Russian and East European Institute

East European Feature Films

Titles in red were acquired during the 2007-2008 academic year

**Special note: DVD-PAL films may be viewed only on PAL, multi-standard DVD players, or many computers. One such player is now available in BH 506. Instructional Support Services can also offer assistance (855-8065).**

Albania
Baltics
Bulgaria
The Czech Republic
Hungary
Macedonia
Poland
Yiddish films
Romania
The former Yugoslavia

Albania

A TALE FROM THE PAST (TAL) (VHS)
1980 (1989), 86 min., Albanian with English subtitles. Directed by Dhimiter Anagnosti.
Based on the comedy "A Fourteen-Year-Old Bridegroom," by A.Z. Cajupi. A mother wants her only son to marry so that his new bride will share the house-hold burdens. The son obeys his parents' decision, but his wife loves another and is determined to free herself from the loveless marriage.

Baltic

DIEVU MISKAS (Forest of the Gods) (DIE) (DVD)
2006, 117 min., Lithuanian with English and Russian subtitles. Directed by Algimanto Puipos.
Extraordinary in its stylistics and original in its dramaturgy and direction, this film tells a story about a man, an artist, and a thinker who lived to be a prisoner of two totalitarian regimes, Soviet and Nazi, yet never lost his human spirit. The hero of this film, Professor, has an exceptional personality: he lives according to his Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, and principles of truth and morality. Imprisoned in a German concentration camp, Professor inevitably becomes involved in the drama of people sentenced to death. In order to survive in these extreme conditions, he has to transcend himself and the cruel reality—irony becomes his means of survival. After returning from his concentration camp, Professor writes a memoir that in sarcastic colors paints the Stutthof “Babel” of death. This work does not, however, meet the expectations of the Soviet authorities. The alleged Soviet freedom becomes another ordeal for Professor, no less challenging than the Nazi concentration camp.

MADE IN ESTONIA (MEST) (DVD)
2004, 100 min, Estonian with English subtitles. Directed by Rando Pettai.
Fantasy and reality dance a wicked tango in this quirky comedy about the mis-adventures of Mill and Norm, two talented radio actors living in Estonia. While playing the roles of both men and women in their hit radio show, Mill & Norm act out their own fantasies through the characters they create. Their simple existence is quickly turned upside down by the spontaneous arrival of Gerli, an extremely beautiful woman. In a desperate struggle to win Gerli's affection, the two friends, now turned rivals, try to out-create each other. As their battles escalate, reality begins to slip through their hands thanks to the manipulations of the local Mafioso. But just when all hope seems lost, here comes a little help from NATO…

THE SHOE (SHOE) (DVD)
1998, 78 min, Latvian with English subtitles. Directed by Laila Pakalnina.
Each night, Soviet tractors comb the coast looking for signs of anyone who could have infiltrated the Latvian/Soviet border. One morning three patrolmen discover a woman's shoe in the sand and footsteps leading to a quaint village. An official investigation begins. Just like Cinderella, every woman in the village tries on the shoe, though the reward for a perfect fit will not be Prince Charming!

UTTERLY ALONE (UTA) (DVD)
2004, 90 min, Lithuanian with English subtitles. Directed by Jonas Vaitkus.
Based on the Lithuanian resistance movement and the life of a legendary freedom fighter, Juozas Luksa. Although two of his brothers were killed fighting in the underground and two others were exiled to Siberia, Luksa continues the struggle for Lithuanian freedom as a representative of the underground movement in the West. After returning to Lithuania he continues to fight against the Soviet occupation, but is killed by the KGB at the age of 30.

Bulgaria

THE COUNTESS (COU) (VHS)
1989, 119 min., Bulgarian with English subtitles. Directed by Peter Popzlatev.
Called "A Bulgarian Drugstore Cowboy," this film is set in 1968 and depicts the life of eighteen-year old Sybilla. Sybilla's rebellion through drugs is a metaphor for the struggle between individuality and totalitarianism.

The Czech Republic

A DOG’S LIFE (VIR) (DVD-PAL)
1933, 84 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by M. Fric.
A musician misrepresents himself and has two lovers.

ADELHEID (ADE) (VHS)
1969, 99 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Frantisek Vlacil.
Set in the aftermath of World War II, this powerful drama concerns a former Czech soldier who inherits a manor once owned by a German family. He falls in love with Adelheid, the daughter of the previous owner, who has been reduced to servant status. An important work from director Frantisek Vlacil, who’s Marketa Lazarova (1967) was selected as the greatest Czech film in a poll of the country's top film professionals. "...a profound analysis of the human distortions caused by ideology" (Peter Hames, Central Europe Review).

ALICE (ALIC) (DVD)
1989, 94 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Svankmajer.
Jan Svankmajer, the Czech master of animation, has fulfilled a lifetime ambition in this interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. Svankmajer's Alice remains true to Carroll's original, but bears the stamp of his own distinctive style and obsessions in this combination of animation and live action filmmaking. "Brilliantly inventive...a piercing, original vision" (Terrence Rafferty, The New Yorker).

ALL MY LOVED ONES (ALL3) (DVD)
1999, 91 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Matej Minac.
Matej Minac's heartbreaking and poignant story of one family's experience at the onset of World War II that is inspired by the real life heroics of Nicholas Winton, an English stockbroker who saved hundreds of Czech Jewish children from the Nazis. The Silbersteins are a large and close knit extended family living a good life in the Czechoslovakian countryside. Believing in the decency of mankind, they don't really pay heed to the Nazi threat. Little by little, as their daily life becomes more intolerable and their personal effects stripped away, they realize the true horror of what is coming, but it is too late. Knowing their inevitable fate, the Silberstein's have to make their toughest decision ever—do they turn their young son David, over to Nicholas Winton and risk never seeing him again?

AUTUMN SPRING (AUTS) (DVD)
2002, 95 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Vladimir Michalek.
A wry, bittersweet comedy that stars Vlastimil Brodsky as Fanda, an old man who refuses to grow up. Despite pleas from his wife, Emilie, and son, who want him to make some decisions about the future, he ignores them and spends his days seeking amusement and adventure. Aided by his pal and former theatre colleague, Fanda keeps his acting skills sharpened by pretending to be a host of fascinating characters. Although he bickers with his wife, their bond is palpable. But when Fanda fakes his own death, Emilie decides she's had enough and files for divorce. The couple soon realizes, however, that old age is not a time to worry; it is the time to live each day to the fullest.

CAPRICIOUS SUMMER (CAP) (VHS)
1967, 74 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jiri Menzel.
Three middle-aged friends in a sleepy, second-class resort town are thrown into a state of sexual longing and frustration when a tightrope walker arrives with his beautiful young assistant. Director Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains) also plays the tightrope walker in this gentle, wistful comedy. "Menzel's evocation of place and mood, of soft summer days threatened by winter, of regret for lost youth and opportunity, of hope for things to come, is perfection" (Tom Milne, Time Out). Capricious Summer won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (VHS version CLO; DVD version CLO1)
1966, 89 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jiri Menzel.
An ironic, funny film about a young man on his first job in a small town railway station, trying to get sexually initiated, but who becomes an unwitting and tragic hero. Offbeat but tender, it is a comedy about frustration, eroticism and adventure. Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Picture.

CODE NAME RUBY (COD) (VHS)
1998, 80 min., Czech with English subtitles. Written and directed by Jan Nemec.
This controversial feature blends documentary, archival footage and fiction into an elliptical narrative in which two young people in Prague, an ancient seat for the practice of alchemy, follow the trail for the mystical philosopher's stone. History and future blend as Nemec, through brilliant montage sequences and fanciful leaps of the imagination, posits crucial questions about the legacy of the past and how it influences the individual's personal freedom and responsibility.

THE COLLECTED SHORTS OF JAN SVANKMAJER, Vol. 1 (SVA1) (DVD)
2003, 86 min., English and Czech with English subtitles.

THE COLLECTED SHORTS OF JAN SVANKMAJER, Vol. 2 (SVA2) (DVD)
2003, 76 min., English and Czech with English subtitles.
A collection of short films from famed Czech filmmmaker Jan Svankmajer, one of cinema's most consistently surprising, wildly imaginative surrealists of our time. Utilizing a delirious combination of puppets, humans, stop-motion animation and live-action, Svankmajer's films conjure up a dreamlike universe that is at once dark, macabre, witty and perversely visceral.

THE COW (COW) (VHS)
1994, 86 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Karel Kachyna.
Parable about a simple man on a remote mountain top who cares for his ailing mother until he is forced to sell their single cow in order to buy her morphine. The mother dies anyway, but is replaced by a house maid, who in turn is replaced by another woman.

DARK BLUE WORLD (DARK) (DVD)
2002, 115 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Sverak.
Having flown for the British Royal Air Force, Czech pilot Franta Slama (Ondrej Vetchy) finds himself imprisoned in a post-World War II totalitarian Communist labor camp for "betraying" his country. Rewinding this story, award-winning director Jan Sverak takes us back to when Franta and his young protégé Karel Vojtisek (Krystof Hadek) escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to join the RAF in fighting the Germans. Frustrated at not being allowed to fly against the enemy until they can speak English and their RAF re-training is complete, a strong father/son bond between Franta and Karel quickly develops. After three months of training they are finally sent into combat, but the stress of the war, plus their mutual love for a married English woman, tests their strong friendship. Dark Blue World is a story about love, comradeship and sacrifice told with the nostalgic sentiment of classic Hollywood movies and the romance and historical backdrop of World War II.

