Original subtitles

So here the train passes

after that I start lifting the POV...

Ah, you lift the camera! - I turn it also...

Should we film your drawings?

from those famous films like "De Facto", and...

Yes, I'll get you a box with the "Three Fools".

They are all in a particular order

I have three loft rooms full of over a hundred boxes.

This is Tony Trayanov,

my animation teacher who made Bulgaria's most famous films

and kept them in these boxes.

The "Three Fools" are phenomenally popular in Bulgaria.

Behind this creation lays a secret that Tony lived with his whole life.

You have 2, 3, 4, 5.

Tony gave us all his trade secrets

in these weekly lectures at the National Academy.

On each on of these drawings you put a line and a marker.

But one day he was sacked.

His lectures were crucial for our demanding profession.

We protested but were told

that he doesn't have a higher education.

Shortly after I left the country.

I've been working in London for 16 years now.

I often think of Uncle Tony, and what he used to tell us.

I decided it is time to dig up further into this case.

Camera: Plamen Velinov Vasilena Goranova

Sound: Alexander Simeonov

Editing: Donka Ivanova

Music: Emilian Gatsov - Elbi

Direction: Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

UNCLE TONY Three Fools and the Secret Service

As a conscript I broke up rocks with a hammer just like this.

Here is Tony in the 70's...

Along side him is Donio Donev, a talented caricaturist

who formed a successful tandem with Tony.

Donev enjoys a worldwide fame.

At home he is also in the spotlight of the state Media

and often shown on television.

As a loyal member of the Communist Party,

and an agent for the Secret Services too,

Donev could protect Tony,

because he could not get by without his creative skills.

Yet this tandem was not acknowledged publicly.

It was known about only in narrow professional circles.

The Best of Bulgarian Animation,

all that is known around the world,

is Donio in a tandem with Tony.

Because somehow together they made

these great films that are the best like "De Facto", "Clever Village"...

VELISLAV KAZAKOV award winning director - Canada

The Three Fools too but they have less of a philosophical and global impact.

If it wasn't for Anton's specific aesthetic sensibility

and ability to build rhythm in Donio's films,

the phenomenon Donio Donev would not have been so full as it is now...

STOYAN DUKOV director

...with the symbiosis between the two of them.

And this is creation.

This is not just an animation process anymore.

It is what we call God's blessing.

When the Fools build the bridge

they start laying planks of wood.

This guy hammers nails into the planks on the bridge,

squatting down on his knees,

he hammers the nails.

Here I had an idea to transform this whole episode.

So this guy tries to detach himself.

He pulls his leg and can't move it.

He pulls and pulls, and takes out the whole plank.

This is how it worked - here is the plank...

...the Fools had perspective although you may not think so...

...so he takes out the plank...

I was a skier and often got muddled up like that.

It is a common belief that artists draw themselves

their own grimaces, their own facial expressions, their emotions,

then the posture, the body language.

Subconsciously he makes the character walk as he walks.

So the character is very close to the animator,

regardless of who drew the character in the first place.

The animator inevitably changes it.

I returned to the Animation Department of our film academy,

and talked to professor Tomov - Head of the department.

I asked why Tony was sacked.

This is a higher educational institution,

this is an Academy!

DIMITAR TOMOV Head of Animation Department

He may have had some lectures here

but nobody knows, including me officially...

Officially he's not been here.

This is how we started this film!

Because the students say they learnt a great deal from him in the Academy.

To teach something he must have had a subject.

What did he teach? - Animation.

This cannot be true.

The subject was called Animated Film Directing, not Animation.

I have whole notebooks filled with his lectures.

It is a fact.

Ok, explain to me. Where these lectures took place?

In our hall! - In our hall?

He used to fill up all the board with drawings.

OK. You're right then I surrender.

Although Donio can't be sanctioned

but it's an unpleasant case...

There can't be people from outside...

then Donio must pay back the money!

Imagine that you're hired to teach. - I understand...

And you ask me over...

you see me walking down the street

And it turns out that I teach, not you!

But this doesn't exclude Donio. He taught other things.

Yes but he asked another person to teach.

Why then did he not continue?

He was told he doesn't have a higher education!

That's a little mistake.

If Tony doesn't exist, we don't exist.

DIANA ATANASOVA student

We imagine this man and we are all physiologically disturbed.

The question here is about administrative presence.

If this man was really here,

then he must have a contract and so on.

I have a list from your first day to your last.

Here you all are.

Mina, what year did you enrol?

91, 92...

91/92 - Hristo Stamboliev, Mina Mileva, Lilia Ilinova...

Today many young students have come to the academy

to see a master class by Rumen Petkov -

a successful Bulgarian Animation director form L.A.

Tony is also here,

curious to learn about his former colleague's life and work in America.

On the sheet...

...in America, you are given exact timing, on one side of the dope sheet.

