Vasil they had established
a second VIS company,
and Poly was the executive director
of the insurance enterprise…
But to Poly nothing seemed sufficient…
He was pleased with the development
of the insurance company…
but the glossy vehicles of the fat cats
attracted him vigorously…
00:22:29
So he ordered us to capture their
BMWs and their Mercedes cars…
This was much harder but we collected
their vehicles during broad daylight…
00:22:40 [RECONSTRUCTION, STORING THE CARS; BRIGADES GARAGE
WAREHOUSES. EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The drivers stored the cars in the warehouses
and very soon on every car a shiny sticker
of the insurance company glittered brightly…
00:22:50 [INTERVIEWS]
Ivailo Iliev
There were also other services,
compelling debtors to pay up…
someone owes money to somebody
and the person can’t receive his money back…
so he hires us to handle this,
giving us a percentage of the amount…
00:23:19 [INTERVIEWS CONT.]
Haralan Alexandrov
Thing is that our society in the face
of these elected government people
chose this road, this way…
turned out that self organization
is very difficult...
this is the big problem
of the Bulgarian transition…
00:23:33
self organization of the mob
is better and easier organized…
than that of civil society…
if we accept the conspiracy theory
that the mob was purposefully created
to terrorize the people…
00:23:47
Atanas Orachev
In other words the social-democratic idea
was not accepted because
the people preferred to adhere to the Marxist
model of the initial accumulation of capital…
00:23:58
everyone was adjusting and preparing to loot…
So the impossible became possible
and every Bulgarian had to steal something…
unfortunately this is what happened…
00:24:13 [PHOTOGRAPHS, CHRISTO KALCHEV’S BOOKS; WOLF TRAP, HUNTING THE GREEN PRINCE, NERON THE WOLF, THE BLOODY SILK ROUTE]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
During the years of the transition
and mostly during the 1990s…
one of Bulgaria’s
famously established writers
began publishing novels on developments
in the organized crime world…
All his characters
resembled real life figures…
with close names, characteristics,
loose allegories and riddles…
00:24:31 [PHOTOGRAPHS CONT.]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
Soon many of the characters
in the novels were shot dead...
assassinated and buried…
Еven sooner the real life figures
followed their characters’ fate…
His writings were deemed prophetic,
his books took over the country and hit record sales…
00:24:46
His name was Christo Kalchev…
00:24:53 [GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE. EXT. DAY]
00:25:07 [BULGARIAN COAT OF ARMS AS A BACKGROUND TO A CALENDAR MARKING GEORGI STOEV’S INTERVIEWS]
JUNE 30, 2007
00:25:18 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raikova
I’ll start chronologically with Karamanski
one of the key businessmen of the time…
Christo Kalchev described his death here
in this studio…
They had gang raped
the man that eventually killed him…
00:25:36 [TV ARCHIVE, KARAMANSKI IN COURT, PHOTOS KARAMANSKI IN COURT, KARAMANSKI’S DEATH]
Georgi Stoev
Actually I told him that story…
00:28:37
Veneta Raikova
But is it true…
00:28:38
Georgi Stoev
As far as I know its true…
You know this is exactly
what we’re talking about…
the distortion and the breaking point,
the influence of cocaine…
you start feeling grandeur,
security people attending to your
needs all the time…
00:26:06 [BACK TO TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
You get this feeling of invincibility
and you start deluding yourself…
This is what happened to the deceased
Ivo Karamanski who for many years
had a contract on his head by all groups
VIS, SIC and all the Police ones…
00:26:20
He survived, he was clever,
smarter than all the others…
yet in the end he was killed
in such an absurd manner…
00:26:28
I’ve heard that the contract on his head
reached 100,000 euro…
The millions in the papers was rubbish…
00:26:42 [GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE. EXT. NIGHT.]
00:26:57
Veneta Raikova
For him to watch
other men having sex?
00:26:58
Georgi Stoev
There are such things in my books,
not only about Karamanski...
About many other people…
00:27:08 [BACK TO TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
This was an initiation,
and I’ll tell you who initiated this…
Poly was the one who introduced this,
to humiliate people this way…
00:27:18
because a beating you can forget
but this never...
actually many people
were using this method…
00:27:25 [RECONSTRUCTION, CENTRAL STATION. EXT. DAY. TRAINS.]
00:27:31 [RECONSTRUCTION, CENTRAL STATION. INT. DAY. ESCALATORS]
VOICEOVER, GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka returned
from Hungary by train…
previously they were in Germany with Poly
where they executed 5 contract killings…
for the last time he understood that
this is not the way to do business…
00:27:39 [RECONSTRUCTION CONT.]
He arrived at the station hungry as a mongrel
and immediately started looking for work…
National security agents found it for him…
00:27:48
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
Iliya the tooth is shining
around Bulgaria these days…
00:27:51
MITAKA
Do you know how many times
I’ve rolled over this jerk on the ring…?
00:27:54
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
Yes, but now he is
smuggling cigarettes…
00:27:58
MITAKA
So what do I have to do?
00:28:00
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
You have to rob his warehouse,
we’ll show you where it is...
00:28:04
MITAKA
Why do you want me to rob him,
you gave him this business?
00:28:08
NATIONAL SECURITY #2
You want to work or not!
Take this gun and gather your friends…
00:28:14
MITAKA
I don’t have friends…
Find me a machine gun!
00:28:18 [RECONSTRUCTION, GOTZEV ORDERS; EXT. PARK. DAY. GOTZEV AND NATIONAL SECURTY #1]
GENERAL GOTZEV
Vasil took on a job
which hasn’t been carried out…
00:28:24
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
A lot of heat these days, chief…
00:28:26 [RECONSTRUCTION CONT.]
GENERAL GOTZEV
I don’t care,
tomorrow I’ll be reading the newspapers…
00:28:31
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
I get it…
00:28:33 [RECONSTRUCTION, SEVASTOPOL DRIVE-BY; EXT. SOFIA ROAD TUNNEL. NIGHT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
General Gotzev was following
events quite closely…
He was losing political influence
every single day…
besides everything the streets
were also slipping away…
00:28:41
The professor’s strategy
turned out to be better than his…
and as an elder warrior,
the General had to admit just to himself
00:28:48 [RECONSTRUCTION, SEVASTOPOL. EXT. STREETS. NIGHT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
that he had lost this battle,
but not the war…
00:28:51 [RECONSTRUCTION, SEVASTOPOL. INT. MADJOE TARGET PRACTICE. NIGHT]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Vasil knew how to conduct the operation
without risking his brother’s life…
Madjoe was a sloppy driver and his
was the honour of shooting…
The instructions were to fire one round
at Karamanski’s casino…
just to galvanize the General’s eyes…
of course Karamanski was not there,
but his bodyguards were right outside…
00:29:09 [RECONSTRUCTION, SEVASTOPOL, SHOOTING. EXT. NIGHT]
00:29:18 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SEVASTOPOL SHOOTING, POLICE SQUADS, NEWS CLIPPINGS OF THE INCIDENT]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
A huge scandal broke out the same night...
Every electronic media wrote about the shooting,
the newspapers followed the next morning…
Madjoe was wounded in the hand...
and the General placed him
in the Military Hospital…
The military however couldn’t cope
with the media and had to release him…
then Gotzev pledged his name and placed
Madjoe in the Government Hospital…
00:29:37 VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The Press had no access over there,
the case was soon concealed and forgotten...
Few months later
Muto’s dead corpse was found...
one of the casino’s bodyguards,
who probably had wounded Madjoe…
00:29:52 [PHOTOGRAPH, PROFESSOR TSVETANOV’S DEATH]
One morning few months later the dead corpse
of Professor Tsvetanov appeared…
00:30:00 [FADE OUT]
00:30:03 [GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE. STREETS. EXT. NIGHT.]
[INTERVIEWS]
Dobrin Dodev
I introduced him to Christo Kalchev
it was his wish, his initiation…
He knew that I’ve known Christo
for years since we were neighbours…
00:30:25 [CUT TO DODEV INTERVIEW]
he thought
they could help each other out…
This was some time when he had
already broken away
from the organized crime circles…
So I made the meeting...
they met...
00:30:59
Dobrin Dodev
and their partnership
continued for quite some time…
Joro was something like a consultant…
Christo Kalchev used to
insert the stories in his books…
00:31:18 [INTERVIEWS CONT.]
