site.btaThe Revelations of Solomon of Vidin Documentary to Be Screened in Berlin

The documentary The Revelations of Solomon of Vidin will be screened at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin on the evening of November 24. The event is part of a series dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during World War II, Borislav Petranov, director of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, said on Thursday.

The film tells the story of Solomon Alajem, former owner of the Kale movie theatre and benefactor in Vidin, on the Danube. After the communist regime in Bulgaria nationalized Alajem's cinema and denied him the right to work, he addressed the regime in 1968 with My Confession, which reads:

"I am proud that throughout my life I have given the state and the municipality substantial material and moral benefits, and to this day I have not received a single lev. After September 9, 1944, I asked several times to be given a job, but instead, they made me a proletarian with no income. Sixty years ago, I donated my library of 500 volumes to the community centre and was the first donor to the community centre to be named an honorary member. [...] I was asked by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences to write a biography of the world-famous artist, Jules Pascin, as my peer and classmate. I was also asked to write the history of Vidin from the Liberation of Bulgaria until the present, which I did and for which I received official thanks. During this period of grave predicament, there was not a single person in high office who cared how I made a living".

The Confession concludes: "I know that now, because of the events in Israel, we Jews are out of fashion, and I swallow a certain dose of the poisonous messages with deep sadness, convinced that there are over 50,000 former citizens of Bulgaria living there who were saved from the Holocaust. And not one of them ceases to glorify the Bulgarian people for it. This is my confession, that in return for my enumerated merits I have received only complete freedom as a Jew, for which I am proud and thank you from my heart".

The Revelations of Solomon of Vidin was directed by Rossen Elezov. Vili Lilkov and Vesela Petrova are screenwriters, cinematography by Ivaylo Stoyanov.

The film will be shown in Bulgarian with German subtitles. Admission is free.