There, they give you 9 frames to lift the hand.

I think, this limits the animator.

No, no, if you go to work there,

Velio will tell you

you'll have your head chopped off.

You don't have freedom that you had in the past.

If you have to lift the hand in 9 frames, just do it!

5 frames to take the character out, but you can't do it in 5 frames!

You must!

Then they needed more in-between drawings.

Listen to him, him and his in-between drawings!

Right, we continue. - Do you know who Anton Trayanov is?

What? - Do you know who he is?

Of course they do. Now we continue...

No, I only ask because...

...this is the greatest Bulgarian Animation!

What do you mean - they don't know? - They may not..

Let me tell you something very interesting!

Uncle Tony is this person who made Donio Donev's animation.

RUMEN PETKOV director L.A.

Donio isn't an animator,

Donio is a marvelous artist,

creator of the characters

but he is not an animator.

This is the example.

We are in Zagreb with Donio, 1974.

He's member of the jury, I have my own film "Miss Island".

We see a whole selection,

a group of American films

done exactly in the style of the "Three Fools",

the style of Anton Trayanov.

There was an influence, I have said this before.

Tony Trayanov, he is a crazy man in the best sense but he is a genius.

The beginning of the 60's.

The Animation Film Studio is a self contained structure.

Todor Dinov assigns new directors.

Freshly graduated Stoyan Dukov...

STOYAN DUKOV, DONIO DONEV

the veteriary doctor IVAN VESELINOV

...Donio Donev and the veterinary doctor Ivan Veselinov.

The cinema studio is founded by Todor Dinov.

He is assigned to study in Moscow by...

STOYAN DUKOV director

...not to mention The Party but they sent him,

because he is from such family which is...

Well, a Party family.

There is no other way of putting it.

After that Donio goes to Russia.

In the past animators used to go to Moscow to study.

Only those who could do it. It wasn't the same for everybody.

NASTIMIR TSACHEV animation producer

If a person wished to study animation he had to travel to the Soviet Union,

VGIK in Moscow or the Czech republic.

This wasn't so simple.

I mean... only a few had that privilege.

Bulgaria was ruled from Moscow

and our Communist Party headquarters

obeyed with an uncompromising discipline.

Most people in position of power had to utter senseless slogans,

just as The Cinema Studio director in this TV appearance.

TODOR DINOV animation director

What inspires your art?

The movement always inspires me.

The direction is towards Communism

at the speed of light!

The studio was divided in two collectives.

The one was led by Donio Donev, the other by me.

Todor Dinov discovered me as a caricaturist

and took me to animation and I developed in both areas.

I think that my first film is a very bad film.

And I think I drew a good lesson from it.

DONIO DONEV caricaturist/director

I'm curious and watch it in the Cinema hall sometimes

and I feel ashamed that I've made such a bad film.

But one can't be a genius all the time,

one needs to progress!

GEORGI DUMANOV animator/director

Donio Donev was the most famous one. I know him as a caricaturist.

He has a very clean line.

This caricature of Tony was made by Donio around that time,

or as we call him Uncle Tony,

you can give it to him.

You can have the pleasure of giving it to him,

if it doesn't make him angry seeing it.

Uncle Tony came from the Animation Studio,

where his cousin called him uncle Tony, uncle Tony...

And we started calling him this.

Donio had this fantastic ability...

LACHEZAR LAZAROV animator, Donev's student

...to capture a character with very simple means.

And this was his great quality.

He was a social artist who managed to also capture the hot topic,

to sense the engaging theme in a timely manner as a caricaturist,

as a man who can create forms very simply.

In the same manner,

Tony managed to put this form into cinema,

into movement, and to,

basically, give it a lot of life.

All this filmed on one frame, fast, without a pause works.

You feel subconsciously that it is the correct movement.

It's not trying to trick you.

Not like this - later when young animators came they did this...

For example, the Fool is at this end.

He must pick up something here.

The Fools style was such that they moved around a lot.

There wasn't a background.

Donio used to put a bit of colour here

and smudge it with a piece of cotton and that was the background.

So everything depended on the animation.

So the young animator did this - stretched his hand

and got the thing.

I said - hang on, this isn't in the style of the Fools.

He replied, "Antoni, animation has moved on!"

The point is that there is also a style of movement

not only a style of drawing.

And each drawing requires specific movement style.

The plot develops dynamically.

This makes the idea very clear for us.

And...

We know the directors...

Yes, they are Donio Donev's films!

The three fools!

Their walk is so funny!

shp, shp, ah!

"Three Fools" 1970

I was about 5-6 years old when my parents

bought some comic books from the foreign literature bookshop.

They had Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, Rin Tin Tin,

and I loved looking at them.

And I dreamed to do comics one day.

My Father had graduated from two universities,

one in Germany, the other one in France, in Dijon.

He was an economist,

and he worried all the time about how I'd make a living

drawing comics and caricatures.