Rumen Leonidov
I remember he met me with suspicion
as people of the pen, journalists, the press…
Later on I understood
that this mistrust comes from the fact
that the versions released by the police,
for everything happening in Bulgaria...
always use the venues of the naive,
the corrupt or the cynical journalists
00:31:51
He used to say that what the journalists,
the press are saying is not true…
even less is true
of what the police are saying…
they release only what is convenient
and handy to the politicians...
to the people behind the scenes…
The truth is quite different…
00:32:13 [PHOTOGRAPHS, 9mm BOOK COVER]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
And so in 2006 a new book
on organized crime came out…
it went under the title of 9mm
and described unusual insight
on developments and everyday life of many gangs,
gang lords and all these structures and groups…
00:32:27 [PHOTOGRAPHS, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENTS WORKING IN THE MEDIA, KEVORK KEVORKYAN, TOSHO TOSHEV, TODOR BATKOV, IVO INDJEV]
00:32:28 [SCREEN TXT; AGENT DIMITAR, Kevork Kevorkyan]
00:32:30 [SCREEN TXT; AGENT PINUS, Tosho Toshev]
and since most of Bulgaria’s journalists
and news editors were deemed former
national security agents…
00:32:33 [SCREEN TXT; AGENT, Todor Batkov]
00:32:36 [SCREEN TXT; AGENT IVAILO, Ivo Indjev]
It’s author became one of the few
emerging criminal journalists
of the daily newspaper 24 Hours
00:32:40 [PHOTOGRAPHS, GEORGI STOEV WITH BULGARIA’S ATTORNEY GENERAL]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
The first page however
included a thank you note to Georgi Stoev…
00:32:50 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
He started writing everything he knew...
it started to get published
and it soon became a phenomenon…
00:32:57 [PRINT SEQUENCE, PUBLISHING THE FIRST GEORGI STOEV’S BOOKS]
Rumen Leonidov
for the first time someone from these circles
had the courage to come out and speak…
00:33:41
SIC
(Security Insurance Company)
00:33:51 [TV ARCHIVE; WRESTLERS]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The difference between the wrestlers
and the boxers is quite significant…
wrestling is an insidious sport
and requires some cunning…
if you meet an opponent who is superior
you just lie down on the soft mat…
00:34:02
The boxers are gutsier men…
once you enter the ring you either
throw punches or get knocked out…
coaches rarely surrender…
00:34:11
These values trickled down
to the supremacy over the streets…
The wrestlers abided to the wrestling tactics
the boxers to the boxing…
00:34:18 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
The only difference was Gotzev’s support
he was the referee of the game
and that’s why the wrestlers won…
00:34:35 [RECONSTRUCTION, BROTHER BOBBY AT HUNT PARK. EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
General Gotzev was sitting by a small table
in the gardens of Hunt Park…
he used to make his meetings there,
so they were close to his home…
now he was waiting for Boyan Radev...
00:34:46 [PHOTOGRAPHS, BOYAN RADEV’S WRESTLING YEARS]
This was an extraordinary man,
A wrestler of the highest might, a legend…
National Security people had
recruited him since 25 years…
Gotzev worked with him for 15…
he appointed him to the jewelry department,
but later on lost his reins…
00:35:00 [RECONSTRUCTION, BROTHER BOBBY WITH THE PAINTERS. EXT. NIGHT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Most of the talented Bulgarian
painters and sculptures were dissidents…
there was nothing wrong with that,
but brother Bobby was engaged
to suppress the intelligent insights,
no outbursts were allowed...
00:35:11
He joined them easily, they accepted
him as a dignified and honorable man...
as a great sportsman,
who could drink a great deal…
The painters got drunk easily,
slammed the government,
while brother Bobby taped
their conversations…
00:35:24
Soon after 1989 brother Bobby ended up
with a chunk of capital and began his own business…
He began to rob churches…
00:35:35 [PHOTOGRAPHS, BROTHER BOBBY EXHIBITING HIS ICON COLLECTIONS]
He had lists of what was where
but it was hard to find suitable
people to commit the felony…
even the most vicious gangsters
were pious of breaking into a church…
00:35:43 [RECONSTRUCTION, BROTHER BOBBY AND BAY MILE. EXT. DAY. TREASURE HUNTING]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
But Bobby found a solution to the problem,
he knew Milcho, aka the red head…
who used to dig for the treasure-hunters
for a few pennies…
A feeble and timid man,
but endowed by nature with a huge stature
and a weight of over 130 kg…
00:35:55
Brother Bobby caught him once
treasure-hunting on a hill
and recruited him quickly,
he made him a national security agent,
they gave him the code name – Bay Mile…
The youth was only 25 years old,
but already there nothing sacred to him…
they used to break into the churches
during broad day light looting
everything even the donations…
00:36:14 [PHOTOGRAPHS, BAY MILE WITH MADJOE AT A FOOTBALL GAME]
00:36:25 [RECONSTRUCTION, BROTHER BOBBY & GOTZEV AT HUNT PARK. EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Brother Bobby was extremely perceptive
and careful when it came down to money…
he seemed dull and uneducated...
but soon he found out that the treasure-hunters
made a lot of money…
instead of reporting them brother Bobby
offered them protection…
00:36:35
BROTHER BOBBY
- Hello chief…
00:36:37
GENERAL GOTZEV
- Take a seat…
00:36:40
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The treasure-hunters were grateful
since now they could export
the artifacts abroad,
previously this was impossible,
Gotzev was the aide to the scam...
00:36:57 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raikova
You say that the chief of the puppeteers
was Andrey Lukanov…
Georgi Stoev
He was the organizer of the puppeteers,
one level above them…
But if you ask me they decided
that he is inconvenient and removed him…
00:37:08
Veneta Raikova
- Who they?
Georgi Stoev
The puppeteers…
Veneta Raikova
Really, why inconvenient?
00:37:14
Georgi Stoev
Because he was dragging towards Russia,
he had the connections in Russia…
while during the cold war the puppeteers
had lived for many years in the U.S.
they had created these other connections
and engaged in changing the priorities of the country…
00:37:32
taking a direction towards the U.S.
which they achieved after Lukanov’s death…
if he was alive this direction
would have probably failed…
00:37:39 [PHOTOGRAPHS, ANDREY LUKANOV IN PARLIAMENT]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
Andrey Karlov Lukanov
was a former prime minister…
The first prime minister
after the fall of communism…
00:37:46 [PHOTOGRAPHS, ANDREY LUKANOV, REM VYAHIREV & ILIYA PAVLOV]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
But the student
of the Moscow State Institute...
Creator of the first private
Bulgarian – Russian Gas corporations
found his death outside his home
during October 1996…
00:37:54 [PHOTOGRAPHS, ANDREY LUKANOV CORPSE AFTER AUTOPSY, ACCUSED CONSPIRATORS ON TRIAL]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
The murder of one of the most
zealous Russian lobbyists...
was pinned to a Bulgarian entrepreneur
and his Russian – Ukranian counterparts…
10 years later, they were found innocent and set free…
00:38:12 [SCREEN TXT; COURT RULES, NOT GUILTY]
Rumen Leonidov
During the early days of democracy,
the West left us in the hands of the bandits…
00:38:16 [CUT TO RUMEN LEONIDOV INTERVIEW]
The big players…
00:38:21 [INTERVIEWS]
Atanas Orachev
The heaviest brutality in all spheres
of Bulgarian economics, science and culture
was carried out expressly by
the former secret service people…
00:38:34 [PHOTOGRAPHS, GENERAL LUBEN GOTZEV DURING 1980s]
Precisely the ones who allegedly
had to guard Bulgaria…
GENERAL GOTZEV
I need a rat,
one with all the extras…
00:38:43 [RECONSTRUCTION, RAT, SOFIA PARK. EXT. DAY.]
GENERAL GOTZEV
To be ready to execute
everything we tell him…
00:38:48
NATIONAL SECURITY #1
I don’t have a rat,
but there is one mouse…
He’s not dumb,
but he’s full of fear, just like a rabbit…
00:38:57
GENERAL GOTZEV
Bring him over…
00:39:05 [SWEEP, BRUSH]
00:39:07 [RECONSTRUCTION, MOUSE, HUNT PARK. EXT. DAY.]
00:39:02 VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The meeting took place at Hunt Park
Gotzev immediately liked the new guy…
His experience hinted
the youth could bring lots of bread...
Despite his timid appearance…
00:39:12
GENERAL GOTZEV
I need you for something…
I know you’re a mouse,
although we were looking for a rat…
00:39:20
MADJOE
Will there be money?
00:39:22
GENERAL GOTZEV
More than
your mouse bag can hold…
00:39:26
MADJOE
Everyone can be
a mouse in some situation, chief…
00:39:29
GENERAL GOTZEV
Lose this alias the Wallach,
how do they call you at home…
00:39:33
MADJOE
Madjoe…
00:39:36
GENERAL GOTZEV
From today you’re Madjoe…
And your friends the box and Dimcho,
become Marjina and Dima the Russian…
00:39:46
MADJOE
What’s expected of me?
