By Olivia Maria Hărşan
There's actually not much information out there on Soviet Parallel Cinema apart from Vice magazine founder, Shane Smith and his eccentric attempt to clear things up on the matter. The term, Parallel Cinema, is another term used to describe the Indian New Wave of the 1950s and 60s. These were films that explored realism - life in India from a raw and natural perspective - rather than Bollywood's glitzy portrayals.
During the 1980s, an underground group of filmmakers in the Soviet Union assumed the philosophy and practice of the Indian New Wave, except they took it to a whole new level. Watch the documentary by Vice below, if you dare.
Eastern European cinema is a diverse subject that has been scarcely regarded, especially compared to other world cinemas. From screen analysis to personal accounts, this blog is a meditation on Eastern European cultural values with emphasis on totalitarian iconography and other clandestine ciphers that have become motifs across the films of Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and East Germany.