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.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Film Review: Katyń (2007) Andrzej Wajda
By Olivia Maria Hărşan
Andrzej Wajda's dissection of one of the most atrocious and yet forgotten crimes in history - the Katyn massacre - left me in a depressed frame of mind for a number of days. The film is excellent, there is no doubt about that, but it was the realism along with a sense of concentrated madness characteristic of Wajda's vision that had me in a paralysed state, wanting to turn away from the images projected before me.
The massacre at Katyn happened in the Spring of 1940 and the murders that took place in the ironically peaceful woods have been noted as one of the most appalling crimes in Twentieth Century history. An estimated 22,000 of Polish nationals were systematically executed at the hands of Soviet Secret Police. Among those killed were army officials, along with their wives and children and the crème de la crème of Polish intellectual society.
Wajda really emphasises the realness of these killings as I was constantly reminded of his earlier film
The Promised Land/ Ziemia Obiecana (1975) where emphasis was focused on the machinery in the factory that caused the sinister deaths of the workers. The wealthy owners of the company are placed in a grotesque light as they indulge in luxury lifestyles pertaining to fine dining, womanising and gambling. Underlying these images is the idea that all this madness and thirst for money, more specifically laundered money, could only lead to a grim ending. A similar notion manifests in Katyn, particularly during the pivotal murder scene where the camera focuses on the sinister twitching a pilot's fingers as he is buried alive in the mass grave.
Although it is a difficult viewing, Katyn is worth watching, if not for Wajda's conscientious handling of the event then at least for the history lesson.
Andrzej Wajda's dissection of one of the most atrocious and yet forgotten crimes in history - the Katyn massacre - left me in a depressed frame of mind for a number of days. The film is excellent, there is no doubt about that, but it was the realism along with a sense of concentrated madness characteristic of Wajda's vision that had me in a paralysed state, wanting to turn away from the images projected before me.
The massacre at Katyn happened in the Spring of 1940 and the murders that took place in the ironically peaceful woods have been noted as one of the most appalling crimes in Twentieth Century history. An estimated 22,000 of Polish nationals were systematically executed at the hands of Soviet Secret Police. Among those killed were army officials, along with their wives and children and the crème de la crème of Polish intellectual society.
Wajda really emphasises the realness of these killings as I was constantly reminded of his earlier film
The Promised Land/ Ziemia Obiecana (1975) where emphasis was focused on the machinery in the factory that caused the sinister deaths of the workers. The wealthy owners of the company are placed in a grotesque light as they indulge in luxury lifestyles pertaining to fine dining, womanising and gambling. Underlying these images is the idea that all this madness and thirst for money, more specifically laundered money, could only lead to a grim ending. A similar notion manifests in Katyn, particularly during the pivotal murder scene where the camera focuses on the sinister twitching a pilot's fingers as he is buried alive in the mass grave.
Although it is a difficult viewing, Katyn is worth watching, if not for Wajda's conscientious handling of the event then at least for the history lesson.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Festival Report: The 2nd Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia
By Olivia Maria Hărşan
Media release for the upcoming Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia. The team is comprised of dedicated volunteers including myself. If you would like to know more about the festival, organise an interview with the festival director, Cerise Howard or inquire about our crowd-funding campaign (which incidentally ends in 4 days!! Please donate via the links below), please email publicity@casffa.com.au - more contact details provided below.
Media release for the upcoming Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia. The team is comprised of dedicated volunteers including myself. If you would like to know more about the festival, organise an interview with the festival director, Cerise Howard or inquire about our crowd-funding campaign (which incidentally ends in 4 days!! Please donate via the links below), please email publicity@casffa.com.au - more contact details provided below.
Join
the Resistance!
The 2nd Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia
(CaSFFA) announces dates,
venues
and theme: RESISTANCE
CaSFFA
2014 expands from Melbourne to Sydney
Crowd-funding Campaign launched today to make the festival ‘Pozible’
Melbourne, Thursday 22 May 2014
– After a fabulously intimate inaugural year in Melbourne, the 2nd Czech and
Slovak Film Festival Australia (CaSFFA) is excited to announce that Sydney will join the party this year.
During August and September, both Melbourne
(21 - 29 August, Australian Centre for the Moving
Image, Federation Square and Yarra Gallery)
and Sydney (2 - 7 September, Dendy Newtown & Conny Dietzschold Gallery) will
showcase a collection of exclusive Czech and Slovak films, accompanied by some
extraordinary visual
art exhibitions. All will be flavoured with the
unique accents and world-famous hospitality of the region.