00:39:49
GENERAL GOTZEV
Bring the sports newspaper every morning,
I like to read it while its hot…
00:39:57 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SIC EARLY YEARS, MADJOE, STOIL SLAVOV, GEN. GOTZEV & VENTZI STEFANOV, CELEBRATIONS ONE YEAR SIC]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
They registered a phony PR agency
behind Lukanov’s back…
only after a few months it grew
into a powerful petroleum company…
They took a former gas pump man Ventzi Stefanov
and a son of a former national security driver,
Stoil Slavov…
00:40:11
Money started flowing like water,
They were importing petrol and gas,
supplying government enterprises…
Without paying any taxes or levies,
defrauding the state revenues,
00:40:21
But in no time
they became millionaires…
Activities grew by the day
covering almost every business venue…
00:40:29 [PHOTOGRAPHS, MARJINA AT SIC INAUGURATION, DIMA AT A POLICE STATION, POLY & MARJINA AT A ORPHANAGE, MITAKA PASSPORT PHOTO, RUMEN THE WOLF & HIS BUSINESS, SLAVIA FOOTBALL CLUB, RUMEN PASA AND MARJINA SWAYING THE CUP]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Madjoe didn’t forget his loyal buddies,
Marjina and Dima the Russian...
They also became shareholders in the organization, covering
the insurance and the streets…
Poly became an executive director…
00:40:40
For Mitaka, however, they devised a fake murder,
and made him hide in Hungary…
Abiding to the old mafia traditions
they acquired the companies
that clean the city...
together with Rumen the wolf,
another employee of the National Security squad…
00:40:55
Soon they reached
the Slavia sports club,
only a year later
their football club became champions...
and they swayed the cup
across the country…
00:41:09 [RECONSTRUCTION, MADJOE’S ENTOURAGE. EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Madjoe consulted Mario Puzo’s Godfather...
for everything he did
He always kept the book
in the drawer of his desk…
He began to surround himself
with loyal people...
000:41:18
He traced all his wrestling friends
from all over the country…
PE teachers, coaches, neighbors,
appointed them all in the organization...
He gave them huge salaries
which really pissed off
the other shareholders...
but this way he was secure…
00:41:34
His office was in the centre of Sofia
and represented an inaccessible
citadel even for the other shareholders…
There was a heavy check point and visits
had to be announced days in advance…
00:41:45
About 10 security guards
used to scan the visitors even the women...
They scrolled through their handbags,
looked around their skirts…
Madjoe courtly apologized,
but never withdrew from the rules…
00:41:56 [PALMI RANCHEV INTERVIEW OVER MADJOE RECONSTRUCTION]
Palmi Ranchev
Unsuccessful sports people?
No, these are successful bandits…
The former Komsomol activists...
the former hook cops, the former sneaks
for the secret services all got together
and created these groups and
groups of companies, that’s the truth…
00:42:11 [TRAINING DAY WITH PALMI RANCHEV COACHING. INT. NIGHT.]
[INTERVIEWS]
Palmi Ranchev
To engage with these groups
meant to develop the worst in oneself...
everyone embodies positive and negative
characteristics in his self...
But over there we see that one develops
the most disgusting qualities…
00:42:25 [INTERVIEWS CONT.]
Palmi Ranchev
these are thousands who in the course of years
have developed the worst qualities…
And now we wonder why we live like this…?
We’ll live, since these are the people
that set the pitch to our lives…
people that have developed the
worst human qualities for these 20 years…
00:42:42
sycophants, villains,
ready to stab you in the back
as long as there are some benefits,
such type of people…
00:42:50 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
Joro used to say that they’re all full of shit…
I asked him what he meant?
Only through legend, he used to say,
these circles have honor and integrity…
Such betrayals, such deplorable deeds…
00:43:03
one will come and eat and drink in your house,
knowing you’ll be shot on the second corner…
he himself has arranged everything,
such treachery…
00:43:11 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SIC AUTOMOBILE STICKERS, VIS STICKERS ON BUSINESSES]
Ivailo Iliev
Yes, there were many brigades,
people were insuring their businesses,
in order to continue their business…
I remember there was no enterprise
without an insurance sticker of SIC or VIS…
00:43:29 [IVAILO ILIEV INTERVIEW]
It was pure extortion...
the criteria was just to attain
money from someone...
00:43:42
Haralan Alexandrov
A large part of the entrepreneurial energy
developed deviously, criminally…
these are the sinister,
quasi business formations,
where it’s hard to discern
a business from the mafia,
the ones we remember from the 1990’s…
00:44:01 [INTERVIEWS]
Haralan Alexandrov
All kinds of mugs, who led by the typical
village greed and ignorance...
decide that a certain territory
belongs to them and seize it...
00:44:16 [TV ARCHIVE, POLICE OPERATION OVER A VIS OFFICE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
But all this
came at a price…
00:44:22
Police
Everybody on the ground!
00:44:38
Police
On the ground
00:45:20 [PHOTOGRAPHS, VIS OFFICES, VASIL ILIEV MURDER]
00:45:28 [VENETA RAYKOVA, GEORGI STOEV OVER PHOTOGRAPH]
Veneta Raykova
How did he die?
Georgi Stoev
They shot him…
Veneta Raykova
But how, who, why?
00:45:33 [TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
He was an obstacle to
so many people that…
Veneta Raykova
With what?
00:45:22 [TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
He was very rebellious, very disobedient,
he managed to evade the
control of his creators…
Veneta Raykova
The suitcases?
00:45:49 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Georgi Stoev
Yes and he wasn’t a criminal by heart,
he couldn’t become a criminal...
00:45:53 [PHOTOGRAPHS, VASIL ILIEV & THE PEAR WRESTLING YEARS, JORO ILIEV WEDDING, VASIL ILIEV IN HIS OFFICE]
Georgi Stoev
he was one of the few mafia bosses,
who couldn’t cross the line...
He couldn’t order contract killings,
or some other heavy crimes...
Veneta Raykova
He never ordered contract killings?
Georgi Stoev
As far as I know, never,
if someone knows better let them speak…
00:46:10 [BACK TO TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
his time was over quite quickly,
the time came for merciless people…
00:46:15
Veneta Raykova (CONT.)
Who are these merciless people?
Georgi Stoev
The competitors, the SIC...
00:46:19 [RECONSTRUCTION, GOTZEV’S CAR. EXT.INT. DAY.]
MADJOE
Vasil is constantly
ruining our authority, chief…
He’s making monkeys out of us,
he’s mocking our men…
He’s looting and battering
everything along his way...
00:46:30
GENERAL GOTZEV
I think, you want to construct a building...?
Don’t forget that according
to the old Bulgarian tradition,
firstly, you must place the flag on top…
00:46:44 [RECONSTRUCTION CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Madjoe was a clever man...
He understood that the General
meant a grave and a cross…
00:46:49 [TV ARCHIVE VASIL’s FUNERAL]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The next day the country awoke,
numbly in pain...
The trams ran silently
through the streets of Sofia...
People couldn’t look into
each others eyes…
00:46:59
The pigeons beside the National Theatre
were dozing along aimlessly…
The homeless dogs lost their aggression,
ignoring their usual victims…
It started to rain, and it got cold...
Vasil was a legend, but now dead...
00:47:15 [PHOTOGRAPHS, VASIL ILIEV AND JORO ILIEV, JORO ILIEV IN HIS NEW OFFICE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
His brother Joro quickly adapted,
and ousted most of his criminal friends...
He began to build the new empire,
VAI Holding…
00:47:25 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
These feelings of injustice won’t go away,
they bubble and boil in all of us separately...
Together as a society we never make it
since we have no collective conscience...
but this poisons the social atmosphere,
the psychological atmosphere in the country...
00:47:46
Georg Kraev
We have to know our past...
we have to absorb our past,
so we’ll be able to renounce it…
00:47:58 [PHOTOGRAPHS, POLY PANTEV AT AN ORPHANAGE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Poly was a product of a
Some wealthy manufacturers...
An intelligent thoroughbred and a midget...
we knew that his father was some physicist
who had registered some
patents and inventions...
00:48:10 [RECONSTRUCTION, POLY RIDING IN HIS MERC]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
He himself, had graduated from
the religious clergy school,
and had to become a priest...
But subsequently he had
become a criminal...
00:48:16
In his closest circle
he called himself a cyclophrenic...
what he had in mind
was his restless character...
and the moments he ignored all danger
and every other circumstance...
He just killed, mercilessly
he tackled all his opponents...
00:48:29
But now he knew that Madjoe
was scrutinizing his every move...
and was aware of all his mischief
so he wouldn’t let him wave his
flag as he once used to...
