S1.E3 ∙ Episode #1.3

Casablanca evokes romance, freedom fighters and magic. Under the myth built by Hollywood lies a town full of stories, such as that of the Spanish community that played a key role to turn Casablanca in the French colonial pearl in Africa.

The story of the sailors of the submarine "Papanikolis" that sailed for the Adriatic shortly after the declaration of war in '40.

U.S. Secret Service agent Truxton Darnley attires himself as a sailor and boards a schooner owned by Gus Olsen, who has been employed by a German spy named Von Linterman to smuggle arms to German raiders in the South Seas. During the voyage, Truxton learns that Gus and his men plan to blow up the National Munitions Plant in San Francisco, but Gus discovers his identity and throws him overboard. Truxton is washed ashore on the island of Moana, where he meets and falls for Lurline, the daughter of beachcomber "Brandy" Cain. Promising to return to her, Truxton boards a steamer bound for San Francisco in the hope of saving the munitions plant, and soon afterwards, Brandy sells Lurline into marriage with Gus. Seeing Truxton's steamer, Lurline dives from Gus's schooner, and her sweetheart rescues her. In San Francisco, Gus abducts Lurline and forces her to dance in his Barbary Coast saloon, but Truxton and his men raid the bar, and Gus is killed. After receiving the happy news that her real father is the owner of the munitions plant, Lurline joins Truxton, the man of her dreams.

This is a two-part film about the participation of the Bulgarian army in the Second World War. On the eve of September 9, 1944, insurgent masses liberate a large group of political prisoners from jail in Varna. Boyan Vasilev, the central character, is one of them. The joy of liberation, however, is overshadowed for him by the fact that his wife has not waited for him. He is dispatched to the front line as a political officer. In tracing his personal fate the authors have created an epic picture about the participation of Bulgarian army in the last stages of war and the final defeat of Nazi Germany on the battlefields of Yugoslavia and Hungary. Against the background of the impressive battle scenes the film focuses on the complex relationships between the numerous characters, reflecting the social and political contradiction in Bulgaria in the end of the war, we see former career officers who are attempting to sabotage the work of military command. There are also honest military officers who are experiencing an excruciating change of views (since 1941 till 9.09.1944 Bulgaria was on the side of union between Germany, Italy and Japan) and remain true to their patriotic duty.