Balkan Jazz

This documentary tells the life story and music of Niko Nissimov and his Jewish friends from the Bulgarian Jazz band, The Optimists. The movie charts their rise to stardom as a band in late 1930s Bulgaria. The beginning of WWII changed everything for them as Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. Anti-Jewish laws and restrictions brought the band to a halt. All men were drafted to slave labor camps, and the entire community was on the verge of extinction. Niko was saved by his friends at

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