On top of all right besides Madjoe were
the Marjina, Dima the Russian
and Rumen Pasha...
00:48:41 [RECONSTRUCTION, POLY & JENYA MEETING]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Tired of roaming the world as an outcast,
Poly was determined to remain with the SIC
and reaffirm his position of an executive director...
To wait for the right moment
to establish his own business...
00:48:53
It was no coincidence
that at the meeting of the shareholders...
he accepted the contract killings...
This was his big chance to shine
within the organization...
00:49:03 [RECONSTRUCTION CONT.]
POLY
You’re taking over
the contract killings, my friend...
00:49:05
JENYA
I don’t feel quite ready yet...
00:49:07
POLY
Now, I’ll tell you how the system works...
You create a group of killers,
I give the orders to you
and you trickle them down...
00:49:12
JENYA
If something goes wrong
everything will come down to me...
POLY
Even if this happens and you’re imprisoned,
I’ll get you out...
00:49:19
JENYA
Can I refuse…?
00:49:20
POLY
No, you cannot...!
00:49:21
JENYA
How come?
00:49:22
POLY
You already know the system,
you shrew...
If you go astray,
I’ll shoot you myself...
You’re such a coward,
you’ll do the jobs perfectly...
You cowards know how to protect yourselves,
So this is what happens...
00:49:33 [POLY MEETING RECONSTRUCTION]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Jenya’s devotion
to Poly was well-known...
he wanted to evade the system but couldn’t,
but even if had the chance,
he would never do it...
When Poly authorized the
creation of hit teams...
Jenya immersed into horror...
00:49:47 [RECONSTRUCTION, JENYA’S GROUP. FITNESS. INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
but as every other peasant
he rapidly conquered his anxieties,
and for a year created a structure,
unknown to everyone...
00:49:53
That’s how it started,
Ganetza was leading the group,
he seemed a totally innocent guy
who plays football in the school
yards every weekend...
but in fact he was a great car thief...
and one who could evade almost every danger...
00:50:05
He ran really fast,
there was nothing he couldn’t overcome,
and his shooting skills were superb...
Underneath him
were Dankina and Besnika from Lukovit...
00:50:14 [RECONSTRUCTION, JENYA’S GROUP. APARTMENT BUILDING. INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Dankina was married since he was 18,
was raising a son and didn’t
really care what crime
he had to commit to make some money...
he was extremely strong physically,
and had no human feelings,
never conformed to any authority...
00:50:26
Besnika was the most ambitious among them...
He wanted to enter the organization
somehow and to make a career...
His shooting was also good,
and he too was keen on whether
to shoot a policeman or any other opponent...
00:50:37
The other two were from the Red Coast,
unemployment existed over there
since the beginning of time...
00:50:46 [RECONSTRUCTION, JENYA GROUP FLAT. INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The Hamster had just completed
his military service and would have
killed anyone for a euro...
These people were destined
to become a myth in the underworld...
They never conformed to the criminal bosses...
They executed routine procedures,
they cut off ears,
they battered the VIS guys...
while Poly and the shareholder from SIC
acquired their businesses...
00:51:10 [TV ARCHIVE OVER RECONSTRUCTION]
Georgi Stoev
To tell you the truth there was money
and business for everyone...
00:51:13 [TV ARCHIVE]
But no one could get down
to terms with the others...
this is for me, this is for you...
how its done in other countries,
in the U.S., the neighborhoods,
territories etc.
00:51:28
and killings on such high levels have ceased,
gangster drive-byes will always happen...
this couldn’t be done here...
that’s why the big
criminal bosses are gone now…
00:51:36
POLY
Papazov is obstructing the sun rise...
00:51:38
JENYA
This time how much?
00:51:39
POLY
This time 5,000,
just as we agreed...
00:51:44 [TV ARCHIVE, VISAGES-SIC FASHION BIZ SHOW]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The organization’s interest towards
the fashion business emerged gradually
but remained permanently...
The reasons were many...
On the one hand there was a lot
of money in this business...
on the other it furnished
beautiful and refined whores...
00:51:58
The beauty competitions
were run by Rosen the Limp...
who due to the lack of money
united with some guy named Papazov...
00:52:04
Later on the two got squabbled...
Papazov acquired the rights
to the three main competitions...
Then he dismissed the Limp
and started working by himself...
The Limp came running to us,
sobbing that he had been robbed...
00:52:19 [RECONSTRUCTION, PAPAZOV MURDER. SOFIA STREETS. EXT. DAY.]
00:52:25
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Jenya’s group
quickly got into the victim’s habits...
The most fearsome of them all
was to gun him down...
00:52:31
Ganetza cut one of the tyres...
and they all encircled the site...
so the fashion boss couldn’t escape...
00:53:16
Madjoe was content...
at his right side he kept
Bay Mile for heavy cases...
on his left, Poly embraced
the lighter ones without any notice...
00:53:27 [INTERVIEWS]
Georg Kraev
To live is an ability...
I’m not sure that we’re teaching
ourselves or the generations to come...
the great ability of living...
00:53:41 [PHOTOGRAPHS; MADJOE’s HOME TOWN WELCOME SIGN, BULINS OFFICE SIGN]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
New year was just round the corner,
as usual Poly organized the whole ceremony...
SIC was already acquired
and transformed into BULINS...
00:53:50 [VASKO THE SKULL PHOTOS]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
We found Poly chatting
with one of our new benefactors...
Vasko the Dice...
For ages he was trotting
through the casinos...
infamous as one the best
spooks for the former communists...
in appreciation later on they handed him
almost all the gambling business
in Bulgaria...
He would rename himself
to Vasko the Skull...
00:54:07 [RECONSTRUCTION, NEW YEAR. MOUNTAIN RESTAURANT. INT.
DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
We were seated just besides their table,
and started throwing some fireworks...
Vasko the Skull almost died of fear,
every time ducking under the table...
He needed just another blast
in order to leave the restaurant...
00:54:28
Right after midnight Poly moved
through our tables with some envelopes...
Nobody ever expected any gifts from him...
That’s why we all gazed in bewilderment…
00:54:37
Most of the guys
had seen enough through the years...
But only a few of us had any money,
the others were literally in poverty...
00:55:08
POLY
With this ring,
you all become part of me...
I received it
when I made a deal with the devil...
00:55:19 [PHOTOGRAPH, GEORGI STOEV WITH ONE OF THE 12 RINGS]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The ring was really beautiful...
pure gold, weaving a snake’s skin
and a diamond instead of an eye...
And as one of its 11 bearers,
00:55:27 [RECONTRUCTION, POLY & GEORGI STOEV MEETING. INT. NIGHT]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
I was soon summoned for the new assignments...
Poly was creating several hit teams
for back up and I was qualified to carry out
some of the new contracts...
These heads were all people
connected with Madjoe’s businesses...
00:55:38 [PHOTOGRAPHS, BAY MILE AND MADJOE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
This confused me...
I didn’t care about their dirty games...
I had no intention of killing anyone,
and the only thing that was tormenting me
was whether Madjoe knew about
the contracts on his loyal dogs...
I had to get in touch
with an old friend from the brigades,
who we all called “Crazy”...
00:55:53 [PHOTOGRAPHS, GEORGI STOEV & CRAZY AT A MONASTERY]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Now he was a right hand
to one of the heads...
Faint with fear, the guy arranged
my first official meeting with Madjoe...
00:56:03 [RECONSTRUCTION, GEORGI STOEV & MADJOE’s FIRST MEETING.
INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Years had gone by since we had met...
Obviously he didn’t remember,
since he was gazing intently...
Definitely he had changed significantly,
he impressed me with his behavior...
00:56:12 [RECONSTRUCTION, GEORGI STOEV & MADJOE’s FIRST MEETING. INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
This was not Madjoe with the brigade manners,
the countenance was different...
Before me was a modest businessman,
During recent years people were saying
that he was the wealthiest man in Bulgaria...
For Bulgaria he was already a Banker,
and the new countenance
was smacked to his face...
00:56:30
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
I reckoned that if I join Madjoe,
I will evade Poly forever...
But from our first meeting the only thing
Madjoe wanted me to do was to shoot Poly...
00:56:39
I thought that by saving the lives
of his loyal dogs I would start up some
business or something...
But during every meeting he would just
throw in some petty cash and things would always move along under a different script...
00:56:57 [PHOTOGRAPHS, POLY ON THE ISLAND OF ARUBA, NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS ABOUT HIS DEATH, POLY ASSOCIATE TO GENERAL ATANASOV, POLY DEATH ON ARUBA]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
POLY was now considering himself invincible…
He had created his visionary
Intermediate organization, which now
was only into contract killings...