DAISIES (DAI) (DVD)
1966, 74 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Vera Chytilova.
In this key film from the Czech New Wave directed by Vera Chytilova, two uninhibited young women (both named Marie) turn against the numbing state of society in a madcap flurry of pranks and material destruction. Beneath the outrageous surface of this avant-garde comedy is a defiant feminist statement and an acknowledgement of the desperation that goes hand-in-hand with rebellion--a state of mind represented by one girl's attempted suicide. The film so unsettled Czech government officials (and a great many other men) that its release was held up for a year. "...the most adventurous and anarchic Czech movie of the 1960s" (The Faber Companion to Foreign Films).

DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (and A Bite to Eat) (DIA1) (VHS)
1964, 71 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Nemec.
One of the breakthrough films of the Czech New Wave. Based on a short story by Arnost Lustig, it is the story of two boys who escape from a Nazi transport train, told in a visual, surrealistic style. On the same tape is Nemec and Lustig's 1960 short film, A Bite to Eat, presented in Czech with German subtitles.

DIVIDED WE FALL (DIV) (DVD)
2000, 122 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Hrebejk.
In German-occupied Czechoslovakia, a young couple provides shelter to a Jewish neighbor, taking extreme and sometimes comical measures to protect him and themselves. Petr Jarchovsky, with director Jan Hrebejk, adapted his own novel for this Oscar-nominated feature that won the Czech Film and Television Awards for Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. "Mr. Hrebejk and Mr. Jarchovsky, working in the rich Czech tradition of absurdist humanism, construct a universe booby-trapped with impossible choices and ethical puzzles" (A.O. Scott, New York Times).

FORBIDDEN DREAMS (aka DEATH OF THE BEAUTIFUL BUCK) (FORB1) (DVD-PAL)
1986, 86 min., Czech with English subtitles.  Directed by Karel Kachyna.
A world of simple truths and the Pooper family. The father, Leo, works at Elektrolux, but his full vitality appears during the war when he takes risks under the nose of the Germans to help his family.

ECSTASY (ECS) (DVD)
1932, 89 min., German with English subtitles. Directed by Gustav Machaty.
This historic film originally suffered from the notoriety of its nude scene with Hedy Lamarr, the very thing has kept it in the public eye up to today. The Pope denounced it, Hitler banned it, American distributors censored it and Hedy's millionaire German munitions maker husband tried to buy up all the prints and destroy them. But there's much more to this film than that puritanical reception suggests. Hedy plays a young bride with an impotent husband who has an affair but refuses to go away with her lover when the husband commits suicide. Notable for its use of location sound and its very stylish, lyrical eroticism and images that beg psychoanalytic interpretation.

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (ELE) (VHS)
1991, 100 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Sverak.
The Elementary School explores the lives of pre-adolescent boys in a series of fondly remembered vignettes. The Nazis have departed and the Communists have not arrived, and in this idyllic interlude there is ample room for little boys, eager to grow up, to attract mischief. After one teacher is driven to the brink of madness, a new one arrives in Eda's class. Igor Hnizdo, the war hero, arrives in full military garb. Hnizdo charges the lives of many in the neighborhood, though it becomes apparent that there is more, or perhaps less, to Hnizdo than everybody at first thought. Even so, in Eda's neighborhood there is room for many different kinds of people and tolerance of their weaknesses. And so life goes on.

FIREMEN'S BALL (VHS version FIR; DVD version FIR2)
1967, 73 min., VHS is dubbed in English, DVD is in Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Milos Forman.
The situation is the annual firemen's ball in which the volunteer firemen hold a beauty contest, but things inevitably go wrong—someone steals the prize and the headcheese, and in the ensuing panic a house next door burns down.

THE GRANDMOTHER (BAB1) (DVD-PAL)
1940, 92 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Frantisek Cap.
An adaptation of a novel about a simple village woman who makes an impression on the life of her daughter's family and the people around her. She gains the respect of all, she knows how to listen, she is empathetic and she understands pain. This draws her close to a countess, a priest, a girl, crazy Viktor, and mostly her granddaughter.

INTIMATE LIGHTING (INT3) (VHS)
1965, 73 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Ivan Passer.
Two old friends, both musicians, meet after ten years apart and share their memories and sense of disillusionment as they prepare for a concert in a small, provincial town. This was Ivan Passer's second film as a director (he also scripted three of Milos Forman's films) and his last before going to work in America after the Soviet invasion of Prague. "...a tender, well-observed comedy about the everyday pleasures of life, the gentle humor concealing regret" (The Faber Companion to Foreign Films).

THE JOKE (JOK) (DVD)
1968, 80 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jaromil Jires.
Based on a novel by Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and co-scripted by the author, this dark and ironic film was shot during the Prague Spring of 1968. After ending a postcard with a humorous reference to Trotsky, a young man is sentenced to years of hard labor for his joke. Upon his release, he sets out to take revenge by seducing the wife of the Communist Party official who turned him in. The film and book were subsequently banned in Czechoslovakia. Author and critic Amos Vogel called this film "possibly the most shattering indictment of totalitarianism to come out of a Communist country...a chilling examination of a corrupt society."

KOLYA (VHS version KOL; DVD version KOL1)
1996, 105 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Sverak.
A charmer of a movie, due, in no small part, to the wonderful performances of Zdenek Sverak as the confirmed, set-in-his-ways bachelor and Andrej Chalimon as the six-year-old Russian boy stranded in Prague by his mother, who first turns Sverak's life upside down and ultimately wins over his heart. An Oscar and Golden Globe-winner for Best Foreign Film, this "gem of a film" (New York Times) also features political overtones in its whimsical look at a musician reduced to playing at funerals because of his outspokenness and the fact that his brother has emigrated.

KYTICE (KYT) (DVD-PAL)
2000, 78 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by F.A. Brabec.
Seven exhilarating stories that could have happened anywhere and at any time and that could apply even today because they are about love and emotion, about desires, obsessions and selfishness which does not change over the centuries.

LARKS ON A STRING (LAR) (VHS)
1969, 96 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jiri Menzel.
While serving time for desertion, and taking steps toward re-education, a rag-tag group of workers unite as a young couple in the camp decides to marry. Even the prison guards are unable to resist the unlikely romance, as the wedding and on-site honeymoon unfold in a series of hilarious plot twists. Banned for two decades because of its criticism of the Communist regime.

LEMONADE JOE (LEMO) (VHS)
1964, 87 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Oldrich Lipsky.
At the Trigger Whiskey Saloon, a beautiful temperance crusader is threatened by hard-drinking villains. Riding to her rescue is Lemonade Joe, who--as his moniker indicates--doesn't touch the "fire water." A sweet and often very funny spoof of Hollywood westerns from director Oldrich Lipsky, who began his career as artistic director of Prague's Satirical Theater and went on to make several memorable film comedies.

LITTLE OTIK (OTESANEK) (OTES) (DVD)
2002, 126 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Svankmajer.
Surrealist master Jan Svankmajer brings a famous Czech legend eerily to life in the darkly hilarious cautionary tale of Little Otik. An ordinary couple, Karel and Bozena, are unable to conceive a child. When Karel digs up a tree root and whittles something vaguely resembling a human baby, Bozena's maternal longings transform the stump into a living creature with a (literally) monstrous appetite that can't be met with baby formula. Svankmajer brilliantly mixes his wicked humor with his subversive politics and love of mythology into a stunning live-action fable for our times.

LOVES OF A BLONDE (LOV) (VHS)
1965, 88 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Milos Forman.
This film depicts life in a small factory town in Czechoslovakia where the women outnumber men by ten to one. For teenage girls entering womanhood, this imbalance results in an impassioned desire to find out about "real life" and love. When a band of army reservists come to town, Andula meets a young pianist and passion is immediately kindled.

MANDRAGORA (MAND) (DVD)
1997, 135 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Wiktor Grodecki.
Mirek Caslavka stars as a young kid who spurns the workaday robotic lifestyle, continuing from the communist era, which has hung his father out to waste. From his drab origins he is drawn by economic liberties and flashy materialism to the toxic city of Prague, where everything can be had for a price. He is soon led into the world of male prostitution, teaming up with another boy (David Spec, the film's co-writer) as they try to survive in a world dominated by sex, drugs and teen porn. "A riveting, brutally honest portrayal" (Variety).

MEN OFFSIDE (MEN) (DVD-PAL)
1931, 93 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Svatopluk Inneman.
Men Offside is about a rivalry between two soccer fan clubs.

MY SWEET LITTLE VILLAGE (MY) (VHS)
1986, 100 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains).
A Laurel and Hardy-like comedy about the commonplace events which occur in a small Czech town.

NACERADEC, THE KING OF KIBITZER (MEN) (DVD-PAL)
1932, 97 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by G. Machaty.
A conflict between two men who are represented in court by their two children.

ON THE COMET (ON) (VHS)
1985, 76 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Karel Zeman.
This example of Czech animation of the 1950s brings to life Jules Verne's classic science fiction adventure. Appropriate for all age levels.

PASTURES NEW (MEZI NAMI ZLODEJI) (PAS) (VHS)
1962, 92 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Vladimir Cech.
A comedy about three prisoners recently released from jail and their experiences returning home to their small village.

