In 1967 he graduated in theatrical directing at the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts (NATFA) "Krastyo Sarafov", located in Sofia, Bulgaria.

His first theatrical production on professional stage was "Kaliakra" (season 1967-1968),[1] put at the Dobrich Drama Theatre "Yordan Yovkov".

The author and film critic Alexander Alexandrov wrote: "Rumen Surdzhiyski proves that he possesses acute power of observation towards the spiritual phenomena in our society and the problems of the time we live in."

("Narodna Kultura", newspaper, 1979)[5] Rumen Surdzhiyski was born in the village of Glozhene, Vratsa Province, to a family of a common worker.

Still as a student, he participated in numerous cinema-clubs, led by Todor Andreykov, prof. Nedelcho Milev and others, and he is first introduced to European and world cinema.

He served in the Bulgarian army two years, in a motorized rifle regiment, in the Gara Pirin Division (today the city of Kresna, Blagoevgrad Province).

During the course of his education he studied the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and other directors from the French New Wave.

Strong impression were made on him the films by the Polish and Czech cinema, the work of Andrzej Wajda, Miloš Forman, world directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and others.

His fellow students were: Stefan Danailov, Ilia Dobrev, Stefan Mavrodiyev, Milen Penev, Kirill Kavadarkov, Dobromir Manev, Prodan Nonchev, Ivo Rusev, Meglena Karalambova, Elena Rainova, Lidia Eminova, Lyudmila Zaharieva, Vesela Blagoeva and others.

The play recreates the legend of Kaliakra, the main role of which performed by the unforgettable actress Katya Pascaleva.

[11] On the stage of the Dobrich Drama Theatre Rumen Surdzhiyski had the pleasure of working with a wonderful team – the actors Katya Paskaleva, Kirill Kavadarkov, Lidia Eminova, Plamen Donchev, Radoslav Stoilov, Stoyan Gerganov, along with some of the incumbent actors - Kalcho Georgiev, Galina Nenova, Lyuben Popov, Ventzislav Valchev, Atanas Bozhinov, etc.

His first author's project was the documentary film "As in a movie review" (1975),[20] which was a collective portrait of the women working in the Computer Data Storage Device Plant in Plovdiv.