Stefan Stefanov's photo of a crying girl holding a policeman from last year's anti-government protests in Bulgaria was selected for the Hollywood production.

“The Giver”, starring Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Jeff Bridges is an anti-utopia telling the story of a society devoid of emotions. The sequence featuring Stefanov's photo is illustrating the history of humanity and includes the “tank man” photo from Tiananmen Square, skydiving footage, photos from other protests across the world.

In an article, entitled “How A Photo For 25 euro of a Bulgarian Student Toured the World To Hollywood”, the French edition of Slate tells how National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts student Stefanov took the photo in November 2013 and posted it on his Facebook profile. Within hours the picture was shared tens of thousands of times and became a symbol of the protests.

Reportedly the schoolgirl Desi, then 16 years old, was upset by the fact that the police were beating other protesters and was trying to reason with the officers. The police officer in the photo was telling her “Hold on, it's going to be fine.”

Stefanov got a freelance fee of BGN 50 for the photo from a Bulgarian daily, but, according to Slate.fr, will get a whole lot more from the Hollywood production.

“I am still waiting for the sum we agreed on and am getting a bit worried already,” Stefanov, who now works as a newspaper photographer, told the bTV national channel. “The most unpleasant thing for me is that many people say the photo was arranged. But it is not so.”

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