PRAYER FOR KATARINA HOROVITZOVA (PRA) (VHS)
1969, 60 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Arnost Lustig.
This is the story of a beautiful Polish singer and her passion for life, set against the backdrop of the cruel game of trading Jewish lives for those of Nazi officers imprisoned in American jails.

A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS (REP) (VHS)
1966, 71 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Nemec.
A miracle of the Czech New Wave, distinguished with being "banned forever" shortly after its completion, while The New York Times considered it to be "evocative of Kafka or Dostoevsky". A group of picnickers are led to an elegant banquet, where the "guests" quickly turn collaborators in this brilliant analysis of society and the individual.

THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (SHO) (VHS)
1965, 126 min., Slovak with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos.
The film examines the funny and touching relationship between an elderly Jewish shopkeeper and her Nazi-appointed "Aryan controller."

SWEET LIGHT IN A DARK ROOM (SWE) (VHS)
1960, 93 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jiri Weiss.
Jiri Weiss's meaningful exploration of human kindness, love, suspicion and tragedy in the face of destruction. This film tells the story of Pavel, a young Aryan student, who in an impulsive act hides a kind Jewish girl in the attic of his apartment building.

TEREZA (TER) (VHS)
1961, 91 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Pavel Blumenfeld.
An exciting and complicated murder mystery featuring a female police officer. Based on the novel by Anna Sedlmaye Rovia.

THREE WISHES FOR CINDERELLA (THC) (DVD)
1973, 85 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Vaclav Vorlicek.
This 1973 cult classic is a sumptuous, beautifully realized retelling of the Cinderella fable with a twist; this Cinderella rides horses and shoots like a sharpshooter. Cinderella's strength of character and control over her own destiny, in addition to a wonderful set design and camerawork, distinguishes this version of the story and adds to its timeless grace.

VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS (VAL) (DVD)
1970, 73 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Jaromil Jires.
The line between fantasy and reality are blurred in this surreal and sexual horror tale from one of the Czech New Wave's top directors. After receiving a pair of bewitched earrings, a young girl's world is turned upside-down. Soon, vampires and carnal priests disrupt the girl's slumber, ravaging her innocence and awakening the woman within. Beautifully filmed.

VIRGINITY (VIR) (DVD-PAL)
1937, 83 min., Czech with English subtitles.  Directed by O. Vavra.
The doomed love of a city girl caught in the vice of poverty.

THE WHITE DOVE (WHI2) (DVD)
1960, 67 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Frantisek Vlacil.
A beautiful, poetic vision from Frantisek Vlacil, the director of Marketa Lazarova. A sick carrier pigeon en route to its home on the Baltic Sea becomes lost and lands in Prague, where it is rescued and nurtured back to health by a small, frail boy. Soon the boy and the bird develop a friendship that touches all around them.

WITCHES’ HAMMER (Kladivo na carodejnice) (WITC) (DVD)
1970, 103 min., Czech with English subtitles. Directed by Otakar Vavra.
Much like The Crucible, this riveting drama tells the true story of the last gasp of notorious witch hunts in Bohemia. A ruthless inquisitor spins the superstitions of local peasants into religious heresy, finding cause to accuse dozens of innocent men and women of witchcraft. The inquisitor targets nobles and merchants, whose property and goods are then confiscated. After suffering an array of medieval tortures, most of the accused confess—only to be burned alive at the state as helpless villagers watch. With its bold and striking cinematography, the film captures scenes of both daring nudity and brutal torture.

Hungary

ABANDONED (ABA) (DVD)
2001, 98 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Arpad Sopsits.
A nine-year-boy is abandoned at an orphanage where life is bleak and the headmaster is plainly sadistic. Enduring beatings from the staff and other boys, he finally forges a friendship that gives him the strength to stand up and lead his classmates in a revolt against their institution. Winner of the “Grand Prix des Ameriques” at the Montreal World Film Festival.

ADOPTION (ADO) (VHS)
1975, 89 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Marta Meszaros.
Kati wants a child, but her married lover won't oblige- so it falls to Anna, her newfound friend, to help her have a child and learn to love and survive. A warm and intimate drama about love and friendship between two women, Adoption is a haunting, gripping vision of people struggling for love and contact in a dispassionate world.

BOLSHE VITA (BOL) (VHS)
1996, 90 min., Hungarian and Russian with English subtitles. Directed by Ibolya Fekete.
This acclaimed, multiple-award-winning film centers around a group of young people who meet in a rock pub in Budapest in the summer of 1989 during Hungary's fleeting celebration of Communism's fall. This Pynchonesque crew includes two goofy Russian musicians, an engineer who has been reduced to selling kitchen knives, and two girlfriends, English and American, in search of action. After the fun and romance, they must move on, as the mafia and the onset of new nationalist chaos closes in.

COLONEL REDL (VHS version COL; DVD version COL2)
1984, 114 min., German with English subtitles.Directed by Istvan Szabo.
Istvan Szabo's brilliant historic epic of intrigue, continuing his concern with responsibility and guilt established with his Mephisto. Klaus Maria Brandauer stars in the epic story of espionage, love and lust, set in Austria during the years leading up to World War I. Alfred Redl (Brandauer) rises from peasant to high-ranking member of the Imperial Austrian military, but he hides a secret life of homosexuality. Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

ELECTRA, MY LOVE (ELE) (DVD)
1974, 71 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Miklos Jancso.
In an awesome leap of imagination, Miklos Jancso, one of the world's great filmmakers, relocates the classic myth of Electra to a desolate Hungarian plain. Here, the nail-biting drama plays out against the rituals of naked girls and galloping horsemen. The film is shot as a visual epic, with elaborate camera moves that are Jancso's famous signature. When Electra takes off in a red helicopter, the story catapults into the future, in a masterstroke that leaves the audience breathless.

FATHER (FATH) (DVD)
1966, 95 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Istvan Szabo.
This sensitive, intelligent study of adolescence and maturation focuses on a young man whose defense mechanism consists of idealizing the memory of his dead father. One of the key films of the Hungarian film renaissance, Father is a daring, emotionally charged film.

FORBIDDEN RELATIONS (FORB) (DVD)
1983, 92 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Zsolt Kezdi-Kovacs.
A true story of incest and its repercussions is brought to life in this exceptional drama that goes far beyond the sensationalism of the subject matter. It is a powerful tale of two lovers who discover they are half-siblings. They refuse to end their relationship even after the young woman's pregnancy puts them up against social ostracism and imprisonment. "...a delirious expression of l'amour fou, effectively filmed against a prosaic background. Driving, floating long takes, reminiscent of Kezdi-Kovacs's mentor Miklos Jancso, are used to express the uncontrollable passion of the young couple..." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).

HANUSSEN (HAN) (VHS)
1989, 117 min., German with English subtitles. Directed by Istvan Szabo.
The third part to the Mephisto-Colonel Redl trilogy, this is the story of a charismatic magician and clairvoyant who predicts the future with an uncanny accuracy. When the Nazis seize power, he is forced to choose between joining them and standing alone.

HUNGARIAN FAIRY TALE (HUN1) (VHS)
1988, 97 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Gyula Gazdag.
This film begins at a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute where a beautiful young woman meets a handsome stranger. The son born of this magic night is raised by his mother, but, at the age of three, he must be given a father's name, even a fictitious one, according to Hungarian law. Years later, the son sets out to find his "father."

HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY (HUN2) (VHS)
1983, 101 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Miklos Jancso.
Set in 1911, the film follows the central character, Istvan, a nobleman who joins ranks with the peasants in opposition to his brother, who chooses to work for the established order. Jancso achieves a dialectical relationship between the forces of history and the viewer's subjective relationship to it, probing the essence of individual choice versus historical forces.

I LOVE BUDAPEST (ILO) (DVD)
2001, 85 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Agnes Incze.
This portrait of modern Hungarian youth earned critical accolades in its homeland. It's a stylish, fast-moving account of a young woman (Gabriella Hamori in an impressive screen debut) from a rural town who comes to the city in search of a better life. She finds a job, new friends, and romance, but it's all endangered when she discovers that her closest friend's boyfriend is deeply involved with the criminal world.

THE LITTLE VALENTINO (LIT) (VHS)
1979, 102 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Andras Jeles.
The events of this deceptively simple black and white feature are concentrated on a single day. The film focuses on Laszlo, a 20-year-old driver's assistant, who spends his day and his money--which he has just stolen--in the aimlessness of everyday life.

LOVE (LOV1) (VHS)
1971, 92 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Karoly Makk.
In her last days, a bedridden matriarch enters into an unspoken pact with her daughter-in-law that will allow her to live proudly and die happily. The young Luca, whose husband has been seized by the secret police, concocts a story of his voyage to America and imminent success as a film-maker.

LOVEFILM (LOV4) (DVD)
1970, 123 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Colonel Redl, Sunshine).
This film follows two childhood sweethearts who are inseparable until the Nazi's invasion of Hungary. They reunite, only to be separated again in the mid-fifties when one lover rejects Communist rule and emigrates to France while the other remains in Budapest. Keeping in touch through letters, they finally meet again and must decide if their lives will remain united or apart. "A gentle but telling film about human experience and the vagaries of love" (Gene Moskowitz, Variety). A.k.a. A Film About Love.