He always insisted that I should become an engineer

and have a stable profession.

I went to Belgrade and enrolled in Graphics in the Academy there.

When Tito separated from the Socialist block,

our 'comrades' in Bulgaria put up posters all over the main boulevard,

all hand made, on a canvas,

showing Tito bent over a log

slaughtering small children with an axe.

Disgusting pictures!

There is a powerful propaganda against Tito

as he removes his state from the Eastern Block.

The leader of ex Yugoslavia was a renowned film buff.

He allowed all the great American

and West European films to be shown in his country,

while they were banned in Bulgaria.

Tony soaked up this culture in Belgrade.

We can see the influence in his later work,

like this Anti-Vietnam War movie he made in 1972.

I watched 40 films a day in Belgrade.

They were shown one after another

and you could watch them all with one ticket...

It was incredibly exciting seeing them on big screen

but when I went out of the cinema I got them all mixed up

and couldn't tell the full story of a single one of them.

Two years later I transferred from Graphics to nuclear physics.

The Maths teacher was a Bulgarian from Nis.

She gave a complicated task with integrals.

I used all trigonometry formulas

and I fell under the table with joy when I got the answer!

I think maths helped me extremely because animation

is not only drawing but it also deals with time, it's a rhythm.

"De Facto" plays on the stereotypes of the Socialist era.

"De Facto" 1973

Nothing works properly and nobody knows why.

One of my contributions

was to make everybody react differently when accused.

When the committee blamed the painter

he went, "Hehehe," and started giggling.

This how you make it -

here is the first head, and here is the 25th.

You need to put 25 in-between drawings,

that you cannot put another one between them,

that's how close they need to be.

Then numbering them is most important.

First you film the first drawing

then you skip the 2d and film the 3d.

After that you return to the 2d,

then jump to the 4th after, which you put the 3d.

The effect is descending and shaking -

that's - hehehe

There is also an upward one - hohoho.

"De Facto" is a brilliant example.

STOYAN DUKOV director

This is a film of one shot!

And this is thanks to...

...the involvement of Anton Trayanov.

Why? Because he makes something

that Donio hasn't done up to this point, if I'm honest.

According to the rules of cinema, if you want to accentuate a certain act,

you have to stop the movement to draw attention to it!

Calm down everything around it to emphasise it!

Not at all! Tony does exactly the opposite.

Everybody moves, potters, shuffles around...

The permanent dynamic is supposed to destroy the drama,

but it does exactly the opposite -

it enhances it in a particularly beautiful way.

This is Anton Trayanov.

Donio had his table in the Cinema Union bar...

Ah, this is a separate topic!

VELISLAV KAZAKOV director, Canada

We sat down

and all of Sofia went up to Donio's table

everybody who made TV, newspapers, culture

Kevork Kevorkian and so on, all of them.

Everything that happened in Sofia was discussed at our table.

This information then went in the papers, on TV.

These people gave their uncensored comments.

This was incredible!

Yes but Donio had time! He didn't have to work.

Donio, Donio, I've always admired his discipline.

He used to get up at 4am,

we may have drank till 3am.. - And what did he do?

Listen! Sometimes we drank till 3am,

at 4am he is in his studio.

He draws!

He finishes all his work for the day.

Before he goes to the Film Studio,

he goes to the newspaper editors

to drop off a new caricature every day.

He sketched in the evening and cleaned them up in the morning,

he left the caricatures,

went to the Studio,

did all his work there,

and he was free at lunch time!

And he went to see people and have a glass of wine!

People say, "Donio sits in pubs all day..."

Donio did the work of 10 people.

And he goes to the Pub to gather material for the next day.

This is rare, really, an incredible discipline.

There wasn't a day to oversleep or be late.

You apply the liquid paraffin on one side only.

If applied on both it doesn't absorb properly.

This paper was produced in the past,

with satin silk fibers weaved into the paper,

and if you clean it like this,

it looks like it was printed yesterday.

The same goes for the drawings.

You see how complex these drawn crowd scenes are,

particularly from "Clever Village"

There wasn't space to draw another character.

Here are the houses on the side.

Very labour consuming and exhausting work.

I didn't sleep most nights to finish it.

I was often asked how I relaxed after such hard work without a break.

Just as with these books I showed you that I restore.

These are my school French grammar books I studied on,

published by Larousse around 1940.

They contained short stories

with graphic drawings and very curious plots,

La Fontaine's fables,

and French language lessons at the same time.

As a boy I studied in the French Lycee

"St. Joseph".

Our teachers were these nuns from the monasteries,

with black habits.

The whole school programme was in French

and we learned it pretty well.

There were very complex subjects

right from the beginning

like Anatomy, Biology...

I knew all the human organs -

pancreas, etc., in French language

This table was here under the window

and the light-box was this tiny thing

like a wooden case.