Everyone was calling us murder incorporated…
00:57:09
He deluded himself to such an extent
that he dived into the drug business,
stealing over half a ton of cocaine,
from one shipment through the country…
With this operation Poly surpassed
everyone, even himself,
00:57:20
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Madjoe and the SIC shareholders were furious,
He began to travel around the world
exhibiting himself as the sole crime ringleader in Bulgaria...
His last moment came on the island of Aruba,
in a small hotel lobby...
FADE OUT.
00:57:40 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SIMEON SAX COBURGOTA, ILIYA PAVLOV MURDER]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The new hunting season began with
Simeon Saxe Coburg Gotha’s rise to power...
The first to be rubbed out
was Iliya the Tooth...
00:58:08 [TV ARCHIVE; PHILIP NAYDENOV FATIQ MURDER, ISMET TURKMEN]
Reporter
After a shoot out the 40 year old
Philip Naydenov aka Fatiq has been killed...
The shooting happened at noon
on the central streets of Sofia...
00:58:18 [TV ARCHIVE, GENERAL ATANASOV TV INTERVIEW]
General Atanasov
The truth is that his father Ismet Turkmen
is the one who facilitated the links
of the Bulgarian Secret Services
and KINTEX – a weapons manufacturer...
in establishing the smuggling channels
of the communists with the Middle East...
00:58:38 [TV ARCHIVE, REPORTER]
Reporter
Evgeni Stefanov, known as the Jenya,
was gunned down today...
close to the Romanian Embassy
The Police General Secretary
General Boyko Borissov stated
that Jenya was in the narco business…
00:58:50 [PHOTOGRAPHS, JORO PEHLIVANOV]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Despite the Police statements
that Jenya was the heir
to Poly’s organization...
The truth was that this was Pehlivanov...
He inherited all his organized
criminal structures and all his money...
00:58:59 [TV ARCHIVE, JENYA’s MURDER]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
That’s how the new war broke out,
for Poly’s money...
Madjoe was the other candidate,
But Pehlivanov was a great actor, we had
to admit easily he could grab
an Oscar for best actor...
00:59:10 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
I had withdrawn in isolation for some time
and time was definitely on my side...
They shot Jenya and one of his
toughest gunmen - Dankina...
Bay Mile was futile and they hoped
Pehlivanov would end up without any gunmen...
00:59:24
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Now I could have ensured a lead
with any of the fat cats...
But I didn’t see any sense...
I had no intentions
to commit to anyone...
00:59:36 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raykova
For a future murder,
will you make some forecast?
00:59:43
Georgi Stoev
Well, I don’t know probably to predict
my own, because it’s easy...
00:59:45 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Veneta Raykova
We should probably stop the cameras
and go home because its getting dangerous...
We should keep an archive
of this, just in case…
some wicked humor, but thank you very much...
01:00:01 [TV ARCHIVE, BAY MILE’s MURDER]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The contract killings never construed to any logic, and never went by the book...
Always by coincidence at the
most suitable time...
The location was also chosen accidently...
and had nothing to do with
the media headline a showcase Murder...
That’s why the investigators following
the logical leads always fell into a trap...
01:00:20
For a moment, I felt some pity for Bay Mile...
Not that I hadn’t suffered
from him through the years...
But I knew that just like me
he was just struggling to survive...
since all the dirty contracts were
coming from Madjoe...
01:00:32 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
There was no doubt about it,
they were preparing the beginning of my end…
Sooner or later they were
going to send some gunmen for me...
Emigration was out of the question,
I would become some worker...
Although young, at least
here we would die with dignity...
01:00:56 [INTERVIEWS]
Georg Kraev
When the institution
which educates the generations,
inspires truth and realities,
not realms...
Then there is a huge possibility
for us to give birth to a Capote...
01:01:15 [RECONSTRUCTION, GEORGI STOEV RETROSPECTIVE]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
I came back home,
my nerves were swerving out of control...
I started to roam around the house,
feeling my head would explode...
After Poly’s death for years I had been
playing Pehlivanov and Madjoe...
Cruel secrets tied us all together
and I played them constantly...
01:01:32
There had to be some way out,
these guys were relentlessly
contracting killings...
I poured a glass of water
and took two pills...
I hadn’t taken them for over a year,
but now my nerves were trembling...
Pehlivanov was tormented whether
I would succumb to money or threats
and turn him over to Madjoe...
01:01:54
He was gobbling with Poly’s money...
and if I didn’t take good care
I would’ve become the nourishment
of his fish down by the lake
next to his huge estate...
01:02:03 [RECONSTRUCTION, GEORGI STOEV RETROSPECTIVE. CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
I was not flawless, but I was going
to be the dumbest guy around
if I continued to support Madjoe...
As much as I was exploring
the world around me,
I could feel the filth splashing
in my face…
01:02:14
Until recently I thought
we were struggling for dignity and respect,
with baseball bats, battery, fear,
power and might...
But now I was determined
to withdraw from the organization
and this way of life,
to begin anew, neatly...
01:02:30
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
There was no doubt,
whoever of the bosses remained alive
would want me dead with their dirty secrets...
Just before a month they had
murdered Rumen Peshev, the Swiss...
The old guy had submitted
to testify against Madjoe...
And he knew more than I did...
01:02:53 [INTERVIEWS]
Andrey Pantev
But we shouldn’t confuse things,
it’s one thing to envy someone...
another is to be furious of someone,
who has become rich or has entered politics
through gangster ways,
these are different things...
01:03:11
Envy is futile...
But rage towards crime is,
if not sacred then justified...
01:03:24 [TV ARCHIVE; WRESTLING 1970s]
01:03:28 VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
In sports we learnt not to bear the defeats,
the mats never sustained too many lies...
Referees either lifted your hand,
or the that of your opponent...
The rules were loud and clear...
even if there was some manipulation,
it was no secret for anybody...
01:03:42 [TV ARCHVIE CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
In real life everything
turned out completely different...
Everybody cheated as much as they could...
But, nevertheless,
I had no intentions of surrendering...
01:03:51
Neither to stay at the level
they were trying to keep me...
I had my own strategy on reaching the top
and I knew exactly what I wanted…
01:04:18 [PRINT PUBLISHING GEORGI STOEV’S BOOKS]
01:05:26 [PHOTOGRAPH, THE BULGARIAN GODFATHER, GEORGI STOEV’s SECOND BOOK SERIES]
01:05:33 [BULGARIAN COAT OF ARMS AS A BACKGROUND TO A CALENDAR MARKING GEORGI STOEV’S INTERVIEWS]
JANUARY 21, 2008
01:05:46 [TV ARCHIVE, GEORGI STOEV’s SWEARS BEFORE THE BIBLE]
01:05:54 [TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
I had to write these books
revealing all these things...
01:05:57
Veneta Raykova
But why?
01:05:58
Georgi Stoev
Because I tried to cooperate
with the police...
to leave and evade these structures...
I’ve been in the system for 15 years
and for 5 years I couldn’t get out...
With all these contracts that were
coming from Mladen Mihalev – Madjoe...
01:06:10
Venetal Raykova
Contracts for what?
01:06:12 [TV ARCHIVE, MADJOE FOOTAGE]
Georgi Stoev
Contract killings...
To organize a crime group
financed by him for contract killings...
01:06:18
there were also direct proposals,
for certain people with whom
I am close and could kill easily...
Five years I couldn’t get out
of this situation...
So I decided to share this with the police
I went to them, we spoke and the results,
the consequences were disaster...
01:06:36 [PHOTOGRAPHS, INTERIOR MINISTER & CHIEF PROSECUTOR CELEBRATING, HOMICIDE CHIEF, CITY PROSECUTOR.]
Georgi Stoev
There was some meeting between
the Chief Prosecutor – Boris Velchev,
the Interior Minister – Rumen Petkov,
the Homicide Chief – Ivailo Spiridonov,
and the City Prosecutor Kokinov...
And the information
from this meeting was leaked...
01:06:47 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SRETEN YOSICH ARRESTED IN SOFIA, SRETEN YOSICH, PHOTOS OF CONTRACT KILLERS PUBLISHED IN GEORGI STOEV’s BOOKS
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
And since the media and the police
pinned almost all the killings
to Croatian and Serbian groups connected
to Sreten Yosich - the notorious
Serbian crime lord...
In his last books Georgi Stoev published
several photos of the real killers...
They were all Bulgarian...
01:07:03
This is Iliya Pavlov’s real killer,
Serafim Antonov...
This is Radoslav, sent by Madjoe and
Bay Mile to kill Pehlivanov...
These two were police employees and were
recommended for all types of operations...
01:07:21 [INTERVIEW OVER PHOTOS, PHOTOGRAHS OF GEORGI STOEV & SERAFIM ANTONOV]
Dobrin Dodev
The talks with the police were many,
and not just for a few months...
