East European Movies (or movies with East European settings)

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I watched the American film Everything is Illuminated this evening.  I thought it was one of the best films I've seen all year, a truly wonderful experience.  It stars Elijah Wood as a Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to find the town where his grandfather grew up, and from which he escaped the holocaust.  He employs a local tour guide to take him there, and the film is largely a road movie about their journey across Ukraine.  It's wonderfully funny and entertaining, which gradually becomes poignant and touching as the film nears its end.  It's highly respectful of Ukraine, particularly in its humour, and is ultimately very uplifting.  Oh and it has a great score too.  I'd never heard of the film, but it was made in 2005 and I'd really recommend it.

It got me thinking: There aren't that many good east european movies out there, at least not that I'm aware of.  There are old communist movies like The Battle of Sutjeska, which I'd recommend, particularly as it's a Yugoslavian patriotic war movie for which money was no object, and stars Richard Burton as Tito, and is a right rollicking ride.  Then you've got modern Russian movies like Night Watch, but there really aren't that many movies from the former soviet and non-aligned states, at least that are making it over here.  Could anyone recommend any?

[Serge]

Kieślowski is the first one that comes to mind - much of 'Three Colours: White' takes place in Poland, for a start. But his earlier Polish stuff is well worth checking out - The Dekalog, 'No End', 'Camera Buff' and my favourite, 'Blind Chance'.

There's a company called Second Run that seem to release a lot of Czech and Slovakian films - I have one on my shelves called 'Ucho' ('The Ear'), but in keeping with my habit for buying things and never getting around to watching them, I haven't, er, watched it yet.

(I know it's a thorny issue as to which countries get called Eastern Europe, so apologies if these aren't quite what you're looking for!)

[Pie Pie Eater]

Weird, I literally just came on here having watched Blind Chance. It is brilliant, I love Kieslowski.

[Pseudopath]

Czech Republic: Does Czech count? If so, Little Otik is a wonderful (if batshit insane) journey. Just look at the little feller!



Actually, pretty much anything touched by Jan Švankmajer (particularly 1988's Alice) is worth a look.

Romania: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. I think this was actually on Channel 4 recently. It's about a couple of girls trying to arrange an illegal abortion during the latter days of Ceaucescu's regime. Heartbreaking stuff, and brilliantly acted.

Hungary: If you fancy a bit of Hungarian, the almost-dialogue-free 2002 movie Hukkle is a treat. It's full of crinkly-faced yokels like this (and that's just the women!):



Russia: Russian Ark is quite well-regarded on this forum, although I found it a bit tedious (the concept, choreography and execution are undoubtedly impressive, but it's a bit like a 1½ hour version of the Honda Accord Cog advert). I'd recommend giving it a go though!

[Phil_A]

Many of the best animators of the last thirty/fourty seem to've originated from Eastern Europe or Russia - Svankmajer, Priit Pärn, Yuri Norstein, etc. Something about working under oppressive regimes seems to produce some of the most complex and fascinating work.

"Hotel E" (Part 1 of 3) by Priit Pärn

I'm still annoyed that Svankmajer's Lunacy(2005) never had a UK release. Apparently he had a new film out this year as well?

[Pseudopath]

I'm still annoyed that Svankmajer's Lunacy(2005) never had a UK release. Apparently he had a new film out this year as well?

Yep...Surviving Life (Přežít svůj život). The trailer is classic Švankmajer (although that bloke at the end looks worryingly like MasterChef's Gregg Wallace)!

Surviving Life trailer
Why he's not more well known in the UK or even afforded the basic courtesy of having his movies uploaded to torrent sites, I'll never know.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I don't know where to start, given as it is probably my favourite film 'location'. I won't bang on about Eisenstein, Dovzhenko and Tarkovsky, or the greats of 1930s social realism, or some of the wonderful films that came out of Mosfilm and other heavily state controlled production companies. In terms of modern film I would say that Andrey Zvyagintsev's 2003 The Return is a wonderful little film about childhood, adolescence and manhood. It is unsentimental in a very refreshing way, and has some of the most incredibly beautiful cinematography I have ever seen. Clearly influenced by Tarkovsky, but with perhaps more commitment to the realist tradition than his forebear was (for obvious reasons), it really shines out as a strangely brutal and beautiful little film.

[Dark Sky]

Mmm I love Svankmajer.  Amazing to think he still makes films...must be so many I've never seen, which is quite exciting!

Hungary: If you fancy a bit of Hungarian, the almost-dialogue-free 2002 movie Hukkle is a treat.

I'd completely forgotten about it, but I saw this at the cinema!  Lovely movie, with a lot of power in its humorous edits.  Yes, you heard.