“‘Resistance’ is our theme,” says festival
director and co-founder Cerise Howard, who is currently locking down a diverse
program of films built around the fact that 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the non-violent, extraordinarily
effective "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia and the collapse
of Communism in Europe. “CaSFFA will be celebrating these momentous events with
films of all kinds – features, shorts, documentary and animation – which
explore the people and ideas behind these happenings, and the tradition of
resistance in its many guises, within this corner of Europe.”
Says Cerise Howard, “It seems fitting in
Australia’s bleak economic and social climate – with budget attacks on the
poor, the old and the Arts – that we are calling on all lovers of culture, and
in particular Central and Eastern European cinema, to come out in a spirit of
Resistance to make our festival possible. We need your support to help us crowd-fund our entirely volunteer-run event, and to
assist us in creating something even bigger and better than last year.”
The not-for-profit film festival is seeking to
raise $11,000 in 34
days on the all-or-nothing Australian crowd-funding
platform Pozible. The campaign – ‘CaSFFA 2014 - Join the Resistance!’ – is active
immediately. Eternal gratitude and cinephile-friendly rewards including cinema tickets,
DVDs and tote bags will be offered to supporters: The campaign will be
running until Tuesday 24 June 2014.
Funds raised will be used to pay for screening
rights for films, cinema hire, marketing
to reach out to the significant Czech and Slovak communities in Sydney,
Melbourne and surrounds and for some extraordinary
art, photographic and sculpture exhibitions. Any additional funds raised beyond
the target will make possible the hosting and accommodation of some exciting
international guests.
The 2nd Czech and Slovak
Film Festival of Australia (CaSFFA) Program Highlights
Melbourne: 21
- 29 August, ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation
Square and Yarra Gallery
Sydney: 2 - 7
September, Dendy Newtown and Conny Dietzschold Gallery,
Surry Hills.
While
full details of the festival programs for Melbourne and Sydney will be
dependent upon the crowd-funding campaign, confirmed highlights include:
FILMS
· Burning
Bush (Hořící keř) – the Czech Lion winning HBO Europe
mini-series from Oscar nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa). The three-part
mini-series is based on the true story of the personal sacrifice of a Prague
history student, Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in protest against the
Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
· Jan Švankmajer
Retrospective. Co-presented in
Melbourne with the Melbourne Cinémathèque at the Australian Centre for the
Moving Image (ACMI), films include the features Alice (1987), Faust
(1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) and Little Otik (2000) and
two collections of his extraordinary shorts Dialogue and Resistance
(1958 - 2005) and Militant Surrealism (1969 -1992). More info.
EXHIBITIONS
Curated
around the theme of ‘Resistance’, exclusive CaSFFA
Exhibitions will be shown in Melbourne 21 - 29 August 2014 at the Yarra
Gallery, Federation Square; and in Sydney 2 - 7 September at
Conny Dietzschold Gallery in Crown Street, Surry Hills, including:
· Prague through the
Lens of the Secret Police: An exhibition of
photos and text, giving insight into the surveillance practices employed by the
dreaded Czechoslovakian secret police. Exhibition prepared by The Institute for
the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague.
Pending a successful crowd-funding
campaign, the festival hopes to present further extraordinary art, photographic and sculpture
exhibitions which tie in both with the Švankmajer retrospective and the theme
of Resistance. These include:
Jan Švankmajer art
exhibition ‘Dimensions of Dialogue / Between Film and Fine Art’ – a combination
of text and images organised by Czech Centres, with concept and text by
Švankmajer's fellow members of the Group of Czech-Slovak Surrealists; and Conspirators -
an exhibition of sculptural works by local Australian artists,
which forms an international dialogue with the rich themes and irresistible
tactility of Švankmajer’s oeuvre.
JOIN THE
RESISTANCE!
Contribute to our Pozible campaign. Deadline:
Tuesday 24 June 2014
SOCIALIZE
Join us for news, photos and fun on our social
networks. Hashtag #CaSFFA
Twitter: @CaSFFA
Instagram: @casffa
SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES
CaSFFA
offers some attractive and targeted sponsorship opportunities, including
advertising opportunities in our 2014 printed program. To obtain a copy of our
sponsorship package or find out more, please contact in
Melbourne Brendan
Black on +61 423 756 627 or brendan@casffa.com.au and in Sydney Ika de
Detrich on +61 423 775 955 or idedetrich@gmail.com
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
For
more information about the festival and the crowd-funding campaign, or to request an interview with Artistic
Director Cerise Howard, please contact:
Olivia Hărşan:
+61 415 881 472
Rochelle Siemienowicz: +61 413 807 549
Email: publicity@casffa.com.au
Monday, June 16, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Film Still of the Month: Valley of the Bees/ Údolí včel (1967) Frantisek Vlácil
By Olivia Maria Hărşan
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