Vaklush

100 MIN., 2023

"Vaklush" is a documentary film filmed in the period 1998-2022, and contains previously unseen archival footage from the life of the famous spiritual leader and Teacher Vaklush Tolev. The film is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth and is a story about the life path and ideas of one of the most enigmatic personalities in Bulgaria.

Vaklush Tolev is a theologian by education, lecturer and author of numerous works on religious-philosophical and cultural-historical topics. Having gone through prisons and camps of communism, for him suffering does not exist, it is development. Persecuted by the repressive apparatus of State Security as an "enemy of the people", he claims that evil is unevolved good. He graduated from theology, but came to the idea that man is not a sinner, as religions teach, but is a god in evolution.

After the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989, he was invited to teach at the Universities of Plovdiv and Sofia. There, in his lectures on the history of religions, he often recalls the inscription on the Delphic temple: "Know yourself and you will know the gods and the world." He himself experienced this knowledge and formulated his own Teaching, which he called "The Way of Wisdom."

The film was selected for participation in 40 festivals around the world. It has 18 awards from the USA, France, India, Bolivia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Bangladesh.

The film stars:

Petar Stoyanov, President of Bulgaria in the period 1997–2002

Dr. Ilko Semerdzhiev, Minister of Health in the period 1999–2001

Prof. Dr. Maria Slavova, lawyer and lecturer at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ognyan Minchev, political scientist and doctor of sociological sciences

Prof. Ivan Zhelev, theologian

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Bachvarov, physicist and lecturer at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kiril Kolikov, mathematician and lecturer at the University "Paisiy Hilendarski"

Ventsislav Zlatarev, philosopher

Prof. Todor Balkanski, linguist

Kalin Kalinov, engineer

Petko Atanasov, editor and screenwriter at Bulgarian National Television

Boyko Stankushev, journalist

Iliana Slavova, journalist

Tsveta Nikolova, journalist at the Bulgarian National Radio

Siya Georgieva, lawyer

Georgi Tolev, nephew of Vaklush Tolev

Jacqueline Toleva, daughter of Vaklush Tolev

Director: Nikolay Vassilev
Screenwriters: Nikolay Vassilev, Liliya Angelova, Tanya Cheshmedzhieva
Cinematographers: Ivaylo Kuzov, Zhoro Nedyalkov, Nikolay Petrov, Plamen Gerasimov, Nedyalko Danov and Borislav Georgiev
Music: Teodosii Spasov, Ivan Shopov, Georgi Tsvetkov
Sound director: Ivan Andreev
Sound design: Mariana Valkanova
Artist: Evelina Petkova
Producer: Creative Snab