I was with him on 3-4 meetings...
once in the Police headquarters...
and twice somewhere outside -
coffee places etc…
But everything fell apart,
he believed he was betrayed...
01:07:42 [CUT TO DOBRIN DODEV INTERVIEW]
Dobrin Dodev
Later on things developed differently,
there are always problems
between a publisher and an author...
Joro changed the publisher and the
last three books he wrote by himself…
01:07:58 [TV ARCHIVE]
Reporter
The police have used physical force
against a 55 year old photographer
besides the Sofia City courts...
except the Police two other types
of security forces guarded
the witness testimony
of Mladen Mihalev aka Madjoe...
01:08:10
His testimonials were for the murder case
of his partner in the SIC – Bay Mile...
01:08:14 [TV ARCHIVE, MADJOE’s BODYGUARDS, MADJOE IN COURT]
Reporter
This is how the city courts looked today...
there was just one case on the first floor,
the murder of Bay Mile...
every corner was covered with security...
Witness Mladen Mihalev - Madjoe
didn’t arrive at the appointed time...
01:08:28
So the court gave a break after his lawyers’
assurance that he was travelling towards the court...
And so until 12:30...
01:08:43 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Mladen Mihalev - Madjoe
Hello, are you happy now?
01:08:45 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Reporter
Over a question on his late arrival,
Madjoe pleaded with heavy traffic...
and added EUROPE
as his permanent address...
He didn’t remember his phone
conversations with his ex-partners…
since they’re all deceased now…
01:09:06 [PHOTOGRAPHS, POLICE GUARDING MR. MADJOE]
Reporter
Turned out that even
the police are guarding Madjoe...
due to an organized assassination plot ...
policemen, armed with machine guns,
however, battered a 55 year old photographer...
01:09:19 [TV ARCHIVE, POLICE PHOTOS BEATING THE PHOTOGRAPHER]
Photographer
They were about 6,7,8 people,
I made 5-6 shots and I moved away...
- “GIVE US THE CAMERA!”
- “NO!”
So they all caught hold of me
and started dragging me...
With the armoured vests,
the bats, the guns and everything...
01:09:33 [TV ARCHIVE, PHOTOS CONT.]
Photographer
- “ERASE” they said
- “I CAN’T” I replied...
01:09:35 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Photographer
So they started pushing me,
they hit me with a bat on the hand...
thinking I was taking something out
but it was only my glasses...
I am 55 years old,
01:09:45 [TV ARCHIVE, PHOTOS CONT.]
Photographer
So I started shouting...
They hit me again
because I was screaming...
01:09:56 [INTERVIEWS]
Georg Kraev
I regret to say it but whenever I mention
a policeman I think of corruption...
whenever I mention a doctor,
I think of corruption...
whenever I mention a teacher
I think of corruption...
01:10:10 [TV ARCHIVE]
Georgi Stoev
Because people in these circles
twist their consciousness...
01:10:17
Veneta Raykova
From what?
01:10:18
Georgi Stoev
From the power they have,
peoples destinies are at their disposal...
01:10:25
Veneta Raykova
How do they decide,
that they have this power?
01:10:28
Georgi Stoev
Because they have hit teams...
policemen working for them, prosecutors,
members of parliament, judges...
01:10:38 [TV ARCHIVES CONT.]
Veneta Raykova
So the system is as follows,
they have a reliable hit team...
reliable politicians, people from the system,
the Ministry of Interior,
people backing them up...
They send the hit team,
the murder happens and at the same time...
01:10:49
Georgi Stoev
At the same time they need very good
bodyguards and very good security...
They need enough resources
and possibilities for protection...
So they won’t be vulnerable...
Then they become presumptuous,
judgmental, delusional...
01:11:05 [PHOTOGRPAHS, MARJINI BROTHERS ARRESTED IN COURT,
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
With an unusual turn of events
the two Marjini brothers,
the other shareholders from SIC,
were arrested and charged for
plotting the murder of several people...
01:11:14 [PHOTOGRAPH, GENERAL LUBEN GOTZEV]
The first on their list was
General Luben Gotzev...
01:11:21 [TV ARCHIVE, IVAN TODORV THE DOCTOR IN COURT]
The second was Ivan Todorov aka THE DOCTOR…
A shareholder to Pepi the Amigo and BRENDO
01:11:29 Journalists
Are you referring to General Vassilev?
01:11:31 [VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL CONT.]
With numerous companies and legal entities
Ivan Todorov, The Doctor was a foreman
in running large parts
of the smuggling channels in the country…
He was the one who began to reveal
the covert police links
to these illegal channels…
01:11:45 [PHOTOGRAPHS, POLICE GENERALS & GENERAL VASSILEV, GENERAL BOYKO BORISOFF]
VOICEOVER CHRONOLOGICAL
The first to get exposed was General Vassilev…
01:11:55 [PHOTOGRAPHS, IVAN TODOROV THE DOCTOR & PEPI THE AMIGO IN COURT, PEPI THE AMIGO]
I knew Pepi back from the sports days,
I considered him half a man
and never gave him too much attention...
He was also known as the AMIGO
for his habit of calling everyone Amigo...
01:12:06 [TV ARCHIVE, UNSUCCESSFUL ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF IVAN TODOROV THE DOCTOR]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
A former swimmer from the national team
and Madjoe’s neighbour from Silistra…
He was irreplaceable
in swindling all sorts of money...
After his return from Hungary
he conquered the Magura hub...
During communist times
he managed to leap over the suitcases,
and became a servant to the elders...
01:12:20
He was the first to establish
a currency exchange bureau
at the CSKA military sports club…
Later on Pepi the Amigo
expanded his activities...
He created a small financial brokerage
with the support of two suitcases,
Gotzev’s people...
01:12:34
The General established a financial structure
beyond the reach of Andrey Lukanov...
Of course, they named the enterprise AMIGOS...
and together with Ivan Todorov – the Doctor
they started laundering money...
They were backed by the most
powerful people in the country...
And they had no scruples whatsoever...
01:12:52 [PHOTOGRAPHS, IVAN TODOROV ARMORED MERCEDES CAR WHICH KILLED HIS DRIVER]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
But now they had contracted each other,
they had piles of legal cases against them
for laundering hundreds of millions...
and it was only a matter of time
who was going to survive...
01:13:10 [INTERVIEWS]
Andrey Pantev
Never has there been such
a vulgar demonstration of wealth and riches...
since it hasn’t been
acquired through intellect…
nor through labour…
Not even through entrepreneurial activities,
but through plunder and looting...
01:13:25
Rumen Leonidov
Since all Bulgarians are envious...
I can say that even those mugs and oligarchs,
who disposed so many people...
still have the amazing will
to subdue others and succeed...
01:13:44
If we were more people with will,
not criminals but people with will...
we wouldn’t have to endure all this now…
01:13:51 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raykova
So in these circles everyday
someone contracts his competitor
or his business partner...?
01:14:01
Georgi Stoev
Their friends,
their former friends…
01:14:02 [TV ARCHIVE, PHOTOS, STOIL SLAVOV, MADJOE, VENTZI STEFANOV]
Reporter
4 people have died in an elevator
at the BULINS offices in the centre of the city...
01:14:09 [TV ARCHIVE, BOMBED BULINS HQ OFFICES, STOIL SLAVOV’s
MURDER]
Reporter
12:20 a fire emergency call establishes
an explosion in an elevator with 4 people...
it is presumed the explosive was
mounted to the elevator shaft...
01:14:23 [TV ARCHVIE CONT.]
Reporter
One of the victims is Stoil Slavov,
a shareholder in InterPetroleum & Partners...
During recent years the company has had
a revenue of about
50 million euros per year...
Stoil Slavov is one of the key
shareholders in InterGroup...
01:14:39
The others are Mladen Mihalev-Madjoe,
Ventzislav Stefanov, Rumen Pasha...
Dima the Russian and Bay Mile...
01:14:53 [TV ARCHIVE CONT. OVER G. STOEV INTERVIEW]
Georgi Stoev
The Marjini brothers
were suspected for many crimes...
one of them is the bomb explosion
in the elevator at BULINS…
when smear prints
were taken off their hands…
01:15:03
Veneta Raykova
You should say why these
smear prints were taken…?
Georgi Stoev
Because they were
suspected of jamming the cameras...
and directing someone
to place the explosive…
01:15:17
Georgi Stoev
Why these smear prints
were taken?
Dima the Russian used to tell me
while he was still alive…
01:15:24
Georgi Stoev
That they hinted to the police General Secretary –
Boyko Borisoff to do something...
not to stay idle,
so people would believe in him...
Meaning they agreed to these smear prints,
so the suspicion falls off them,
and so he could relax...