Its glass slightly bigger than the sheet of paper.

And here around this table,

I tell you, full kitchen functions pans and pot, Tania cooks,

two hungry children that need to eat constantly.

When they put them to bed

things calmed down.

We pass by at night and see the window lit.

We go upstairs and as we approach, we hear...

(the sound of paper flickering)

Tony worked all day in the studio and a whole night here.

The lights are broken...

All these are archives.

How many boxes is "Clever Village"?

You've taken them out. Here was "Clever Village".

The box with the hedgehogs eating the snakes

"CLEVER VILLAGE" 1972

Then hedgehogs fill up the screen,

then the hedgehogs get eaten by the foxes,

thousands of drawings...

Donio and his assistant counted all the drawings

and the number came up to 45,000.

One snake is a problem,

but there are 20-30... Oh, dear!

When we watched Bulgarian films,

we most appreciated Donio Donev's films.

Great animation, non-stop,

without a pause, always moving...

But this is Antony Trayanov.

We didn't know, nobody told us!

Later on we heard about Norstein (renowned Russian animator).

We thought that he is a complete author, Norstein,

but it was his wife! - A year later we heard it's her.

BORIVOJ DOVNIKOVIC director, Zagreb

She also did everything around the house,

looked after the children and cooked meals for her husband.

Same case with the sculptor Rodin...

I can say that I'm at peace with myself.

I did everything on my films -

script, drawing, animation, directing, everything.

If the film is bad it's all my fault.

The hunters were a lot of work.

I created the way they eat, carrying rump steaks, stuffing their faces,

at the end, I had an idea for a gag.

Well, it's not my idea really because

it was even in Chaplin's film "Modern Times".

The robbers arrive and tell him: stand still by the barrel!

And they start shooting and pierce the barrels,

while he's on rollers, sliding, and drinking unwillingly.

So this gag is used in many films.

I made the same with the barrel to have it pierced...

I was recently in Spain

to receive one of my awards at the Gijon festival.

They took us for a walk around the coast

and one of the things I liked most were those little pubs.

We drunk wine and at some point

the host of the pub offered something exciting!

This was one of my most treasured experiences!

DONIO DONEV

Next to one of the wine bellows there was a pistol

with which I shot the bellow

and the wine started squirting in my mouth.

I felt blissful from the pleasant taste of that Spanish wine.

And I remember that I put this story in one of my films,

"Clever Village", when the hunters shot the barrel

and everybody tasted it.

As far as I remember "Clever Village" came out a long time ago.

You said that you were in Spain recently.

No look, this is because I go abroad very often.

I'm very rarely in Bulgaria,

and may be I was there earlier too.

I remember this was recently... but probably it repeated.

The films with Anton Trayanov's participation

were presented at many festivals and received a lot of awards.

Films like "Clever Village" and "De Facto"

were in a special programme in MOMA,

the Museum of Modern Art in New York,

an outstanding place for culture.

Tony Trayanov animated fully these films alone -

his style, his hand, his way of thinking,

and even his soul are in them.

Saying "soul" makes me think about the word.

ALEXANDER YANAKIEV film critic

It contains more than we normally associate with it,

like dramatic and tragic feelings,

no, the "soul" smiles, the "soul" can be sunny.

As well as exhibiting at MOMA,

Donev receives huge international acclaim.

He becomes the ambassador of the Bulgarian culture around the world.

Here are the numerous awards from Donev's films

noting the exceptional animation in them.

While he travels around the Globe,

Donev's industrious colleague Tony does mountains of work

and is not allowed to leave the country.

In Tehran, Donio received the award.

His Majesty Shah Pahlavi was in power then.

He must have really liked the film because

he gave a cash award of 50 thousand US dollars to Donio.

When Donio came back,

he didn't tell me, of course, that he had taken such a high amount.

Only after sometime he said to me, "They are not letting me buy a car!

I received $50,000 for "Clever Village" in Tehran

but the Comrades aren't letting me because it would annoy the others."

He wanted to buy a western car, a Ford or something.

So he drove this Russian car for sometime.

At that time there wasn't anything in the shops,

I had no coffee, nothing. I told him,

"You should've bought me a packet of coffee from the Currency Shop."

Because we had deficiency of such goods.

I didn't go to festivals.

When they asked me why I don't go, I replied - I have too much to do!

If they went to all these festivals... Did he go to the festivals - Tony?

No, because the Communists didn't let him.

He is one of these people, whose name's been taken off everything,

so this other bloke's name is on everything.

And in the books, all the films are Donev's,

Dinov's films, and not his. And they clearly were his.

Central Saint Martins College in London.

My colleague Malcolm Hartley teaches animation here.

Sometimes he uses samples from Tony's work that I showed him years ago.

I ask him what is so special about this particular style of animating.

It's great for teaching because you can show the movements, very simply.

'Cause they are like line-test almost, you can see.