MARIA'S DAY (MAR) (VHS)
1985, 113 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed Judit Elek.
One of the most acclaimed Hungarian films, Judit Elek's film is set 17 years after the failed revolution of 1848. An aristocratic family gathers at the home of Ignac Czendrey to celebrate his youngest daughter's Name Day. In the course of the one day, the unusual past and present of the family are unfolded. The family is related to the revolutionary and legendary poet Sandor Petofi and desperately tries to live up to the Petofi myth. They dream of a heroic new epoch, but while they dream, the mundaneness of the present overcomes them.

MEPHISTO (VHS version MEP; DVD version MEPH)
1981, 134 min., VHS dubbed in English; DVD-German with English Subtitles. Directed by Istvan Szabo.
Istvan Szabo's powerful, Academy-Award winner (Best Foreign Language Film) stars Klaus Maria Brandauer as an actor in pre-war Germany whose quest for success leads him to subordinate everything--political conviction, human relationships, artistic ambition. He is ultimately drawn into a poisonous circle of evil from which he can no longer escape.

THE MIDAS TOUCH (MID) (VHS)
1989, 100 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Geza Beremenyi.
The story unfolds on the flea-market in Budapest from 1945 until 1956, where Monori the merchant is the king of the market. Just like King Midas, whatever he touches turns to gold. This ability to turn a quick profit on anything from apples to lentils leads him to believe that gold is the ultimate power. In 1956 blood flows on the streets of Budapest. With gold in his sack, he is going to put the magical yellow metal to the test once more.

MY TWENTIETH CENTURY (MY1) (VHS)
1990, 104 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Ildiko Enyedi.
At the turn of the century, two identical twins grow up and explore their worlds in very opposite ways. The erotic and playful Dora is a soft and self-indulgent contrast to her bomb-throwing revolutionary sister Lili, who was separated from her at birth. The sisters finally cross paths on the Orient Express by sleeping with the same confused man.

OH, BLOODY LIFE!... (OH) (VHS)
1988, 115 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Peter Bacso.
The first half of the 1950's is shadowed by Stalin's name in Hungary. The story is set in the spring of 1951 when a most brutal operation was undertaken--the deportation of some of Budapest's citizens who had done nothing to deserve this fate. Lucy, the young actress, is also deported because her former husband was an aristocrat.

THE RED AND THE WHITE (REDW) (DVD)
1968, 92 min, Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Miklos Jancso.
Miklos Jancso's haunting work about the absurdity and evil of war. Set in Central Russia during the Civil War of 1918, the story details the constant shifting of power between the White guards and the Red soldiers, first at an abandoned monastery, and later, at a field hospital. Using the wide-screen technique consisting of very long takes and a ceaselessly tracking camera movement, Jancso has fashioned a brilliant visual style that gives his film the quality of a surreal nightmare.

RED EARTH (RED) (VHS)
1993, 105 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Laszlo Vitezy.
A shrewd satire about the miracles of life under Hungarian socialism. A bauxite mixer discovers his pigs have unearthed high quality bauxite from his back yard. The buaxite prospectors refuse to acknowledge that Szanto and his pigs made the lucky strike, crediting, instead, careful and methodical planning.

THE ROUND UP (ROU) (VHS)
1966, 90 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Miklos Jancso.
Set in an isolated 1868 Hungarian prison camp amidst a vast, featureless plain. The film reveals the subtler forms of physical and psychological torture used to turn the men against one another and betray confidences which will result in others being shot or hanged.

SINBAD (SIN) (VHS)
1970, 78 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Zolan Huszariik.
Sinbad is based on a novel by Gyula Krudy which tells the story of the reminiscences by an aging Don Juan of past romantic encounters. The story is set around the turn of the century in Hungary. Sinbad is praised for its strong use of color on film.

SUNSHINE (SUN) (DVD)
1999, 180 min., English. Directed by Istvan Szabo.
Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Rachel Weisz and Deborah Kara Unger star in this earnest, finely crafted, epic drama from Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Colonel Redl). In a tour de force performance, Fiennes plays three roles--father, son, and grandson in a Budapest family that struggles to survive the anti-Semitism that permeates the generations of each man. The film does a marvelous job of recreating the details of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nazi and Communist eras in Hungary. "...a meditation on the agonies of 20th-century history. It's a brilliant, profound movie" (Stephen Hunter, Washington Post).

25, FIREMEN'S STREET (TWE) (VHS)
1973, 93 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Istvan Szabo.
The setting is an old house on the eve of its demolition; during a hot summer night, the numerous inhabitants indulge in dreams and recollections of the events of the past thirty years.

A VERY MORAL NIGHT (VER) (VHS)
1977, 103 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Koroly Makk.
A spirited turn of the century tale of a poor medical student lodging cheaply and happily in a bordello. When his widowed mother makes a surprise visit, the madam and the girls set about converting the place into a respectable boarding house.

WE NEVER DIE (WEN) (VHS)
1993, 90 min., In Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Robert Koltai
A wonderful, unabashedly raunchy period comedy that takes place in the 1960's with Uncle Gyuszi about to take his gawky teenaged nephew Imi along with him from fair to fair to sell his fabulous wooden hangers. For Imi, this is also to be an educational trip on the ways of life, happiness and love. They follow Uncle's golden rules: Don't take life too seriously, and find the humor in every situation.

THE WITNESS (WIT) (VHS)
1968, 110 min., Hungarian with English subtitles. Directed by Peter Bacso.
This film was banned for more than nine years. Set in 1949, the film is a political satire that mixes forms and styles, symbolism and screwball farce. The story concerns a middle level functionary who's imprisoned and eventually manipulated into providing testimony against his best friend, a government minister on trial for treason.

Macedonia

BEFORE THE RAIN (BEF) (VHS)
1995, 112 min., Macedonian and English with English subtitles. Directed by Milcho Manchevsky.
In a monastery in Macedonia, a young man must abandon his vows of silence to save a girl from a hate-filled mob. In London, a woman torn between a loveless marriage and a passionate affair with a war photographer finds fate dictates a choice she couldn't make on her own. An in Yugoslavia, the photographer returns to a nation divided by religious hatred and violence. His effort to salvage some small portion of peace will have an impact no one could foresee, and bring all three stories full circle. Nominated for the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

DUST (DUST) (DVD)
2001, 124 min., English. Directed by Milcho Manchevski.
At the turn of the last century, two brothers, Luke (David Wenham) and Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) fall in love with the same woman. When she chooses the younger of the two, the embittered older brother travels to Europe where he becomes a ruthless mercenary…but the revolution soon takes a personal twist with one brother hanging on the edge of life and death.

THE GREAT WATER (GREA) (DVD)
2005, 90 min., Macedonian with English subtitles, Directed Ivo Trajkov.
After the end of World War II, Young Lem, like so many war orphans, wanders aimlessly through the Macedonian countryside only to be caught by communist soldiers. They take him to the children's orphanage, in fact, a labor camp were kids go to be ideologically "reprogrammed." Lem endures terrible abuse at the hands of the camp leaders, but one day, a mysterious older boy appears at the orphanage. Lem chases after him, and the two become partners in religiously tinged crime.

GOODBYE, 20th CENTURY (GOOD) (VHS)
2000, 90min., Macedonian with English subtitles. Directed by Aleksandar Popovski and Darko Mitrevski.
With wholly bizarre imagery and embracing a nihilistic vision of human depravity and futility, this Macedonian feature takes place in three different time periods (2019, 1919 and 1999). Santa Claus is a messenger of death, incestuous love brings a curse of immortality, and general cruelty reigns in this film of a generation which has grown up and lives at the threshold of war.

MIRAGE (MIRA) (DVD)
2004, 107 min., Macedonian with English subtitles. Directed by Svetozar Ristovski.
Tortured by a tumultuous home life and school bullies, young Marko finds hope when his teacher encourages him to enter a poetry competition in Paris. But when the teacher cowers before the same bullies and eventually dashes the boy’s hopes and dreams, Marko seeks guidance from another role model: a mercenary who tells him in life one must “either eat or be eaten”.

Poland

ASHES AND DIAMONDS (ASH) (DVD)
1961, 105 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
Rural Poland, on the last day of World War II. The Nazis have surrendered, and the Red Army has criss-crossed the country. With the battle against the Nazis over, a new struggle emerges: the struggle against the Communists. A group of Polish patriots boldly set out to assassinate a mid-level Communist party functionary. Maciek, a James Dean in dark glasses, is the trigger-man. But when he spots a gorgeous blonde behind the bar, his priorities change....

BLUE
1993, 98 min. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Juliette Binoche stars in this provocative thriller, a role for which she won the Cesar Award and the Venice Film Festival Award as best actress. She becomes entangled in a mysterious web of passion and lies after she digs into the past life of her recently and unexpectedly deceased husband. Part One of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed trilogy, Three Colors. Belongs to the West European Studies Department. Please contact them at west@indiana.edu to inquire about checking out this title.

THE BORDER (GRANICA) (GRAN) (VHS)
1938, 90 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Jozef Lejtes.
Forbidden love leads to misery and death in this classic of early Polish cinema. With E. Barszczewska, L. Zelichowska, and J. Pichekski

THE DECALOGUE (DEC1, DEC2, and DEC3) (DVD)
1999, 10 episodes of 55 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue explores the timeless moral issues of human existence through ten contemporary tales, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. Originally produced for Polish television, this brilliant series of ten separate but subtly intertwining films transcended the boundaries of film and TV, winning honors in both arenas as it played around the world. Each episode was co-written by Kieslowski's longtime collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz and features music by Zbigniew Preisner. On three separate DVDs.

