Time of Violence () is a 1988 Bulgarian historical film based on the novel Time of Parting by Anton Donchev. The film was split into two parts with a combined total runtime of 288 minutes.
The film was originally known by the same name as the book on-which it was based – Time of Parting. The film was submitted internationally under the name Time of Violence and the first part was called The Threat and the second Violence.
The government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria financed the production of the film.
The film is set in the Ottoman Empire, in 1668. As Köprülü Fazñl Ahmed Pasha concentrates his war efforts on the Cretan War, he grows paranoid of the Sultan's Christian subjects, convinced that they are an uncontrollable threat to the empire unless converted to Islam.
One of the targets is Elindenya, a village located in a Rhodope valley where the Christian Bulgarians' way of life was for the most part left alone under the Ottoman governor Süleyman Agha's rule. A sipahi regiment is dispatched to the valley with the mission of converting the Christian population to Islam. The regiment is led by Kara Ibrahim, a fanatical devshirme from Elindenya. Although Süleyman Agha, feeling that his self-ordained rule is at stake, objects to forced conversions, Kara Ibrahim favors measures of extreme brutality against the local Bulgarians, including his own family.
In the course of the film, Kara Ibrahim tortures a number of villagers and kills his own brother who had planned to assassinate him. In the end, Kara Ibrahim is killed by Mircho, and Kara Ibrahim's Venetian slave escapes with Mircho's lover, Elitsa, in tow.
The film was screened at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival under the name Time of Violence to distinguish the film from the original novel. Groups of schoolchildren were even taken to see the film there.
Time of Violence sold over five million tickets in Bulgaria, a country of fewer than nine million inhabitants at the time, within months of its release. The first part of Time of Violence was the most popular film of 1988 in Bulgaria. The film was later Bulgaria's submission to the 62nd Academy Awards, though it was ultimately not nominated for Best International Feature Film.
The film continues to enjoy popularity in Bulgaria. It was named the best Bulgarian film in national surveys in 2010 and 2015, and continues to be regularly broadcast on Bulgarian television.
Time of Violence was part of an international dispute between the People's Republic of Bulgaria and Turkey. The film was produced during the assimilation campaign known as the Revival Process. Diplomatic negotiations between Bulgaria and Turkey concerned the broadcast of Time of Violence and the Turkish film Belene, which documented the Belene labor camp in Bulgaria.