There is nothing hidden away, there is no trickery, or anything...

MALCOLM HARTLEY animation tutor

What you see is pure animation skill.

The great thing useful for animators and especially students is this.

You tell them, "No, you have to do something very simple!"

They are a little bit upset that they couldn't do this big Hollywood film.

But they soon realise that, really,

especially if you're working in a very small group or a low budget,

you really do have to concentrate on the minutes,

and the small details and bring a lot out of that.

And I think this is what Tony does brilliantly!

"Pardon" 1984

Tony's classes were the most fun!

Perhaps we weren't his greatest students,

but his classes were the best.

Tony taught us in New Bulgarian University (NBU) for about two years

and in the third year we went voluntarily to his classes.

NIKOLAY MIHAYLOV student at NBU

New Bulgarian University for many people

was attraction because of Uncle Tony.

When they removed Tony from NBU, it was done in a very sneaky way.

MELINA-ELINA and LORA students at NBU

In the beginning they started to shorten his classes

and put them late in the evening.

As we all know the university is at the end of the world

and if you wanted to go to Tony's classes you had to catch a taxi home.

And this was how they ruined him...

Nothing much changed in the decades of democratic transition in Bulgaria.

It's been 25 years since Communism collapsed,

but the people in position of power remained the same.

By the way his courses still had huge attendances

which proves the students' love for him to be honest.

We wanted to show that this wouldn't stop us from visiting his classes.

Many of us signed petitions demanding Tony be brought back,

because the NBU animation course without Tony is nothing...

Animation without studying animation can't work!

Our class often packed into his house

This is a real person who's glad to see his students,

someone who enjoys their successes,

someone who doesn't judge them...someone who...

I have no words to describe such a person...

No, I have - the man who brings sunshine.

Renoir... - These are the modern ones...

Kenneth Clark's "Civilization".

Here is the famous Mayer German Lexicon...

Look what lovely illustrations it has.

My father had bought 4 editions

and I bought the others from an antique shop.

Thinking about it, I spent most of my salary on books.

Exactly his consultations were necessary

for people to make their films.

Thanks to his support outside the University,

outside his allocated hours,

advises year after year by Uncle Tony.

Whatever you want to do he can tell you how he's done it

or how somebody else has done it.

Once I asked uncle Tony's help - I needed to make a sea wave.

Tony said easy-peasy, come to me and I'll show you waves.

GEORGI DIMITROV producer

He took me to his fairytale attic,

all full of shelves with boxes of his films.

He quickly found a wave and took out a box...

Let me see if I have these drawings from the "Winner"...

maybe in the other box...

This is the box with "The Fools Hunters".

Everything was based around the gags with the gun.

It resembled the jokes in "The Gold Rush" of Chaplin.

I worked and worked and started inventing new things.

I turned the rifle into a machine gun.

Donio wasn't in the studio.

He was abroad somewhere.

When he came back the film was ready.

I was about to tell him what I had invented,

what I had added,

when he said, "I've watched the film.

Thank you for the film!"

He thanked me because I had changed the script entirely.

When I had an idea of a gag, I simply made it.

Then I saw Donio and Dimo Boliarov, his editor,

sitting down at a typewriter,

writing something... a script.

I looked and saw the same film, and I said,

"Haven't we already made this film? Why are you writing?"

"Let's have it for the future, the way the film is made."

It occurred to me that they would adapt their script to my animation,

but I didn't pay much attention.

For me the most important thing was to have a good film,

not who wrote it or whatever.

Donio had failed films,

not only the successes people know.

A film based on Yordan Radichkov did not work,

a film with Radoi Ralin...

GEORGI DUMANOV animator/director

Radoi wanted his money back and his name removed...

But...

The combination between Donio, Tony and a good script

worked really well.

I liked Donio very much

I tried to be of his assistance,

to help in his films, to be part of his world

It is a sort of an honour

to have drawn something in Donio's film.

I invited him to be the best man at my wedding,

because I loved him so much.

Were you disappointed when you saw it? - This article?

In 2001, Donio applied for a political role in the former Tzar's Party

and his dossier was taken out...

Donio's dossier? - Yes.

You are from a bourgeois merchant family.

Yes. He wrote it correctly.

"He comes from traders background, constantly makes hostile comments

about the external and internal politics of the Party."

I was like ill for many days,

I didn't feel like talking or anything.

GEORGI DUMANOV animator/director

I was at the seaside with friends,

I walked up and down the beach like a madman and wondered what to do.

Donio was still alive? - Yes.

I went to the town and wrote a telegram -

"Donio, I forgive you!" G.Dumanov."

And that was that.

Donio told me that the Three Fools resemble Todor Zhivkov.

Such is the rumour amongst people.

Only he could say such thing because he was from the Secret Service.

Was he trying you out? - No, no, he was joking...

He was joking to see my reaction.