EVERYTHING FOR SALE (EVE) (DVD)
1968, 94 min., Polish with English subtitles. Direced by Andrzej Wajda.
Director Andrzej Wajda (Maids of Wilko) pays tribute to his late friend and collaborator, Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, in this behind-the-scenes look at a film set disrupted by the sudden death of their leading man, who died trying to jump onto a moving train - the same manner in which Cybulski died. Not letting grief derail their work, the cast and crew deal with the loss while completing the film without their star.

EUROPA EUROPA (EUR)
1991, 100 min., Polish and German with English subtitles. Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
A powerful story of a courageous German-Jewish teenager who survived World War II by concealing his identity and living as a Nazi during seven harrowing years through three countries. Based on a true story.

FAMILY LIFE (FAM)
1971, 93 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi.
After six years in Warsaw, a design engineer reluctantly returns home to a dilapidated mansion in the country. There he must confront his alcoholic father and a slightly deranged sister, as well as his own life.

FAUSTINA (FAU) (VHS)
1995, 88 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Jerry Lukaszewicz
This film is an artistic representation of the mythical life led by Sister Faustina Kowalska, a member of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, based upon experiences recorded in her spiritual diary. It is a feature of a religious character that depicts the complexity of human nature and the impenetrable mystery of its relationship with God.

H.M. DESERTERS (HMD) (DVD)
1986, 160 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Jan Majewski, starring Marek Kondrat, Wiktor Zborowski. A bunch of "Politically suspected" soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose job is to guard a camp of Italian POW's, desert their post. Their adventure has just begun.

INNOCENT SORCERORS (INN) (VHS)
1960, 86 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
A bachelor doctor, who is also a jazz musician, can't quite commit himself to his superficial girlfriend. He and his aimless friends find any kind of human contact or emotional commitment a troubling and ultimately uninviting prospect.

KANAL (KAN) (DVD)
1957, 96 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
Kanal begins on the 56th day of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. A ragtag group of trained and untrained Resistance fighters hold the frontline. They try to live a relatively normal life, and even play the piano. They achieve many small victories, but must retreat into the sewers. But the darkness stretches on forever...

KINGSIZE (KIN) (VHS)
1988, 108 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Juliusz Machulski.
This allegory made in Poland during the communist era contrasts two imaginary worlds, one made up of dwarves and the other by people of normal stature. The more servile inhabitants of the gnome kingdom are rewarded with "kingsize" drops that allow them to assume human form. Many former gnomes having entered the human world become so enchanted that they are reluctant to return.

LANDSCAPE AFTER BATTLE (LAN) (DVD)
1979, 101 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
Polish director Andrzej Wajda tells a beautiful and fatalistic story of love found in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Based on the writings of Tadeusz Borowski, an Auschwitz survivor who committed suicide at the age of 29, the film follows two concentration camp survivors who have an affair while waiting repatriation after World War II.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS (LOU) (DVD)
2001, 92 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Przemyslaw Wojcieszek.
Twenty one-year old Marcin is forced to grapple with responsibility and change when his father dies and he is left in charge of funeral arrangements. On top of that, his girlfriend announces she is leaving their industrial town in southern Poland for the United States. With references to James Dean and The Smiths, this very fine coming-of-age drama manages to capture the hopes buried beneath the surface of brooding youth.

MAN OF IRON (MAN6) (VHS)
1981, 200 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
Seamlessly weaving documentary and fictional footage, Man of Iron is a remarkable synthesis of art and history in the making. The subject is the Polish Solidarity strike at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980. Wajda tells his story through the eyes of an alcoholic TV journalist who’s order to smear one of Solidarity’s key figures, the “Man of Iron”. His investigation results in a series of flashbacks, including some rare footage of the abortive 1968 and 1970 strike attempts, that gives us a fascinating and heartfelt picture of this turbulent period of Poland’s history. Adding to the film’s credibility is the appearance of Lech Walesa in the documentary and fictional portions of the film

MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS (MOT) (VHS)
1960, 108 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
A priest, investigating demonic possession among the nuns in a 17th-century polish convent, becomes the object of desire of the Mother Superior. This is a story of repressed desire and the punishment the nun and priest inflict on themselves for their passions.

THE PIANIST (PIAN) (DVD)
2003, 150 min., English. Directed by Robert Polanski
Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. Stars Oscar winning Adrien Brody in the true-life story of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the most acclaimed young musician of his time until his promising career was interrupted by the onset of World War II. The film follows Szpilman's heroic journey of survival with the unlikely help from a sympathetic German officer. A truly unforgettable epic, testifying to both the power of hope and the resiliency of the human spirit.

PROVINCIAL ACTORS (PRO) (VHS)
1979, 104 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
This film is set in the microcosm of a group of actors working in the provinces. While the actors are staging a play, ambition, jealousy and betrayal dominate their interpersonal relations. The leading actor longs for stardom but his dreams have placed his marriage into an impossible situation.

RED
1994, 99 min. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Krzysztof Kieslowski's striking conclusion of his Three Colors trilogy stars Irene Jacob as a model, separated from her lover, who is brought by accident into the life of the aging Jean-Louis Trintignant, retired judge and electronic peeping Tom. As Irene slowly uncovers her lover's secret life, she discovers that her own past is inevitably linked to her destiny. With Jean-Pierre Lorit and Frederique Feder. Belongs to the West European Studies Department. Please contact them at west@indiana.edu to inquire about checking out this title.

ROCK BOTTOM (ROC) (VHS)
1987, 83 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Roland Rowinski.
A contemporary Polish film with the music of Grzegorz Ciechowski, the subject of which is the lack of understanding and hope among young people.

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (SAR) (VHS)
1965, 174 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Wojciech J. Has.
Based on the novel The Saragossa Manuscrip by Count Jan Potocki, this romantic, fantastic and witty tale chronicles the adventures of a Walloon guard under the King of Spain. Something of a Don Juan, this colorful 19th-century character must pass numerous tests to prove his courage, honesty, and honor in order to become a member of the powerful Maurentantian family.

THE SPRING TO COME (SPR) (VHS)
2001, 146 min., Polish and Russian with English subtitles. Directed by Filip Bajon.
As the Russian Revolution sweeps over the city of Baku, a young Pole sees tragedy strike his family and friends, causing him to leave for Poland. Once there he finds his country in a dramatic struggle and his own life takes several tumultuous turns. Starring Mateusz Damiecki, Krystyna Janda (The Decalogue, Weekend Stories) and Janusz Gajos (Three Colors: White). "...stunning...Damiecki has star power" (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times). Based on Stefan Zeromski's 1924 novel.

A TRIP DOWN THE RIVER (TRI) (VHS)
1997, 65 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Mark Piwowski and Janusz Glowacki.
The first movie in post-war Poland to achieve cult status, A Trip Down the River is an absurd comedy featuring a group of picturesque characters. It showcases a cross section of Polish society in the late sixties, spending their holidays on a boat trip to nowhere.

WHITE
1993, 92 min., French and Polish with English subtitles.
The second part of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue-White-Red trilogy, based on the concepts of the French tri-color flag. A Polish man's life disintegrates when his new French bride deserts him after only six months. Forced to begin anew, he returns to Poland and plans a clever scheme of revenge against her. Julie Delpy is great as the young wife. Belongs to the West European Studies Department. Please contact them at west@indiana.edu to inquire about checking out this title.

WITHOUT ANESTHESIA (WIT1) (VHS)
1979, 116 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
This contemporary parable offers an unmatched look at the face of Poland before the fall of Communism. A famous Polish foreign correspondent returns home from an assignment abroad to find his marriage and career falling apart. Written by Agnieszka Holland.

WITH FIRE AND SWORD, PART 1 (WITH1) (DVD)
WITH FIRE AND SWORD, PART 2 (WITH2) (DVD)
1989, 182 min., Polish with English subtitles. Directed by Jerzy Hoffman.
At the time of its release, this lavish historical epic was the most expensive Polish film ever made. Based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Quo Vadis?), this grand drama is set in 17th century Poland during the Cossack uprising against the Polish nobility. As the violent confrontation builds, there is also a battle for the heart of a beautiful girl between a dashing Pole and a brutish Ukrainian. This was the first novel in a trilogy of historical adventures by Sienkiewicz; the others (Colonel Wolodyjowski and The Deluge) have also been brought to the screen by director Jerzy Hoffman. "...a great epic of the Wild East, all the more fresh for its reliance on low-tech horsepower and old-time storytelling in an age of digital-FX blockbuster madness" (Matt Radz, Montreal Gazette).

Poland - Yiddish Films

THE DYBBUK (DYB) (VHS)
1937, 121 min., Yiddish with English subtitles, with Cantor Gerszon Sirota.
The Dybbuk is the most widely produced play in the history of Jewish theater. It has been performed in Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Polish, English, Ukrainian, Swedish, Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, French and Japanese.
"Romantic tragedy involving possession and exorcism. Intensely moving, every time you see it. As indispensable as Traviata or Butterfly".
--Stefan Zucker

GREEN FIELDS (GRE2) (VHS)
1937, 95 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
A restored Yiddish classic about a pastoral romance based on Peretz Hirschbein's legendary tale of a young student who leaves the Yeshiva to wander across the Pale in search of "true Jews." When the orphaned, otherworldly scholar happens upon a family of Jewish peasants who take him in as a boarder and tutor for their children, an interesting juxtaposition of lifestyles ensues.