I watched the American film Everything is Illuminated this evening.  I thought it was one of the best films I've seen all year, a truly wonderful experience.  It stars Elijah Wood as a Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to find the town where his grandfather grew up, and from which he escaped the holocaust.  He employs a local tour guide to take him there, and the film is largely a road movie about their journey across Ukraine.  It's wonderfully funny and entertaining, which gradually becomes poignant and touching as the film nears its end.  It's highly respectful of Ukraine, particularly in its humour, and is ultimately very uplifting.  Oh and it has a great score too.  I'd never heard of the film, but it was made in 2005 and I'd really recommend it.

I read the book the other month and loved the sections about the author traversing across Ukraine with his confused tour guide, yet the rest of the book kinda left me very cold.  I had the film was good, though, so I really must see it.

[CaledonianGonzo]

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (a Romanian movie) is worth a watch, if (IMHO) slightly over-long.  It seems to crop up fairly frequently on Film4 if you have FreeView.

Also - there are obviously plenty of classic movies set in Vienna, which is pretty damn Eastern (it's a lot further east than Prague, for a kick-off).

[Funcrusher]

In art house critic circles there's a lot of fuss being made about Romanian films at the mo. 3 Months etc is well worth a look. I've not see 'The Death of Mr Lazaresu', but it's had a lot of rave notices, likewise the latest from the same director, 'Aurora'. I can recomend 'Police, Adjective', in which a bored small town cop is ordered to endlessly follow some college kids in order to catch them smoking dope, to slowly cumulative comic effect. 12:08 East of Bucharest by the same director is also good.

How about totemic Pole Andrzej Wajda? Ashes and Diamonds is amazing.

[Zetetic]

I have a pair of moderately mindless suggestions

Kontroll (Control)'s a fairly fun film about ticket inspectors on the Budapest underground. I'm not so convinced about how well the 'thriller' aspect works, but I thought it was very enjoyable to watch.

Дом дураков (House of Fools) is set in psychiatric hospital during the First Chechen War, and centres on a woman who has delusions regarding, and hallucinations of, Bryan Adams. It swings massively between the mind-numbingly stupid and the really rather interesting, but again I found it rather fun to watch.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I have a pair of moderately mindless suggestions

Kontroll (Control)'s a fairly fun film about ticket inspectors on the Budapest underground. I'm not so convinced about how well the 'thriller' aspect works, but I thought it was very enjoyable to watch.

Thanks for that recommendation, it's now on my Lovefilm list!

[Johnny Townmouse]

Just to say that I have recorded the following films from the TV in the last 2 weeks, so hopefully they will pop up again soon:
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Kontroll
Everything is Illuminated
Little Otik
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
...plus a couple of Tarkovsky films including Mirror and Solaris.

[Rubbish Monkey]

Klass (2007) Brutal bullying catalyzes a high school massacre in Estonia

Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_LYkn88o8]

Taxidermia (2006) Features an Amon Tobin soundtrack and a man who shoots fire out of his penis.

Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_TReXQ_K1M]

I hope the trailers are the right ones as youtube doesn't seem to be loading here at work

[wasp_f15ting]

That Everything Is Illuminated was ace. Thanks for the heads up.

I recommend import / export for a bit of realism. I found it a bit jarring at first, but please watch it in a happy mood.

[vrailaine]

Fair few great Czech new wave films, tonsa good ones, it seems.
Same goes for Poland.
Emir Kusturica has a few very good ones.
Bela Tarr is probably amazing, loved Werckmeister Harmonies but couldn't focus on Satantango.

There's loads really, just imdb's silly ratings for some from places like Turkey thatre shite may make you think otherwise.

[greencalx]

I quite enjoyed Head-On (Gegen die Wand) as a nice piece of Turko-German miserablism. You can find plot synopses in all the usual places. I particularly liked the way that the film is interspersed with traditional Turkish folk songs, serving as gruesomely obvious metaphor. (To the point where it's probably not metaphor anymore).

[Funcrusher]

If you like Head On, the same director's The Edge of Heaven is really good. 

[Santa's Boyfriend]

There are two Czech war movies about Free Czechoslovakian fighters in world war 2, both of which are flawed but worth watching.  They are: Dark Blue World, about the Battle of Britain, and Tobruk, about the African campaign.  Tobruk is particularly interesting as there really should have been a British film about it by now.  Back in 1941 it became a symbol of dogged British resistance, the port the dastardly Germans simply couldn't take.

It's like the fact that there's no movie about Monty.  Why?!

[Crabwalk]

For those that enjoyed the film, I just wanted to quickly recommend the novel 'Everything is Illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer - it's fantastic. Hilarious and horrifying. Alex's first person stuff is incredibly funny, and the magical realist sections are a stunning counterpoint.

I've always wondered how on earth they could possibly get these right in an adaptation, and so steered clear of the film. Sounds like I should give it a chance....

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I think the answer is that they didn't.  It's apparently very stripped down from the book, but is nonetheless a fantastic film.  Just be aware that large parts of the book are missing.