I worked on most of Donio's films back then and

they had already fallen out. Tony didn't work with Donio,

he'll tell you about it...

I don't want to get involved. There was tension between them,

although they are both great artists.

Everything they did together will stand the test of time.

But they went cold on each other.

After so many films and so many boxes,

Tony still dreams of making his own film one day.

If you had a film idea but you're not allowed to direct, how did it work?

Nobody lets you do anything!

GEORGI DUMANOV animator/director

The most you can do is start chatting to a friendly editor,

and make a script together.

Ah really! So, the editors were political agents?

Not only they were.

All the directors of the Studio,

all of them, before and now

are agents of the Secret Services.

All of them!

We were happy to have Orlin Filipov as the director of the studio

He was the son of Grisha Filipov.

We all know who Grisha Filipov was

a member of the Central Committee of the Party,

then a principal Secretary and so on.

It wasn't a coincidence that the Varna festival

became so big and popular in the whole world,

because huge money is required for such sort of thing.

The Party leaders said what the money will be spent on...

ORLIN FILIPOV director of the studio

...and nobody asked how or why.

I really wanted to make my own film.

After we had done "The Cow",

I suggested I make my own film.

Orlin Filipov, the studio director, said, "No,

you must do "The musical Tree",

another of Donio Donev's films."

I said, "Hang on, you told me that after "The Cow"

I can make my own film!"

"No, no, it's not possible, you must make this film!"

After delivering the film, I said to Orlin,

"I'm now making my own film!"

"No, you can't do that," he said.

You must do another of Donio's films.

I said, "Not this time!"

Demonstratively, I threw down my drawings from "The musical tree".

I mixed them up from all the boxes,

and threw them in the bin.

Orlin issued an order for my disciplinary dismissal

for refusing to work on the next film.

The order was posted on the wall in the corridor.

He thought this would frighten me and I would give in.

But I said, "Submit as many orders as you like, I'm leaving,

If you're not letting me make my own film."

Orlin, "Imagine we're at the front

would you leave the Army in the middle of the battle?"

I said, "Don't confuse matters!"

Uncle Tony tells us that he was fired by Orlin.

He was fired, but

this was done by Donio.

They had fallen out, and he was sacked from the Studio...

They were not letting me make films!

And he demonstratively went to work as a builder!

With a helmet and builder's jacket.

I wanted to direct... - The greatest animator

went to build a Japanese hotel!

Tony was fired from the Studio in 1977.

It was fairly unusual to be fired in Socialist Bulgaria,

but if it happened it was a big problem.

Disciplinary dismissal was a political statement

and the person involved became a second grade citizen

unable to get any future employment forever.

Coincidently, at the this time,

the tallest hotel in Sofia was being built

The New Ottani, or the Japanese hotel.

There was a lack labourers for this high risk work.

Tony said that he can lay concrete and he got the job.

He didn't mention he was an artist.

You worked with no harness up to which floor?

Up to the 20th. The supervisor asked if we tie ourselves to ropes

and I said, "No, we don't.' - Oh my God!

She was terrified. A number of victims are expected as a statistic

I was told to go out on the highest floor to fix this spool.

I went up and got very afraid, it was so high.

I asked a tiler to help,

but he said, "Oh, I'm afraid too." It was so frightening!

Suddenly, beep-beep, a crane arrives

with this huge bucket of concrete attached to it.

But nobody goes to meet it.

I tell them, "Come on let's unload the concrete!"

The man on the crane keeps beeping,

but everybody hides. Everybody pretends to be busy.

So I go and climb on the concrete bucket.

I was just about to let the concrete out,

when the crane moves off

and I was left hanging on the bucket.

I ask some guys with walkie talkies

to warn the crane operator to return the bucket.

I was hanging in the air

well above the 20th floor.

He started moving the bucket back when they told him.

I get off and they shout at me,

"You have two kids, are you crazy!"

Didn't you hear the crane beeping?

I'm on the building site every morning at 7am

and get a lot done that can be seen.

This was the difference with working in the film studio.

When you build all your work can be seen,

there was nothing there on the previous day

and when I go early... - It is not as slow as animation.

The best builder amongst animators,

Tony films the Japanese Hotel with his own 8mm camera.

A television team came to record the building of the hotel.

I was wearing my helmet and working uniform,

and they were positioning their cameras around.

like yourselves...

I went to them and asked, "What type of camera is this?"

"What do you know about cameras, you dumbhead!"

"Aren't you a film crew?"

"What do you know about making films, you idiot!"

These guys make cinema for the Bulgarian people,

imagine how rude they are to the "people".

A little later the director arrived.

He recognised me because we had made a film together.

Hey, Tony how come you're here?

So the crew run away, taking the cameras with them

and we couldn't see them anywhere near.

I didn't tell him what they had said.

Tony tries to revive his contacts with people from the cinema,

yet he's pretty much forgotten about in the animation studio.

