Belene survivors speak out in new documentary to be screened in Sofia

The documentary The Last Concentration Camp Inmates of Belene premieres tonight at Lumière Cinema in Sofia. It tells the stories of Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin who were sent to the Belene camp for refusing to change their names during the “Revival Process” of the 1980s - an assimilation campaign targeting the country’s Turkish and Muslim communities.

The film follows several survivors of the camp on Persin Island in the Danube, where more than 500 teachers, students, agronomists, athletes and other civilians were interned.

It also revisits the so-called Great Excursion of 1989, when around 400,000 people were forced to leave the country.

The documentary is directed by Dimitar Kotzev-Shosho, with a screenplay by Hristo Hristov.

Editor: Diana Tsankova