JEWISH LUCK (JEW) (VHS)
1935, 100 min., Silent with Yiddish and English titles.
Directed by Alecsander Granowskij, this film is an adaptation to the cinema of Menachem Mendel Letters by Shalom Aleichem. Each one of those letters tells the story of a Jew who is leaving his house and going to wander on the roads in search of his luck, finds it, but finally loses it all and finds himself again at the starting point. In this film the hero leaves his village and tries his luck in various jobs from selling corsets to selling insurance, and eventually goes into the match-making business.

A LETTER TO MOTHER (LET) (VHS)
1938, 106 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Joseph Green.
One of the most famous of Yiddish-language American films. Set in the Polish Ukraine and New York City, the film traces the break-up of a family due to stress, poverty, the chaos of war, and the difficulties of immigrant life. With Berta Gerstein and Lucy Gehrman.

LITTLE MOTHER (MAM) (VHS)
1938, 100 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Joseph Green.
Joseph Green directs this Yiddish-language, American-made film about a young girl (the famous Molly Picon) who is left with the responsibilities of tending house for a helpless and ungrateful family of seven.

THE SINGING BLACKSMITH (SING) (VHS)
1938, 95 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.
David Pinski's classic story of a blacksmith who sees too many women and drinks far too much liquor. Then he meets Tamare and his life drastically changes, or does it? In this charming story, set in Eastern Europe but filmed in New Jersey, we are treated to a quaintly romantic film in the tradition of classic Yiddish comedy-drama.

TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN (TEV) (VHS)
1939, 96 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Maurice Schwartz.
This memorable adaptation of Sholem Aleichem's play centers on Tevye, the dairyman, and his daughter Khave, who falls in love with Fedye, the Gentile son of a Ukrainian peasant. Her courtship and marriage pit Tevye's deep-seated faith and loyalty to tradition. Made from a completely restored print. "With all due respect for Zero Mostel and Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, it was Maurice Schwartz, the great Yiddish actor/director, who first showed Tevye the Dairyman in his full light as a mensch for all seasons. A rare opportunity to see Schwartz in what may have been his most magnificent role" (Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle).

YIDL WITH HIS FIDDLE (YID) (VHS)
1938, 92 min., Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Joseph Green.
The classic Yiddish language musical-comedy that has been called the best Yiddish motion picture of all time. Molly Picon plays a shtetl girl who, disguised as a boy, goes off with her father and a band of traveling musicians into the Polish countryside.

Romania

12:08 EAST OF BUCAHREST (1208) (DVD)
2006, 89 min., Romanian with English subtitles, Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu
On the 16th Anniversary of the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, a local anchorman of a nearby provincial town invites two of his acquaintances to share their moments of revolutionary glory on his talk show. One is an impish, insightful retiree who sometimes poses as Santa Claus, the other a henpecked, hard-drinking teacher who has just devoted his entire salary to his drinking debts. Together they will remember the day when they stormed their town hall calling “down with Ceausescu”, or did they? Winner of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or.

ATUNCI I-AM CONDAMNAT PE TOTI LA MOARTE (Then I Sentenced Them All to Death) (ATU) (DVD-PAL)
1971, 103 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu
Based on the novel Ipu’s Death by Titus Ppovici, this troubling film presents the drama of a small Transylvanian village during World War II. Ipu is a “village idiot”, who becomes friends with a boy (Cristian Sofron) traumatized by the death of his father. These two find refuge in an imaginary world, playing among the ruined village. Dark and overwhelming, this film explores the behavior and reactions of situations when hypocrisy, cynicism, and cowardice occur in contradiction with honesty, courage, and above all the force of the sacrifice of…the village idiot.

BINECUVANTTA FII INCHISOARE (Bless You, Prison) (BINE) (DVD-PAL)
2002, 87 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Nicolae Margineanu.
Based on Nicole Valery-Grossu's best seller autobiographic novel Bless you, prison, the film is a true story. A young intellectual woman, Nicole, is arrested in the years of Stalinism for being an active member of an opposition party. There follow three months of exhausting interrogation and isolation. Alone in a cell, she undergoes a spiritual experience similar to that of the great mystics. She proceeds to an in-depth soul-searching that helps her discover the power of faith and steels her to put up resistance. Nicole goes through the ordeal of communist prisons, conflicts and risky activities, and manages to provide a heartening example for the other inmates. Daily prison life is not drab but full of unexpected happenings like a story.

BULETIN DE BUCURESTI (Bucharest Identity Card) (BUL) (DVD-PAL)
1982, 88 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Virgil Calotescu.
After graduating from the Agronomy Faculty, Silvia does not want to leave for his assigned work place, somewhere in the countryside, and instead remains in Bucharest and marries as a taxi driver, Radu, who has a Bucharest identity card but needs money. However, they divorce, and things take a different turn as an actual romance starts between the two. Silvia leaves to work at a farm, departing from the troublesome “Bucharest Identity Card”.

UN BULGARE DE HUMA (BULG) (DVD-PAL)
1989, directed by Nicolae Margineanu.

CINCISPREZECE (CIN) (DVD-PAL)
2005, 95 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
December 16, 1989, Timisoara: Marinica (Cristi Iacob) is a sailor, a simple boy to whom life has not offered much until he meets Imola (Ioana Moldovan), a beautiful girl of Timisoara. Marinica gets married because of an expected a child, and seeks a religious ceremony before this birth. Their love is innocent, playful, charming, and simple, until when the historic events of December 1989 intervene.
December 21, 2004, Bucharest: Ireena (Maia Morgenstern) comes to Romania, researching an article for Le Parisien Libre, the publication where she works. She must write an article about Romania 15 years after the Revolution. She chooses to write about the fate of a country looking for a child born 15 years ago in Timisoara.

THE CRAZY STRANGER (GADJO DILO) (CRZ) (VHS)
1998, 97 min., French and Romany with English subtitles. Directed by Tony Gatlif.
The director of Latcho Drom and Mondo delivers another seductive exploration of Gypsy culture in this vibrant tale of a young Parisian who comes to Romania to track down a legendary folk singer, finding romance along the way. "A spontaneity and freshness rare in movies…the talk is raw, the atmosphere is earthy, the drink is strong and the sex is not exactly refined" (Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle). "A great, free, emotionally powerful pageant that, at its best, makes your body and soul dance" (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune).

THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU (DEA1) (DVD)
2006, 153 min. English subtitles. Directed by Cristi Puiu.
After suffering terrible headaches which he can no longer fear, Dante Lazarescu finally call for an ambulance. Accompanied by paramedic Mioara, who becomes his lone ally, Lazarescu begins his night-long journey in search of proper medical care.

EXAMEN (EXA) (DVD-PAL)
2003, 90 min. Directed by Titus Munteau.
While fully enjoying the life of the 70's, in communist Romania, a young man is arrested and accused of a terrible crime. Freed a few years later and deeply affected by his sinister experience, he tries to find out what had really happened. Does he have the right to revenge himself?

FLACARI PE COMORI (Flames on the Treasures) (FLA) (DVD-PAL)
1988, Directed by Nocolae Margineaunu.

FURIA (FUR) (DVD-PAL)
2002, Directed by Radu Muntean.

INDEPENDENTA ROMANIEI: RASBOIUL ROMOMANO, RUSO, TURC 1877 (Romanian Independent: Romanian-Russo-Turkic War 1877) (IND) (DVD-PAL)
1912, 82 min, Silent. Directed by Aristide Demetriade.
The Romanian Army was mobilized for the filming of this historical film of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, which formalized Romania’s independence.

ITALIENCELE (ITA) (DVD-PAL)
2004, 82 min. Directed by Napoleon Helmis.
Two reasonably young girls want to leave their home town and go to work abroad. However, their dreams are quickly shattered by the cold truth of reality and they find out that every dream must have its cost.

MOSTENIREA LUI GOLDFADEN (MOST) (DVD-PAL)
Directed by Radu Gabrea.

NOI, CEI DIN LINIA INTAI (Us, the Front Line) (NOI) (DVD-PAL)
1985, 156 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
After the splendid “August 23”, Romanian troops fought with the Soviet Army to Budapest. There they had an extremely favorable position for the first attack on the Hungarian Parliament. A few days before the final attack, the Romanians were extracted from Budapest by Stalin’s direct order.

O NOAPTE FURTUNOASA (NOA) (DVD)
1943, 67 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Jean Georgescu.
A production of Ion Caragiale’s play O Noapte Furtunoasa (A Stormy Night), and filmed under difficult conditions, it was the only Romanian film to premier during World War II.

THE OAK (OAK) (VHS)
1992, 105 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Lucien Pintelle.
While Romanian Communism collapses around her, a young woman, the defiant Nela, sets off into the desolate countryside. The apocalyptic road movie evokes a haunting world of extravagant dysfunction and edgy humor.

OSANDA (OSA) (DVD-PAL)
1976, 100 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
Manlache (Amza Pellea) returns after 12 years to his village, having done 10 years of hard time and two wars. Nothing remains the same. Rusandra (Ioana Pavelescu) – his love – is alongside him when he is wrongly accused of murdering the nobleman Paraianu. His dramatic fate is the main subject of this film.

