A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Reviews of films from Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and countries that used to be the old Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia).
Jindrich Polak, “Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea / Zitra vstanu a oparim se cajem” (1977) One of a number of comic science…
Jan Svankmajer, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1981), “The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope” (1983) Both these live action / stop-motion animation films by…
Katerina Kitidi and Aris Hatzistefanou, “Debtocracy” (2011) Made on the cheap, this is a passionate and compelling documentary about the current Greek financial crisis, how it…
Tomasz Baginski, “The Cathedral” / “Katedra” (2002) It’s a short film – less than seven minutes – created entirely with 3D computer animation but Baginski’s “The Cathedral”…
Eastern European Films, Russian and Soviet Films
Alexander Dovzhenko, “Arsenal” (1928) Notable for its skilful use of montages of images to create and build tension, excitement, urgency and other moods, “Arsenal” revolves around an incident…
Eastern European Films, French and French-language Films
René Laloux, “Fantastic Planet” / “La Planète Sauvage” (1973) A very absorbing animated science fiction film that superficially looks as if it might have been created…
Eastern European Films, Northern European Films
Marek Pestrak, “Pilot Pirx’s Inquest” / “Test Pilota Pirxa” / “Doznanie Pilota Pirksa” (1979) A joint Polish-Estonian production, this low-budget movie about a space trip that nearly ends…
Jindrích Polák, “Ikarie XB-1” (1963) A compelling early 1960’s science fiction gem from the old Czechoslovakia is this lavish effort by Polák that details the day-to-day…
Australian and New Zealand Films, Eastern European Films
Ben Ferris, “Penelopa” aka “Penelope” (2009) Lovely to look at but beautiful, almost abstract scenes of nature and long circular panning shots that lovingly savour the…
Crisitan Mungiu, “4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days” (2007) A bleak and often heartbreaking offering from young Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, this movie about a…