US film director Ted Kotcheff, who is on a visit to Bulgaria for Sofia Film Fest events, on Friday said he would start work on a movie dedicated to the fate of Bulgarian King Boris III (1918-1943).

Kotcheff, who was awarded a Golden Age order by the Culture Ministry on the same day, was also shown in front of reporters a government decision grantinghim Bulgarian citizenship.

Kotcheff, born in Canada to Bulgarian parents as Velichko Todoroff Tsotcheff, had submitted an application to becoma a Bulgarian citizen prior to his arrival.

Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov told him his institution would explore options to provide funding for the movie about Boris III, the monarch who chose to save Bulgarian Jews from the German Nazi regime during World War Two and whose death in 1943 is still surrounded by mystery.

Stefan Komandarev, the renowned Bulgarian director who is behind The Judgment and The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, is to provide assistance in shooting the movie about Bulgaria's last reigning king, Kotcheff announced.

During his public appearances here, Kotcheff speaks mostly in English, but also in Bulgarian which he says his parents always used at their home.