Years pass by, new people arrive, festivals are organized.

In the summer of 1979 we had the first festival in Varna.

The whole studio went to Varna.

We were accommodated in various hotels.

I was to share a room with a man I didn't know.

He stormed in and said that he comes from a building site.

I was unpleasantly surprised, and got a bit angry.

He told me that he's a builder at the Japanese hotel. A tiler.

I thought, "Why have they put me up with such low types

who have nothing to do with our profession or with the festival?

What's going on?"

I was angry and didn't speak to him.

I went out with my colleagues to see films.

NASTIMIR TSACHEV animation producer

In the evening I found him in the room

He said, "Come and have a drink."

Having nothing else to do, I sat down with him.

Little by little it was revealed

that he had been in the studio long before my time.

Before I had even considered this profession,

he worked as an animator

mainly on Donio Donev's films and of course others.

But he hadn't worked there for a very long time,

because he had been expelled by an earlier director

but I don't even know the exact reasons

Orlin Filipov liked his drink.

I witnessed certain scenes,

such as when high-up Communist officials gather at a party

Orlin Filipov arrives drunk, takes handfuls of cream cake

and starts to smear it on their jackets.

They remain passive and don't dare object

as he smudges it on their lapels.

I ask them why they put up with it?

Why they don't react?

"Because he would just fire us tomorrow," they reply.

As conscript soldier I was sent to dig rocks at a quarry.

I load the rocks into a hand-barrow with another soldier

We lift it up

and we suddenly see we are face to face.

I can't go forward, nor he backwards. Ridiculous!

I suggest we put it down

We've got to turn around and lift again

This time our backs face each other

we were furious, it was so heavy!

Are we ever going to move this barrow?

I used this gag in "Suncho" (a popular children's programme)

then I saw an English comedian do the same thing!

If I had published it then

they would have said,

"Ah, you stole this from Mr. Pitkin!"

This is what I tell my students -

even if you had experienced something funny,

but you can be sure that someone else has already done it!

Don't imagine you invented it.

The only way to make it original is through your own experience.

You can't be everything - the writers, the animators, the painters,

the computer specialists, the cameramen of today...

This is a collaborative art

and all the components must be done professionally

When they watch your film nobody will care,

if you didn't sleep or how long you spent making it.

They watch it and it doesn't work.

So you have to be careful with the details.

How long were you working on the hotel, Tony?

Three years.

I completely switched off from animation.

It was suggested that I return to the Film Studio,

because they need me there.

There weren't enough animators at the time.

You can't imagine how many agents were sent to check on me,

to investigate how I had managed to find work on the hotel!

Some linked it to something Chinese, like the philosophy of Mao.

However, I soon learned I must say I do it for the money.

Even Rangel was sent, for God's sake! - Who?

Rangel Vulchanov (a famous film director).

Yes, he asked me why I was working there?

There were people who wouldn't have known that I was there.

Erm... Proiko!

He was so nervous, he cleared his throat all the time

But Proiko (a renowned animator) isn't such a...

An agent? No, but, you know,

to be employed by National Television,

you must be higher than a leader of the Party!

How were film directors chosen?

They were assigned!

Usually Todor Dinov said, "This man can make films,"

and he was given the green light.

But after Stoyan Dukov and Donio Donev came,

there weren't many new ones.

Donio used me.

He told "them" that I am under his control.

But when I was prevented from making films.

I said, "Look, we either co-direct the film "Pardon",

I co-direct, or nothing!"

Donio went to Orlin Filipov and whispered in his ear.

He persuaded him and we really did it together.

And it was just because I invented everything,

gags, details small and large, the rhythm...

He always dreamt about having a whole project to direct.

Let's go back in time - the year is 1961.

Yurii Gagarin makes the first historic human journey in outer space.

Tony - a young animator in the studio

is as impressed as everybody by these events.

Comrade Zhivkov greets the comrade astronaut.

Welcome, dear comrade Gagarin, to our fatherland.

Long live our Union!

Gagarin: Let there be peace in the whole world!

So I started making a story at home about an astronaut.

I had already bought my own 8mm camera,

I made a hole in a table for a sheet of glass.

I brought special camera lights from the studio,

lights meant for black and white filming.

They shone like a daylight in the evening

During the day I worked in the Studio

and I made my film at night.

I finally finished it.

Todor Dinov saw my film and promised to take it into production.

He took it home and forgot about it for a year.

I hoped that he would produce it one day.

A year later, in November, it turns out

that the studio is short of one film for the annual government plan.

Only 4 out of the 5 planned films have been produced.

Tony hears about this and grasps the opportunity to become a director.

I told the studio manager that I have a film.

It's already filmed.

"Where is it?" he asked

I told him Todor Dinov took it.

The General director said,

"Dinov, what do you reckon?

Shall we let this lad make his film?"

