Todor Dinov

Biography

Todor Dinov’s diploma work at VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, was the film “Marko the Hero”, and professional Bulgarian animation is usually dated from it. Before that, hand-drawn film in the country had been the work of amateurs. The sources vary on the release date, between 1954 and 1955.

He was born on 24 July 1919 in Dedeagach, today called Alexandroupoli and part of Greece. His family was Bulgarian. He spent his school years in Plovdiv, where he finished the State Industrial School. From 1938 to 1943 he studied stage design at the Academy of Arts in Sofia. Then, from 1947 to 1951, he studied at VGIK in Moscow in the workshop of Ivan Ivanov-Vano, one of the founders of Soviet animation. Dinov himself said that his interest in animation began in childhood. He watched his mother weave a carpet with a black-and-white pattern, and the figures, by his account, began to tremble and come alive. It is hard to check, but the story suits his later graphic language, built on flat, clean drawing.

“Marko the Hero” linked animation with Bulgarian folklore: the film is based on the folk epic about Prince Marko. The next film, “The Careful Little Angel”, already shows a change. The naturalistic image gave way to the clean line of caricature, and the linear plot got an unexpected ending. After that came “Tale of the Pine Twig” (1960), “Lightning Rod” (1962), “The Apple” (1963, with Stoyan Dukov), “Jealousy” (1963), “Banished from Eden” (1967), “Prometheus XX” (1970) and “The Kettle-Drum” (1973). On many of them he was director, screenwriter and designer at once.

His best-known film, “The Daisy”, is dated to 1964 or 1965. A square-shaped little man tries to cut down a flower, fails, and turns ever more furiously to new means against it; in the end the daisy responds only to the love of a child. The film was shown at animation festivals in Leipzig, Buenos Aires, Ankara, Vienna, Chicago and Cannes. In 1967 it was named the best Bulgarian children’s film, although it had been made for adults.

Dinov was one of the founders of the first animation film studio in Bulgaria. He created the department of animation direction at the Theatre and Film Arts Institute in Sofia (VITIS, later NATFIZ) and taught there. His students included Donyo Donev, Stoyan Dukov, Ivan Andonov and Ivan Veselinov. In 1967 he sat on the jury of the Moscow International Film Festival.

He did not confine himself to hand-drawn film. Dinov worked with puppets and directed the live-action features “The Iconostasis” (1969, with Hristo Hristov, based on Dimitar Talev’s novel “The Iron Candlestick”), “The Gunpowder Primer” (1977) and “The Sin of Maltsa” (1985). In “The Dragon” (1974) live action is combined with animation. He also worked as a caricaturist, book illustrator, graphic artist, poster designer and painter, using watercolour, pastel and oil. He called painting one of his most intimate experiences. His honours include the title of Merited Artist of Bulgaria (1963), the Dimitrov Prize (1966), the title of People’s Artist of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1970), the title of Hero of Socialist Labour (1976) and the Order of Stara Planina, First Class (1999). In 1977 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2003 the Bulgarian Filmmakers’ Union gave him its Crystal Pyramid award for his contribution to animation.

Dinov died in Sofia on 17 June 2004.