Viewers will soon be able to watch a documentary entitled "Rhodope Reflections", which takes us on an exciting journey through the mysteries and untamed beauty of the Eastern Rhodopes and remnants of ancient civilizations. The documentary also shows people, whose lives are firmly linked with the mountain, as well as magnificent landscapes and discoveries, while local music sounds as if it had absorbed the spirit of the mountain. The film can make us fall in love with the Rhodope Mountains, but also makes people take a look at life from a different perspective.

The documentary is a work of director Todor Dimitrov, who has been filming documentaries on archeology and history for years. Once Dimitrov met Hristo Todev, a climber and explorer of the Eastern Rhodopes – the ancient sacred mountain where you can still wander for hours without seeing a man, the idea for creating "Rhodope Reflections" was born.

"Hristo Todev has been touring the Eastern Rhodopes for years. He is interested in the mystery surrounding the Thracian rock niches found there. He has made attempts to reach niches that are practically unreachable. He has been trying to find out how they were made and why. His companion in the research is Milko Petrov," Todor Dimitrov says.

Many cult niches, cut in the rocks of the Eastern Rhodopes in ancient times, especially along the Arda River have attracted the attention of archeologists and amateur explorers for more than a century. However, their existence still hides many puzzles.

"The great work that has been done to make many of the niches located in hard-to-reach places suggests that for the ancient people, their significance was huge. The rock niches are probably linked to some cult beliefs about the transition to afterlife," Hristo Todev says.

The documentary also takes us to a village in the Eastern Rhodopes, with houses built in the middle of the XVII century, where a man called Shaban lives.

"Shaban has been living alone since 1958 in an abandoned and very beautiful village where there is no electricity and there never was. There is no road to the village and it takes 3 hours of walking to the nearest village. In 1958, when socialist cooperative farms were created and people’s stock was taken away from them, everybody left the village with the exception of Shaban. He has been living there since then with his animals and feels great.”

The fourth hero of the documentary is Alexander Kifferov. He has linked his life with the Rhodope Mountains, driven by his passion for fossils:

"Alexander Kieferov shares with viewers his knowledge on formation of fossils and his thoughts about the origins of life on earth. He expresses doubts about modern science’s official theory on fossil formation."

"I wanted to make the viewer feel what I feel when meeting people in the Rhodope Mountains. I want people to dive deeply into the atmosphere and feel the freedom," the director said in an interview with Radio Bulgaria.

English: Alexander Markov