Dinov, "Yes, of course, great idea. I was going to let him,

but let's have Dukov help him out a bit

with the drawing and the style."

STOYAN DUKOV director

And I had to improve the design a bit, because I was already established...

Uh, established... I mean, I was good enough.

Dukov modified some of the characters.

He changed the boy's shoes and made them sharp pointed,

so I had to redraw all the drawings!

I think Todor said,

"Tony isn't experienced yet,

take him under your wing as a...

As a person who knows more...

Let's say, as an art supervisor."

Although the film had already been made,

Dukov was credited as a co-director.

Directors: Stoyan Dukov and Anton Trayanov

Script and Animation: Anton Trayanov Art Director: Stoyan Dukov

"Journey into Space"

None of my co-workers would have ever dared to make a film.

It wouldn't have been acceptable.

Todor Dinov was instructed to not let me direct films.

This became clear after I went back to the studio from the building site.

He took the bus home with me.

He didn't use his car.

We travelled together, and he said,

"Tony, this is what I have learned -

no matter how strongly the State tries to control the individual,

no matter how hard it prevents people from making films,

it can't stop them if they're ambitious

and they want to make films!"

That's what he said!

He knew there was an order out about me, that... I can be 'unreliable'.

God knows why they thought that.

Because you weren't a member of the Communist Party, Uncle Tony!

Donio looked after me, but later on they frightened him too.

That's it!

1961

1965

1971

1977

1982

1988

1992

Everything transforms completely.

The symbol over the city is American now.

2000

2012

This is the monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia.

The Russian solders turn into American heroes,

painted by young graffiti artists.

This installation was removed hours after its creation.

But nobody can prevent Tony from recovering his original name.

New Bulgarian University...

Put me down as Antoni.

They changed my name in the Film Studio in the past.

They said, "what's this Italian name?" and wrote me down as Anton,

and I have always been Anton until recently.

No, now I'm Antoni.

I've added the "i" back.

Somehow it goes well with Tony and people remember it's me.

The first smile after coming down is the best, I can tell you!

It's the most genuine!

We're making a film about your father.

Really? My father? What do you mean?

KIRIL TRAYANOV extreme rollerblade champion

Wow, a great man, really. Yes, an amazing man!

He makes animation.

Imagine my movements drawn frame by frame.

Drawing after drawing.

How many drawings would that be?

Second after second, 25 frames per second...

This whole movement would need 12 to 15,000 drawings!

Yes, he could do it! My father!

Ah, my father.

The man who did the funniest crowd scenes in Bulgarian animation.

The man who made "Suncho"

We all know "Suncho" from the programme "Good night, Children".

I was then very young, but I remember

he would often work all night

and would only get up from his desk in the morning

to go straight to the Cinema Studio

to film what he had done,

loaded with all these boxes and folders.

Such brilliant films need all this work,

especially the films he made,

with dozens of characters and things moving all over the place.

"Suncho" 1975

VALENTINA TRAYANOVA Tony's daughter

Performance Artist, Paris

What's your name?

Who's your father?

What's your name?

So, I am French now,

a fish,

and a tortoise as well,

and a snake as well,

and a snake,

and a tortoise,

and a baby elephant,

and baby giraffes,

thousands of giraffes,

who run across thousands of drawings...

Thousands of animation drawings

on tracing paper,

flicked through with fingers holding a pencil.

The characters walk through paper.

Why do you always draw the same thing?

No, they aren't the same.

Can you see the drawings move?

Dad told me when I was born it was snowing heavily.

He drew falling snow flakes and then deer running beneath.

...and dawn arrives, I go back home.

Everywhere is dark and only one window is lit

A man is standing at the window smoking a cigarette.

He smokes and waits for his daughter to come back,

and finally I come back.

I always come back, no matter what had happened,

I knew that Dad would be waiting for me.

He always worked in the kitchen, smoking and drawing.

My teacher Antony finally managed to direct his own films in the late 80's.

These films did not gain popularity,

as the system was starting to change

and the State Cinema Studio was closing down.

Uncle Tony did not live to enjoy the spotlight.

He died on 25th of February 2013.

What happened with the three leading figures of the animation studio?

Donio Donev pursued a political career,

which required his Secret Service dossier

to be uncovered and made public in 2003.

He died in 2007 in denial of this fact,

as the Media frenzy around "Agent Toshev",

his undercover name, caused public dismay.

Donev remains one of the most respected

names of Bulgarian cinema worldwide.

Todor Dinov's open views and strong position

eventually caused his fall out of favour with the establishment.

He continued to make films and educate

animation directors in the Film Academy

until his departure in 2004.

Stoyan Dukov is alive and well and still making films at present.

This is how the film must end.

With me going to the Cinema Centre and disappearing into the distance.

Do you remember the Pink Panther?

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Godard in "Modern Times".

This is good for ending.

(c) 2014