UNNECESSARY HERO / НЕНУЖЕН ГЕРОЙ

The night of 9th September 1968. Sergeant Nikolay Nikolov, who is one of more than 2000 Bulgarian soldiers, sent to Czechoslovakia to suppress the "Prague Spring", left his post and never came back. Nikolay Nikolov, who is 21 years old at that time, became the only victim from the Occupation forces. Fifty years after the tragic events, the film Unnecessary Hero finds the real circumstances for the murder of Nikolov. The film tells the story from the perspective of three monuments and their fate through the years and also the ideological use of Nikolov's memory, depending on the historical period and political orientation. Today only his brother and some friends keep the boy's image in their minds.
The film shows the different faces of a personal tragedy, reminding of the fate of many young soldiers, no matter of the period or the geographical latitude. These are lives, used every day for self-interests from the powerful people.
This film is part of the collection Occupation 1968. In 1968 five countries part of the Warsaw Pact occupy Czechoslovakia. 50 years later five directors from these countries make movies for the invasion from the participants' point of view. This is the occupation seen from the eyes of the occupiers.