Manly Times

There were times when stealing girls in these lands has been a worthy vocation, was a habit and a sort of custom in Bulgaria. Only the strongest and most experienced men took the profession up. A young and brave Bulgarian highlander was given the job to bring, no matter how, a certain beautiful girl to be married to somebody. Such a lad was Banko, the main character in movie. The film traces the vicissitudes of Banko. He has made a bargain to ambush and abduct the pretty Elitza and deliver her to the man who wants to marry her. The kidnapping is a success in the beginning, but the girl, Elitza, reveals a "manly" character. She puts up a stiff resistance. She fights against being taken to the weak-willed, stupid groom, who believes that the money can buy him everything. In the beginning she implores him to set her free and then threatens to jump into a ravine. At first Banko, who has become used to submissiveness of his victim, is taken aback by this sort of reaction, which runs counter to the established norms of a patriarchal code of conduct. Ultimately Banko and Elitza fall in love. This leads to the most dramatic and tragic events in their lives. His confusion evolves into a conflict between the call of duty and his emerging love for Elitza. To Banko this love, which seems to be reciprocated by his victim, is tantamount to the breaking of his word of honor. He runs the gauntlet of desire, suffering and doubt, and sees his profession in a different light. This is a film about the dawning of understanding in an unencumbered primitive mind, a turning point in the development of Eduard Sachariev who in his subsequent films has proceeded to examine the role of love as a motive force of man's surviving for freedom.