PADUREA SPANZURATILOR (Forest of the Hanged) (PADU) (DVD-PAL)
1964, 158 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Liviu Ciulei.
The action occurs during World War I, somewhere in Transylvania on the Austro-Hungarian front, and starts with the hanging of the Czech lieutenant Svoboda, who was caught attempting to desert to the enemy. Lieutenant Apostol Bologa, who took part in the court martial, arrives at the site of the execution and gives the order that all ship-shape. The so-called execution will mark everyone, including Bologa. Among those disapproving this crime is also a new arrival, Captain Klapka, who is also a Czech.  

PADUREANCA (PAD) (DVD-PAL)
1987, Directed by Nicolae Margineanu.

PRIVEST INAINTE CU MANIE (Look Ahead with Anger) (PRIV2) (DVD-PAL)
1993, 75 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Nicolae Margineanu.
Romania after the events of December 1989 is in a period of transition, full of uncertainty and chaos…Fane, a skilled worker is an old dissident who had been politically prosecuted under the old regime. Now he is unemployed and his family is a victim of the transition…Fica has become a prostitute, his oldest son goes to prison, and his youngest son has become a small time thief.  Fane can not understand the abrupt transition from the revolution, when he was a hero, to a life full of betrayal and wickedness…

REQUIEM FOR DOMINIC (REQ) (VHS)
1991, 88 min., German with English subtitles. Directed by Robert Dornhelm.
Recommended for mature audiences only. Amid the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Romania, political exile Paul Weiss struggles to learn the fate of a childhood friend, Dominic Paraschiv, only to discover that his wounded comrade has been confined like an animal, accused of the terroristic murder of 80 innocent workers. Desperate to uncover the truth, Paul descends into an unreal, nightmare world of revolutionary chaos. Based on a true story.

RYNA (RYN) (DVD)
2005, 94 min., Romanian and Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Ruxandra Zenide.
A beautiful teenager struggles to satisfy the demands of her overbearing father while seeking her own identity. Ryna has been raised as a boy because her mechanic father is obsessed with having a son. Despite her enforced short hair and oil-stained clothes, Ryna’s beauty is apparent. Her potential suitors include the young postman, her father’s manipulative friend the mayor, and Georges, a handsome French anthropologist conducting a study in the town. Georges tells her of the world outside the Danube Delta, a dream Ryna barely allows herself to consider. When her mother leaves, unable to tolerate any more of her husband’s abuse, Ryna defies her father and wears a dress to the town fair. The simple act of independence triggers a series of events that lead to a tragic end; and a fateful choice for Ryna.

STAN BOLOVAN (STA) (VHS)
1984, 15 min.
In this Romanian tale, Stan takes a job as a dragon slayer, but finds it more profitable to outsmart the dragon. Suitable for lower elementary. This film is labeled as Teletales No. 3.

STEFAN LUCHIAN (STEF) (DVD-PAL)
1981, directed by Nicolae Margineanu.
Stefan Luchian lives at the beginning of the 20th century and suffers from a disease that will eventually paralyze him. Unable to pursue love, he focuses all his strength and power on painting, while ignoring the vile and corrupt society around him

STONE WEDDING (STO) (VHS)
1972, 90 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Mircea Veroin.
Two short films based on stories by the classic Romanian writer deal with peasant life and traditions in the Carpathian mountains. Includes Fefeleaga (directed by Mircea Veroiu) and At a Wedding (directed by Dan Pita).

ULTIMA NOAPTE DE DRAGOSTE (ULT) (DVD-PAL)
1979, 99 min., Romanian without English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
An adaptation of the novel Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de razboi (The Last Night of Love, the First Night of War) by Camil Petrescu, the film is the story of Stefan Gheorghidiu. Drafted into the Romanian Army during World War I, Stefan is forced to leave behind the woman he loves. While on the front, he only thinks of her, remembering every moment they spent together, practically going insane.

ULTIMUL CARTUS (ULTC) (DVD-PAL)
1973, 100 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Sergiu Nicolaescu.
Ultimul Cartus (The Last Bullet) of Commissar Miclovan is still buring in Roman’s pocket (Ilarion Ciobanu). During an attempt to avenge his friend’s death, he manages to solve an international espionage case. Directed in a suspenseful manner, the actors take to the Romanian public (Ilarion Ciobanu, Sebastian Papaiani, George Constantin, Amza Pellea), the film is an excellent sequel in the classic style of police films of Sergiu Nicolaescu.

AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER (UNF) (VHS)
1994, 82 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Lucian Pintelle.
A Romanian soldier must choose between family loyalty and political allegiance in this disturbing Romanian drama set in 1925. Captain Petri Dumitriu has been reassigned to a lonely outpost on the Danube after his wife refuses the advances of a highly ranked general. On the Danube, Dumitriu's life is thrown into turmoil after Romanian soldiers are brutally slain in an ambush by Macedonian bandits. In retaliation, Dumitriu is ordered to execute the innocent local Bulgarians who work in his family's garden.

A UNSPREZECEA PORUNCA (UNS) (DVD-PAL)
1991, 138 min., Romanian with English subtitles. Directed by Mircea Daneliuc.
The action occurs during the last days of World War II, when everyone resembling Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebells, Borman, and the other Nazi leaders were arrested and put in lagers for true Fascist crimes to be discovered and punished. This starts the long nightmare for these accused, who will suffer for these accusations. For a year they live in total isolation from the rest of the world, going through a hellish existence. In the end, those remaining alive will follow Ida towards liberty, and only Heintz, their leader, remains in the camp, who did not have the courage to face the unknown and goes mad. 

The former Yugoslavia

BALKAN EXPRESS (BAL) (VHS)
1984, 102 min., English dubbed. Directed by Branko Baleti.
The Balkan Express is a band of roving musicians whose music is just a cover for their real work as con men. When the Nazis move in, things take a turn for the worse. Despite chaos, repression, and war, a greater understanding and an appreciation of the comedy that lies beneath the tragedy of life can emerge.

BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT (BLA) (VHS)
1998, 129 min., Serbo-Croatian and Romany with English subtitles. Directed by Emir Kusturica.
Emir Kusturica pushes his whimsical comic fantasy style to new, manic heights in this frantic, frequently hilarious fable of Gypsy life, mob debts, arranged marriage and true romance. Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Thierry Arbogast, this vibrant, joyfully excessive film won Kusturica Best Director honors at the Venice Film Festival. "...a reckless, explosive production that does everything the movies have forgotten how to do... it's thrilling to see something this profane, mythic and, most of all, not bored with life, love and the possibilities of cinema" (Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com).

CABARET BALKAN (CAB) (VHS)
1998, 102 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Goran Paskaljevic.
Set against the explosive backdrop of the Balkan wars, Cabaret Balkan delivers comedy with a vengeance in a cinematic tour-de-force that collected 1998 Best Film honors from the European Film Awards and the Venice International Film Festival. How the lives of various Yugoslavian citizens--a cab driver, friends in a gym, a girl on a bus, a performance artist and more--intersect during one unpredictable night forms the story of this fiercely comic film that has been hailed as "one of the best pictures of the year." (Rod Dreher, New York Post)

CHARUGA (CHR) (VHS)
1991, 108 min., Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Rajko Grilic.
The spectacular, true story of a Croatian 1920s Robin Hood, a fanatic ex-soldier and Bolshevik who tried to bring the Revolution to Yugoslavia. A visually complex, engrossing, sensual and unsettling action-adventure movie which is also a serious political drama, Charuga began by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But as with many self-styled revolutionaries, he soon robs from everyone and keeps it all for himself.

DO YOU REMEMBER DOLLY BELL? (DO) (VHS)
1981, 106 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Emir Kusturica.
Tale of a young man's entry into adulthood. Set in the early 60's, Kusturica grafts the Pathos of the Eastern European village movie into a complex tale of intrusive cultures, when Western influences such as fashion and rock and roll and the promise of European socialism threatened to roll over traditional customs, practiced rituals and Tito's political reign.

FUSE (FUS) (DVD-PAL)
2003, 105 min, Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Pjer Zalica.
Two years after the Bosnian civil war, the Bosnian town of Tesanj is slowly rebuilding itself, when it's announced the U.S. President Bill Clinton will pay a visit. The mayor immediately understands the possibilities—putting his town on the map and attracting tourists and fresh capital. The town sets about hiding or destroying any evidence of malfeasance and unrest, pretending that all is well between the town and its Serbian neighbors. In the end, plans go amiss, but all is not lost.

THE HARMS CASE (HAR) (VHS)
1988, 90 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Slobodan Pesic.
Based on the life and writing of Daniel Harms, a Russian avant-garde poet of the 1920s who has become a cult figure in Yugoslavia.

HEY BABU RIBA (HEY) (VHS)
1987, 109 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Jovan Acin.
A coming-of-age story of four teens from Belgrade who love American movies, jazz, and a girl called Esther. The brutal but often hilarious circumstances of their childhood include a memorable initiation into the world of sex. Rated R.