01:15:44 [TV ARCHIVES]
Georgi Stoev
Dima the Russian used to say
“Don’t you get it,
the police General Secretary
is working for us…”
01:15:56 [RECONSTRUCTION, MITAKA BANK, EXT. ASSET BANK.DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Mitaka had once again
returned from Hungary - this time for good…
Bulgaria’s was joining the European Union
and Mitaka had decided
that this is the best time to come home…
01:16:07
His exile turned to be
too nostalgic for a champion
of his magnitude...
The money he was making was nothing
compared to what he left behind in Bulgaria...
Somehow he found out about
the fake murder they had devised for him...
and now he believed his stardom had come...
01:16:27 [RECONSTRUCTION, MITAKA BANK. SECURITY. INT. DAY.]
MITAKA
Call Madjoe to come down,
immediately to come down…!
01:16:32
SECURITY
Hey asshole,
do you know what’s in here…?
01:16:35
MITAKA
Call that lady bitch, you junk...
or I will trample you all down...
01:16:38
SECURITY
Come on Mitak, Madjoe is not here now,
come along…
01:16:43
MITAKA
Come down lady bitch
and give me back my money...
01:16:47 [PHOTOGRAPH, MITAKA DEATH]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
They shot him like a dog
in a small restaurant
during broad day light…
01:16:56 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
I think, Joro had more to say...
because here we’re in a social novel,
not just any novel...
A social novel, a political novel,
a psychological novel...
01:17:06
very powerful elements of psychology,
in the last books and the others...
He feared those elements,
not to impede the GEORGI STOEV...
01:17:16 [TV ARCHIVE]
Reporter
A little before 19:00 Dimitrii Minev,
known as Dima the Russian
was gunned down
in the centre of Sofia...
01:17:23
He was one the main
shareholders in the former SIC group...
together with Mladen Mihalev – Madjoe,
Krasimir Marinov – the Marjina...
and Rumen Nikolov – Rumen Pasha...
01:17:30 [TV ARCHIVE, DIMA THE RUSSIAN DEATH]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Undoubtedly Dima joined
the organization by chance...
Everybody knew he was a
petty car thief for Karamanski...
What the shareholders vaguely suspected...
but others knew perfectly well
was his brilliant mind...
01:17:44
The others were always
nothing but minor dodgers to him...
With the Marjina he would get along easily,
they liked each other
and had similar interests...
Madjoe ran things as an Emperor,
but his management was poor...
01:17:57 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Dima would’ve easily found his weaknesses
and taken him off the throne...
This was really coming along
and was inevitable for Dima the Russian...
Everything he needed was
time and patience...
After seizing the Imperial throne...
01:18:10
Dima intended to withdraw
and live quietly on real estate in the U.S.
But before everything else he had prepared
a huge surprise for Rumen Pasha...
01:18:23 [PHOTOGRAPHS, SIC CELEBRATING THEIR FOOTBALL TITLES WITH
SLAVIA]
This vengeance was going to be like nothing
else ever done before...
01:18:33 [PHOTOGRAPHS, RUMEN PASHA AND HIS BRIGADIERS]
01:18:42 [RECONSTRUCTION, RUMEN PASHA TRAINING. INT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The strangest figure of all
was undoubtedly Rumen Pasha...
He came out of nowhere
as a shareholder...
all we knew was that
he’s a relative to General Gotzev...
The notorious relative
had placed him in a Police school
where Rumen was acquiring
his great knowledge and abilities...
01:18:49
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The psychology tutors
were teaching the future commandos
to stress the captured criminals
with scary and startling commands...
this really changed the timbre of his voice…
01:18:59
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
He began to talk
heavily, slowly – imperatively...
He started training Karate,
he was not from the best,
but reached the national team
due to his extraordinary persistence...
01:19:10 [VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
The influential relative,
once again came onto the scene...
This time he appointed him to
the unit combating organized crime...
01:19:16 [RECONSTRUCTION, RUMEN DISMISSED. EXT. DAY.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
During that time,
the unit was all in secrecy...
Rumen remained over there
for almost 8 years...
01:19:25
But the rules in the unit were really severe
and Rumen was dismissed...
He found himself on the street,
he grew a beard and became Rumen Pasha...
01:19:44 [PALMI RANCHEV BOOK PUBLISHING EVENT]
[INTERVIEW]
Palmi Ranchev
We have never had gangsters free riders,
this is the truth...
Here in Bulgaria
everyone has been appointed...
01:19:55
I am one of the first who wrote this,
probably before 15 years...
Now everybody knows this,
The bankers were appointed,
the businessmen were appointed...
the bandits were appointed...
that’s why it was easy to be a gangster...
01:20:10
If you were a gangster - free rider,
an outlaw then you take the risks...
But these guys, what risks have they taken...?
Government on their side, the cops on their side, everything on their side...
01:20:23
they attack some jerks,
who are full of fear beforehand,
they plunder whatever
they can and so on...
01:20:31 [TV ARCHIVE, JORO ILIEV’s MURDER]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
This time even the most enlightened
of our underground...
could only guess
who had murdered Joro Iliev...
The logic led to Madjoe...
The newspapers, however, were running stories
that Joro Iliev was a resort tycoon...
01:20:44 VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
And that his murder
came along his resort businesses...
But he had only a few small hotels...
What tycoon could he be
compared to Georgi Gergov, Nikolay Banev,
the Dinev brothers, Vetko Arabadjiev...
not to mention Dimitar Yankov,
Slavcho Hristov, Emil Kulev...
01:21:00 [PHOTOGRAPHS, JORO ILIEV]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Joro Iliev was a flee compared to them
and was content with the little he had left…
the whores, the cocaine,
the yachts and the cars...
01:21:11 [TV ARCHIVE, JORO ILIEV IN COURT]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Karamanski’s former lawyer,
the current High Judicial Council member
had taken representation
of his street crime offenses...
But the strangest thing was
that both brothers had been murdered
every time the socialists had won the elections...
01:21:24
It was in these times
that Rumen the Wolf emerged...
buying off the businesses
and properties of the widows...
01:21:32 [PHOTOGRAPHS, RUMEN THE WOLF IN HIS BUGATTI VEYRON IN SOFIA]
01:21:39 [TV ARCHIVE]
Veneta Raykova
I am really worried about you
since you’re revealing who is behind
the most notorious murders here in Bulgaria...
01:21:46
Georgi Stoev
I think that things should be said as they are, with their real names...
Enough with these riddles and puzzles,
someone has to do this and say this...
Unfortunately, there are people who
know more than I do and yet
Nobody has come out in my support...
01:22:00 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
In meetings with other writers
and journalists who write such books...
I’ve seen some of these spooks,
immediately you can tell they’re spooks...
01:22:13
Even one time one of them
stood up and said...
“What do you people all know,
these guys were all spooks – our people…”
Oh, so they are your people,
working for you…
01:22:26 [RECONSTRUCTION, RUMEN PASHA WITH HIS BRIGADIERS]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Deep in his soul,
Rumen Pasha remained a policeman...
His main brigadiers were also former
employees of the Police...
Dima really loathed them,
and labeled them those “bearded peasants”...
01:22:38
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Villy the bodybuilder,
quickly gained the title of a huge chemist...
He reached and surpassed 120kg live weight
and had the gait of a bear...
He was dismissed from the police
and became a bodyguard in a night club...
01:22:51
But he blundered over there as well...
Two drunken villagers beat him up,
outside the disco...
They tried to break his arm,
but it was so full of fat that they failed...
01:22:59
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Rumen Pasha’s
other brigadier was Joro the Buoy...
He used to work in BOI,
the Police bureau for operative surveillance...
And as such was placed
among the first dodgers at the Magura hub...
01:23:10
Back in those days he jailed
some of the subtlest dodgers...
if Rumen Pasha hadn’t pulled him over
probably they would have killed him...
01:23:18 [PHOTOGRAPHS, BOYKO BORISSOFF POLICE YEARS & BOYKO BORISSOFF & RUMEN PASHA CELEBRATING ON YEAR SIC
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
But the dog that really pissed off Dima
was Boyko the Fireman...
known in our circles as BOKKO THE PUMPKIN...
He walked besides Rumen Pasha
just like a sexton...
BOKKO THE PUMPKIN created a huge
security company under his wings…
He existed as a parasite
glued to the organization...
01:23:36 [RECONSTRUCTION CONT.]
VOICEOVER GEORGI STOEV
Rumen Pasha and Madjoe,
both set their bets on this horse...
reckoning they will
win every single race...
01:24:00 [INTERVIEWS]
Haralan Alexandrov
We turned business
not into something creative, constructive...
not into prosperity or welfare,
but into war...
and the results were just as in a war...
