Vsichko e liubov

Did You Know?

• During the screen tests, Stefan Danailov was required to slap the actress auditioning as his future wife. None of the actresses had been warned. After several takes in which Danailov only lightly pushed his scene partners, he and director Borislav Sharaliev secretly agreed to make the slap real. Aneta Sotirova reportedly handled the unexpected test best.
• For the scene in which a buffalo had to chew the journalist's shirt, the crew tried several animals because the first ones reacted aggressively to the film lights. The buffalo ultimately chosen, named Venetka, was reportedly kept without food for three days so that it would perform the scene.
• While scouting the correctional school in the village of Slavovitsa, director Borislav Sharaliev was impressed by its authentic punishment cell. By the time the crew returned with its equipment, however, the school director had whitewashed and repainted it. The production designer had to make the walls look worn and marked again, although some of the original authenticity had already been lost.
• Several actual students from the correctional school appeared in supporting roles, alongside young professional actors. Among them was Ognyan Kupenov, then a student at VITIZ, who later became publicly known in connection with his marriage to Liyana Pandelieva.
• The character of Rado was reportedly based on a real student from a correctional boarding school who escaped repeatedly, including once after being returned with his feet blue from the cold.
• The film was reportedly halted by Nikola Nenov because of what were described as “unacceptable deviations from the Great Truth.” A private Saturday screening was arranged so that it could be reconsidered, and the password given to the police officer at the entrance was “Everything Is Love.”
• The private screening was attended by influential figures, including children of senior members of the socialist nomenklatura, who were curious to see a Bulgarian film that had been stopped from release.
• After the private screening, poet Dimitar Metodiev, an adviser to Todor Zhivkov, reportedly congratulated director Borislav Sharaliev with the words: “Bravo, Sharo, you have made a wonderful film.”
• The film provoked a powerful response from audiences. Rado's fate ceased to feel like an isolated personal tragedy and instead became something viewers experienced as intimately connected to their own lives.
• Aneta Sotirova's husband, Borislav Stoyanov, was initially opposed to the scene in which she appeared nude. His mother later reportedly reassured him that it was “not quite so terrible.”
• The correctional-school scenes were filmed at a real institution in the village of Slavovitsa, which appears in the screenplay as a school in the fictional village of Padevo.
• The walls and ceiling of the correctional school's punishment cell were covered with insults and drawings made by its students, giving the filmed scenes a powerful sense of authenticity.
• Boyan Papazov wrote the screenplay from a true story originally told by artist Ivan Stoilov, known as Bunkera, to one of his colleagues, who then passed it on to the writer.
• One of the film's most memorable lines is delivered by Stefan Danailov: “Once a buffalo starts eating shirts, you might as well cut off its head.”
• According to some interpretations, the film's depiction of problems in correctional boarding schools and juvenile-pedagogy institutions challenged not only the educational system but the credibility of the broader socialist order.

Why Should I Watch the Movie?

"Everything Is Love" is far more than a love story. It is a moving coming-of-age drama about youth, freedom, and the courage to stay true to yourself when the world stands in your way.

The film explores the clash between personal choice and social expectations, showing how first love can become an act of quiet rebellion. Without preaching, it captures the emotional cost of growing up in a society that demands conformity.

Driven by powerful performances and remarkable emotional honesty, Everything Is Love remains one of the defining classics of Bulgarian cinema. Its story continues to resonate because it speaks to universal experiences of love, hope, and the pursuit of freedom.