IN THE JAWS OF LIFE (JAW) (VHS)
1985, 95 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Rajko Grlic.
A middle-aged woman filmmaker is producing a soap opera entitled "The Jaws of Life," which follows the personal life of a very confused young clerk. This erotic farce details the parallels between the filmmaker and her protagonist. The various men that pass through their lives make for a series of amusing, sometimes poignant situations. The loose comic flow of the film makes it both ironic and bittersweet.

INNOCENCE UNPROTECTED (INN1) (VHS)
1968, 78 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Dusan Makavejev.
This film combines the first Serbian talkie, made in 1942 by the Yugoslav strongman Dragoljub Aleksic, with interviews with the film makers twenty years later. The result is a cinematic collage that is a funny and daring mix of a wide variety of film footage. Part documentary and part bizarre comedy, this film is both strange and unforgettable entertainment as well as a serious portrait of the war period in Yugoslavia.

LOVE AFFAIR: OR, THE CASE OF THE MISSING SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR (LOV2) (VHS)
1967, 70 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Dusan Makaveyev.
This film is a radical investigation of the relationship between sex and politics. It is the story of a young switchboard operator who falls in love with a sanitary worker until she allows herself to be seduced by a younger, more glamorous man.

LOVING GLANCES (LOGL) (DVD)
2004, 97 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Srdjan Karanovic.
A funny romantic fantasy about lost loves and dating dilemmas, this film is set in 1995 post-war Belgrade and amidst the city's sea of refugees. The handsome student Labud has been lonely since his fiancé left for Chicago. He tries a computer dating service, which leads him to meet the beautiful Romana. As Labud tries to become romantically involved, he is visited by a series of opinionated and meddlesome ghosts: family members and friends who died during the war but return to offer advice on his love affair. This rare post-Balkan war film showcases refugees trying to eke out a normal life - and fall in love - in this strange landscape.

MAN IS NOT A BIRD (MAN) (VHS)
1966, 80 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Dusan Makavejev.
This film is a work of genius that takes place in a mining town in eastern Serbia. The central characters are an engineer in one of the factories and a young hairdresser with whom he has an affair.

NO MAN'S LAND (NOM) (DVD)
2001, 98 min., Serbo-Croatian, French, and English, with English subtitles. Directed by Danis Tanovic.
The bleak absurdity of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict and the outside world's impotent response to it is unforgettably portrayed in this dark satire directed by Danis Tanovic. Three soldiers--two Bosnians and one Serb--end up trapped in the trenches that serve as a dividing line between armies. One soldier, originally left for dead, is used as a booby trap on a landmine, leading to an unexpected dilemma without an apparent resolution. "...often harrowing to watch, but it can also be shockingly entertaining as it deftly mixes macabre humor, pathos, and horror" (Stephen Farber, Movieline).

PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME (PRE) (DVD)
1998, 125 min., Serbo-Croatian with English Subtitles. Directed by Srdjan Dragojevic.
Two young boys, Halil, a Muslim, and Milan, a Serb, watch the inauguration of the new Brotherhood and Unity Tunnel in their neighborhood in 1980. Twelve years later, Milan lies in a hospital bed, badly injured. Wounded Serbs and Muslims recover in the same hospital. Recalling the events that brought him there, Milan finds it hard to believe that he is again that close to his recent enemies. He remembers the vicious firefight where their Muslim enemies trapped him and a group of Serb soldiers in the very same tunnel in a ten-day siege. And now Halil and Milan are on opposing sides, their friendship tattered and in ruins. This provocative and disturbing movie is based on an incident that happened in the first winter of the war in Bosnia in 1992.

SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH (SIB) (DVD)
1961, 93 min., Serbo-Croation with English subtitles. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
Andrzej Wajda shot this extraordinary film in Yugoslavia, during a period of self-imposed political exile. Fury is a Woman ranks with Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood as one of the most successful screen translations of Shakespeare ever made. "Not only has the director succeeded in catching the spirit of the time and the place; he has also managed to create the sense of timelessness inherent to the tragedy" (Richard Roud, Sight & Sound). With Olivera Markovic and Ljuba Tadic.

TIME OF THE GYPSIES (TIM) (VHS)
1989, 136 min., Romany and Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Emir Kusturica.
Winner of best director at Cannes, this film is a beguiling inside look at the education of a young gypsy in Eastern Europe. Mixing magical realism, visual humor, and dramatic pathos, it is the story of Pheran, a life-loving teen with telekinetic gifts. Lured by promises of wealth, he leaves his beloved grandmother and girlfriend to join the gang of Ahmed, a flamboyant criminal with a scam for all seasons. Pheran's schooling at Ahmed's hands is at once comic and heartbreaking.

TITO AND ME (TIT) (VHS)
1994, 104 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Goran Markovic.
A poignant comedy set in 1950's Belgrade, Zoran is the 10-year-old boy who adores Yugoslavia's leader Marshall Tito and Jasna, a 12-year-old orphan girl. When Jasna goes on a walking tour of Tito's homeland, Zoran follows with hilariously disastrous results.

ULYSSES’ GAZE
1997, 173 min., English and Greek with English subtitles.
Theo Angelopoulos' triumphantly haunting Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize-winning film tracing the journey of Greek-American director "Mr. A" (Harvey Keitel) across the Balkans in search of several lost reels of film. Along the way, he has several passionate encounters with various women who have been, or may have been, part of his life. Filled with stunning imagery, the film travels through war-torn Balkans giving a compelling eyewitness account. With Erland Josephson. Belongs to the West European Studies Department. Please contact them at west@indiana.edu to inquire about checking out this title.

UNDERGROUND (UND) (VHS)
1995, 167 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Emir Kusturica.
Winner of the Best Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In the midst of war, two friends attain riches and heroic praise dealing arms to the war's resistance fighters. The friends move their operation into a cellar packed with refugees, where one remains until the end of the war. The other friend, meanwhile, grows rich from the toils of those in the cellar. Fifteen years pass before those underground emerge to seek their revenge.

VUKOVAR (VUK) (VHS)
1994, 94 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Boro Draskovic.
Filmed in the bombed-out city of Vukovar during 1993, this film depicts the emotions of this war-torn region. Vukovar presents the story of a Serb and a Croat, friends from childhood, who marry and are then torn apart by the war which ravages their native Yugoslavia.

WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSINESS (WHE) (VHS)
1985, 144 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Emir Kusturica.
Although father has been sent to the mines for fooling around with the voluptuous object of desire of a Communist Party Official, six-year old son Malik thinks he is away on business.

WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES (WIC) (DVD)
1993, 99 min., Slovenian with English subtitles. Directed by Franci Slak.
Political intrigue meets romantic obsession in this enigmatic thriller. When the rural post office where Ana works is robbed by a young biker, she takes advantage of the confusion after the robbery to steal some money for herself. Despite the suspicions of the police regarding her complicity in the crime, she develops a bizarre attraction to the criminal and becomes increasingly focused on tracking him down, unwitting delving into a deeper mystery involving her father's death during her childhood. "This tightly crafted, subtly suspenseful, and visually stunning thriller ...is a must-see" (Chicago Sun-Times).

WHO'S SINGING OVER THERE? (WHO) (VHS)
1980, 86 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Slobodan Sijan.
This subversive, inventive, humorous feature helped define the "black cinema" of Yugoslavia. It is set on a bus of provincials who are making their way to Belgrade unaware that tragedy awaits them on April 6, 1941, when Nazi Germany will launch a savage attack on Belgrade.

WITNESSES (WIT2) (DVD)
2003, 88 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Vinko Bresan.
A man is murdered when three soldiers unexpectedly find him at home while they are planting a bomb. After blowing up his house, the young men discover someone has witnessed everything. The ensuring police investigation takes over the small town in Croatia on the front line of the civil war. Sometimes a story must be relived through various viewpoints before the truth can be revealed, as Witnesses interweaves stories of confronting ethnic hatred and deep moral ambiguities.   

THE WOUNDS (WOU) (DVD)
1998, 103 min., Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Srdjan Dragojevic.
Simultaneously exhilarating and despairing, this dynamic feature from the director of Pretty Village, Pretty Flame follows two youths as they become more and more involved in the underworld in Belgrade. Eventually they are victimized by the culture of violence that they willingly embraced, but it doesn't stop their self-destructive ways or their emergence as unlikely TV stars. The film works as a powerful indictment of the senseless bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia and the media's acceptance of that bloodshed. Veteran actor Miki Manojlovic (Underground, Cabaret Balkan) lends a fine supporting performance to the film, while the newcomers in the lead roles convey the thrill-seeking spirit of their characters.

WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM (WR) (VHS)
1971, 84 min., English and Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Directed by Dusan Makavejev.
Called "an outrageous, exuberant, marvelous work," by Amos Vogel in Film Comment and "a weird and hilarious fantasy...witty and exuberant" by The New York Times, WR: Mysteries of the Organism is a unique blend of fact and fiction, and Dusan Makavejev's landmark film. It deftly juxtaposes the story of the sexual encounter between the beautiful, liberated Milena and a repressed Soviet figure-skating champion with an exploration of the life and theories of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. The "WR" in the film's title stands for either "Wilhelm Reich" or "World Revolution." Makavejev describes it as "a black comedy, political circus, a fantasy on the fascism and communism of human bodies, the political life of human genitals, a proclamation of the pornographic essence of any system of authority and power over others...If you watch for more than five minutes, you become my accomplice." With Dravic, Jagoda Kaloper, Tuli Kupferberg, Jackie Curtis.

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