01:24:08
Many dead, many ruined,
many poor and many desperate people...
this is what happened with the
Bulgarian business of the transition period...
01:24:14 [TV ARCHIVE, IVAN TODOROV AKA THE DOCTOR’s MURDER, GENERAL ATANASOF]
01:24:24
Reporter
Do you think there was something
he should have feared...
01:24:28
Ivan Todorov – The Doctor’s Lawyer
Anyone in Bulgaria who knows how
to do something better than the others...
or knows something more than the others,
has every reason to be fearful...
01:24:38
General Atanasof
We have information that not long ago
the leadership of the Interior Ministry
have warned particular crime bosses
to leave the country by January 2007
This is probably happening to the ones
that haven’t obeyed…
01:24:55 [PHOTOGRAPHS, HUNDREDS OF MURDERED CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:24:57 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:24:59 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:01 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:02 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:03 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:05 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:08 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:09 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:10 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:12 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:14 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:15 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:17 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:18 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:19 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:21 [SCREEN TXT; CRIMINAL OFFENDERS]
01:25:23 [PHOTOGARPHS, HUNDREDS OF MURDERED NORMAL WORKING PEOPLE]
01:25:23 [SCREEN TXT; BUSINESSMEN]
01:25:26 [SCREEN TXT; MUNICIPAL COUNCILLORS]
01:25:29 [SCREEN TXT; BANKERS]
01:25:31 [SCREEN TXT; PROSECUTORS]
01:25:35 [SCREEN TXT; MAYORS]
01:25:38 [SCREEN TXT; LAWYERS]
01:25:41 [SCREEN TXT; MUNICIPAL DIRECTORS]
01:25:44 [SCREEN TXT; CUSTOMS OFFICERS]
01:25:47 [SCREEN TXT; REFEREES]
01:25:50 [SCREEN TXT; PRIESTS]
01:26:00 [BULGARIAN COAT OF ARMS AS A BACKGROUND TO A CALENDAR MARKING GEORGI STOEV’S MURDER – A WRITER]
APRIL 7, 2008
01:26:10 [INTERVIEWS]
Dobrin Dodev
As every day we had an arrangement
to meet in the morning...
usually we met early in the morning,
but that day he woke up late….
01:26:20 [TV ARCHIVE, GEORGI STOEV’s MURDER]
Dobrin Dodev
we didn’t have anything specific to do,
so he called me around noon...
when I got there
he was just arriving with the car...
He said lets go for some newspapers,
just a few blocks away...
01:26:38 [DOBRIN DODEV INTERVIEW]
Then two shots pierced the air,
I thought they were fireworks...
But then I realized they were no fireworks,
the second shot burned my cheek...
01:26:51
I jumped to the side I couldn’t react
to what was happening...
I jumped towards a car to cover myself...
01:27:58 [BACK TO TV ARCHIVE, GEORGI STOEV’s MURDER]
I turned around and saw Joro
lying on the ground...
But it was full of people,
it was the first good day of spring…
01:27:14 [CUT TO DODEV INTERVIEW]
I looked behind
from where the shots were fired...
I thought I’ll see someone,
but there were too many people...
01:27:22
There seemed to be two boys,
I saw their backs, probably it was them...
I was shouting, swearing during that time...
I went towards him, turned him over
and saw the blood from his head...
01:27:37 [PHOTOGRAPH, GEORGI STOEV SHOT DEAD]
Then finally
I knew what had happened...
So I held him
until the ambulance came...
01:27:49 [BACK TO DODEV INTERVEIW]
Dobrin Dodev
But they came too late,
and the police came 30 minutes later…
I don’t know why they were so late,
but that’s it...
01:28:06 [INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
With his murder another page
of Bulgaria’s national history was closed...
since the others are either dead,
scared or so dependent that...
01:28:24 [TV ARCHIVE]
Reporter
Sofia city courts released
Krasimir Marinov the Marjin
under house arrest
in order to receive medical treatment...
The two Marjini brothers
were arrested more than a year ago...
01:28:35 [TV ARCHIVE, THE BIG MARJIN BROTHER RELEASED]
Today the court adjourned the case,
but didn’t dismiss it as the defense insisted...
01:28:42
Marjina
Wait, wait…
Reporter
I am waiting…
01:28:46
Marjina
Can I lean over here,
I can’t walk...
01:28:52
Reporter
Are you ready to describe what has happened,
to help the investigation...
01:29:01 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Marjina
Which way are we?
01:29:09 [WANTED DESCRIPTION SKETCH OF GEORGI STOEV’s KILLER RELEASED BY THE POLICE]
01:29:13 [INTERVIEWS]
Dobrin Dodev
This wanted photo has nothing to do
with anything I’ve described...
I think I’ve seen this photo
in some other newspapers for other crimes...
If someone else has described this guy,
with sunglasses and so on...
01:29:27
it seems absurd,
I haven’t seen such a person…
01:29:35 [TV ARCHIVE, GEORGI STOEV’s FUNERAL]
[INTERVIEWS]
Rumen Leonidov
Joro made a panorama of Bulgaria,
and they made him immortal...
And he showed them,
with his death he showed every prick,
that a man could die for his name,
his courage, his honor...
01:29:50
And with this he was dangerous,
his example and his decision to speak...
He jeopardized
other myths that came...
He wasn’t going
to create a political party...
But another character
was being raised to a cult...
01:30:20
Georg Kraev
Things are scary,
very, very scary...
Look how interesting Ivan Vazov says:
“Read you brute,
for it makes the blind insightful...”
01:30:37 [GENERAL VISION SEQUENCE, SOFIA STREETS, SOFIA
PROSECUTUION, SOFIA CITY COURT]
Georg Kraev
But when democracy came along,
our abilities to read
turned out to be quite terrible…
01:30:48 [INTERVIEWS OVER GV SEQUENCE CONT.]
we haven’t perceived anything properly...
because perceiving means to see
through to the other side...
01:29:00 [INTERVIEWS OVER GV SEQUENCE CONT.]
Rumen Leonidov
This is a triple murder...
Firstly they killed a man, no matter what,
without a trial or a sentence...
In many countries they don’t
even have the death sentence...
01:31:12
They killed a young man, a father...
They killed a witness,
they killed a participant...
Nothing has changed...
01:31:22
They killed a man who had a civil position,
one in civil society...
who wanted to reveal the mechanics
of the transition period...
and he did it…
01:31:36
somewhere directly, in a clear precise manner,
somewhere more artistically...
They killed a writer
who was writing the book of life...
01:31:47 [PHOTOGRAPHS, THE BOOK - ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST]
01:31:58 [DOBRIN DODEV INTERVIEW OVER PHOTOGRAPH]
01:32:03 [INTERVIEWS]
Dobrin Dodev
That book he wrote,
Once upon a time in the East...
he wanted to portray
the genesis of organized crime...
how an innocent guy,
a guy from the village, a shepherd
01:32:12
comes to the city, joins
these criminal groups...
and becomes a criminal boss...
This was his idea,
to explain why this happens...
He used to say that this was
the significance, the goal of his life...
FADE OUT.
01:32:38 [RECONSTRUCTION, BARGAINING OVER MURDERING STALIN, ANDREY
LUKANOV]
MADJOE
Yes, Poly...
01:32:40
POLY
What’s the status on
comrade Stalin?
01:32:42
MADJOE
What comrade Stalin has said
you know well...
And you’ve accepted
the assignment to conclude it...
01:32:48
POLY
And how much
will comrade Stalin pay me...
01:32:50
MADJOE
Nothing, you’re a citizen of the State...
whatever’s for you,
the same for the others...
01:32:59
POLY
Can you imagine
what will happen?
01:33:03
RUMEN PASHA
It’ll be good for us all...
01:33:09 [PHOTOGRAPHS, ANDREY LUKANOV CORPSE AFTER AUTOPSY,
GENERAL GOTZEV IN THE 1980s]
FADE OUT.
01:33:25 [TV ARCHIVE, WRESTLERS IN THE 1970s HIGHLY RESEMBLING
GEORGI STOEV & MADJOE]
Georgi Stoev
If they kill me for these books...
not for the things of the past,
it will be really funny and stupid...
The things of the past will come out
in the next books, its still early...
01:33:38 [TV ARCHIVE CONT.]
Georgi Stoev
Our plan with Ivailo Spiridonov,
the homicide chief...
was Madjoe to enter the court
and exit as a prisoner...
He enters the court as a witness
for Bay Mile’s murder
and comes out a prisoner...
Georgi Stoev
The idea for me to testify…
was to be without the knowledge
of the Chief Prosecutor
and the Interior Minister...
another prosecutor to issue a
warrant for Madjoe’s arrest...