Glory 2017

Railway trackman Tsanko Petrov makes a startling discovery: bundles of cash scattered on the tracks. Instead of pocketing the money, he does the honest thing and reports the find to the authorities. This act becomes a spark in a larger political game: Julia Staykova, the polished head of PR at Bulgaria’s Ministry of Transport, seizes the moment to deflect a brewing corruption scandal by orchestrating a ceremony that casts Tsanko as a working-class hero.

Despite his rugged, unkempt appearance and his debilitating stutter, Tsanko is thrust into the spotlight as the PR machine parades him before the press. The intention behind the public tribute is clear—to soften scrutiny on the ministry—while Julia and her team mock him behind the scenes. In a calculated gesture meant to showcase recognition, Julia plans to present Tsanko with a new digital watch, but to do so she first removes his cherished Slava-brand watch, an heirloom carried from his father. The plan falters when she loses the heirloom, ignores his attempts to reach her, and ultimately substitutes the missing watch with a counterfeit.

Anger fuels Tsanko as he takes his story to the media and publicly exposes the corruption and theft embedded within the transportation ministry, implicating the Minister in the scheme. In a bid to salvage the ministry’s reputation, Julia arranges a cunning trap: Tsanko is framed for a crime he did not commit and pressured to retract his accusations in exchange for his eventual release from prison.

On his journey home, Tsanko is confronted by former colleagues who resent him for blowing the whistle on their crime ring. The situation is also tied to a personal tragedy—rumors hint that Tsanko’s beloved rabbits died from neglect during his time behind bars, a consequence of his absence.

The following day, Julia is confronted by the consequences of her actions when she reads in the newspaper that a trackman has died by suicide. Guilt gnaws at her as she drinks and searches her office for the missing watch. The next morning, she finds the watch and learns the dead trackman was not Tsanko after all. Relieved, she drives to Tsanko’s home to return the watch in person, only to find him severely injured and furious with her for triggering the entire chain of events.

The film closes on a tense, almost mythic note: Tsanko grabs a wrench in a moment of raw confrontation, while Julia screams, her husband in the car nearby obliviously listening to music. The story lingers on the unraveling of a system where a single act of honesty spirals into manipulation, accusation, guilt, and a volatile reckoning between those who wield power and those who stand up to it.