Newly acquired: Footage filmed by a British couple, holidaying in Bulgaria and their return to Croydon in London - 1978.
Amateur filming by western tourists in Communist Bulgaria was rare, compared to its neighbours in the same period. Those visits were almost exclusively limited to the big tourist complexes, controlled by the State Security through its officers, agents and other vigilantes.
Like Sunny Beach on the Black Sea. It specialised mainly in West German, British and Scandinavian tourists, and so did the agents of the state. Briefed in an inconspicuous office by the luxurious hotel 'Kuban', the agents scoured from dawn till dusk the beaches and alleys - on scooters, posing as street sweepers, coachmen, or simply butlers.
On Kodachrome 8 mm film.
