Magic Realism Cinema in East Central Europe
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- DirectorJirí BartaStarsOldrich KaiserJirí LábusMichal PavlícekThe story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin with a twist.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsEwan McGregorAlbert FinneyBilly CrudupA frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
- DirectorLarry CharlesStarsSacha Baron CohenKen DavitianLuenellKazakh TV talking head Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the greatest country in the world.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsStepan ShkuratSemyon SvashenkoYuliya SolntsevaIn the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
- DirectorIldikó EnyediStarsDorota SegdaOleg YankovskiyPaulus MankerTwo twin sisters, who grew up separately, Dóra, a pseudo-aristocrat, and Lili, an anarchist bomber, are reunited through Z, a mysterious traveller of the luxurious Orient-Express.
- DirectorPéter GárdosStarsJuci BalogJuci BarabásLászló BelesFarm folk, who are amiable and simple yet cunning lived here on this Farm. From time to time strangers come to the Farm. And it is then that all hell always breaks loose. Because the strangers have also brought death with them. And destruction. And hate. And jealousy. And vanity. And shame. And lies. On this Farm strangers always just cause trouble...
- DirectorBenjamin GeißlerWhen Ukraine was occupied by the Nazis, the Jewish painter Bruno Schulz decorated a villa with frescoes
- DirectorPéter GothárStarsMaksim SergeevEvgeniy SidikhinValentina KasyanovaVászka, the town robber, is off his form. He has no money and Luvnya, his sweetheart, constantly clamors for a trip to Moscow. His problems are solved when he meets Ványka, the village robber. The two robbers enter into an alliance and start working together.
- DirectorKarl GruneStarsAnton EdthoferAud Egede-NissenLeonhard HaskelPresents two distinct plot lines until the two eventually merge: the first is that of the bored middle-aged man seeking a departure from monotony in his life; the second is that of the blind man and the little boy, his grandson, who are interdependent. None of the characters have been given names and are therefore referred to only by description. The city is an expressionistic nightmare, a dangerous and chaotic place.
- DirectorDusan HanákPictures of the Old World is an unquestioned masterpiece of European documentary cinema, with existential radicalism that offers a contrast to the shallowness of hundreds of other documentary films showing images from the outskirts of civilization. The outskirts here are a Slovakian town in the Tatra Mountains. Though censored for 17 years, Dusan Hanáks poetic visual essay is not a political or even social film. It goes to far deeper and more fundamental levels of human experience. Inspired by the photographs of Martin Martinek, the films power lies in its unusual portraits of people whose raw visual beauty radiates from their very souls. Some, like the village cosmos aficionado or the disabled old man who climbs stairs on his knees, are hard to forget.
- DirectorDusan HanákStarsJuraj NvotaIva BittováJosef HlinomazJakub, a dreamer and budding magician, juggles between parcels and services rendered to the villagers. His eyes cross that of the beautiful gypsy Jolanka. Together, they will try to live a first and big love, despite the pressure of their respective communities.
- DirectorWojciech HasStarsZbigniew CybulskiIga CembrzynskaElzbieta CzyzewskaUpon finding a book that relates his grandfather's story, an officer ventures through Spain meeting a wide array of characters, most of whom have a story of their own to tell.
- DirectorWojciech HasStarsJan NowickiTadeusz KondratIrena OrskaJózef visits his dying father at a remote mental institution, where time itself doesn't seem to exist, and the line between dreams and memories becomes indistinguishable.
- DirectorZoltán HuszárikStarsZoltán LatinovitsÉva RuttkaiÉva LeelössyAn old man is recollecting all the women he met in his youth. An old woman wants them to commit suicide together but changes her mind. The little town has a doctor whose wife can not forget the old man, and the waiter who serves him his dinner doesn't know that Sinbad will soon court her.
- DirectorDariusz JablonskiStarsJirí MachácekZuzana FialováMarian DziedzielThis is not a love story though it is full of love. It is not a comedy though the characters often say funny things. It is not a detective story even though the hero is trying to solve a murder. It is not a nature drama though it shows the splendid colours and customs of the countryside. It is not a musical though Lubica expresses her longing in a passionate dance. Nor is it a film about ghosts though a ghost does ask the hero for a favour. A few draughts of Strawberry Wine are enough to take us into a magical world in the true centre of Europe, where love, crime and penitence are just as much a part of life as the changing of the seasons, the migration of birds or the flowing of a mountain stream.
- DirectorAndrzej JakimowskiStarsZbigniew ZamachowskiOlga PrószynskaRafal GuzniczakThe story of a spirited ten-year-old girl who has run away from her proudly affluent parents in town and finds grudging refuge with the slightly slovenly caretaker of an abandoned farm, an ex-teacher.
- DirectorAndrzej JakimowskiStarsDamian UlEwelina WalendziakTomasz SaprykSix-year-old Stefek challenges fate. He believes that setting a chain of events in motion will help him get closer to his father who left his mother. His sister helps him bribe fate with small sacrifices. Tricks and coincidences bring his father back but things go wrong and Stefek tries a very risky trick...
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsBarbara GrabowskaAdam FerencyBoguslaw LindaThe film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsKate MaberlyMaggie SmithHeydon ProwseA young, recently-orphaned girl is sent to England after living in India all of her life. Once there, she begins to explore her new, seemingly-isolated surroundings, and its secrets.
- DirectorJuraj JakubiskoStarsPhilippe AvronJirí SýkoraMagda VásáryováThree adolescent war orphans seclude themselves in an anarchic and playful existence of denial and juvenile joy.
- DirectorJuraj JakubiskoStarsJozef KronerStefan KvietikMichal DocolomanskýA historic mega-film, one family saga, three generations (1887 -1917) assimilated to the bee community in the hive. The queen bee serves as a big mother that symbolizes the family and national roots, the power and meaning of tradition and the return to it. The mosaic of the bricklaying Pichanda family's lives is made of love, hope, hard work, human understanding and also the tragedies of economic crisis, war and human malice. Dreams, symbols, and life in all its forms create a colored rainbow spanning from birth to death and from mystery to reality and back.
- DirectorJuraj JakubiskoStarsDeana HorváthováMilan BahúlJoachim KemmerIn a tiny Central European village, voracious wolves kill the members of a ceremony, except the bride who is saved by the 10-year-old groom's brother. That day, she gives birth to a girl and betroths her to her savior. A decade passes and on the girl's birthday, a troupe of female circus performers arrive and the girls finds herself more interested in the young song of the group's owner.
- DirectorVojtech JasnýStarsJan WerichEmília VásáryováVlastimil BrodskýPeople arrive in a small village with a strange cat wearing glasses. When someone takes them off, he can color people, according to their nature and mood. Adults consider him dangerous; children love him.