Directed by Alisa Kovalenko • 2023 • Ukraine

Alisa Kovalenko’s collective portrait of teenagers in the Donbas just prior to the full-scale invasion is a moving tribute to a world of opportunity now lost to military aggression. Andriy, Illia, Lera, Liza, and Ruslan have come of age in a world whe...

Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov • 2020 • Kazakhstan

A movie-obsessed ex-con and his sultry female companion are lovers on the lam in Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s droll and touching crime caper. Kermek (Azamat Nigmanov) returns from the joint to his native Kazakh village with a dream: to build a cinema on...

Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski • 1988 • Poland
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Expanded from an episode of Kieślowski’s epic television serial Dekalog, A Short Film about Love represents the Polish master at his most sensitive and daring. By day, 19-year-old To...

Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski • 2013 • Poland

Paweł Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winning period road movie excavates the sins of Poland’s twentieth-century history. It is 1962, and Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), an orphan given up to a convent during the war, is on the verge of taking her monastic vows. But...

Directed by Béla Tarr • 2000 • Hungary
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Perhaps the finest expression of Béla Tarr’s unique cinematic philosophy, Werckmeister Harmonies is a mysterious and gripping parable of social collapse. Adapted from his own novel The Melanch...

Directed by Arūnas Žebriūnas • 1969 • USSR/Lithuania

A poignant portrait of innocence and experience, Arūnas Žebriūnas’ exquisite drama captures the inner world of childhood with unusual clarity. Six-year-old Inga (Inga Mickytė) lives with her devoted but melancholy single mother (Lilija Žadeiky...

Directed by Rolands Kalniņš • 1967 • USSR/Latvia

The countercultural spirit of the sixties runs through this cult musical drama from Latvia, which thumbed its nose at the prevailing Soviet orthodoxy of the era and was rarely screened as a result. By day, Cēzars Kalniņš is a telephone repairman; ...

Directed by Kaljo Kiisk • 1969 • USSR/Estonia

Hailed as Estonia’s first truly modern feature film, Kaljo Kiisk’s mind-bending satire of authoritarianism and self-delusion pushed the boundaries of Soviet propriety and was banned from theatres for nearly twenty years. In an unnamed, occupied count...

Directed by Nadejda Koseva • 2024 • Bulgaria

Nadejda Koseva’s sophomore feature is a portrait of man at war with nature and himself. On the banks of the Danube, an elderly loner named Yovo (Alexander Trifonov) tends to his private zoo. His reclusive life is upended when his dog is enlisted for a...

Directed by Kristoffer Hegnsvad • 2022 • Canada

Over more than 20 years of travel across the former Soviet Union, Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig has painstakingly documented the humble bus stop. From Ukraine to Uzbekistan, the bus stop provided local architects with a canvas for indivi...

Directed by Jiří Trnka • 1965 • Czechoslovakia
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“The Walt Disney of Eastern Europe”, Jiří Trnka was one of the most influential figures in Czech animation history. This subversive allegorical short, one of his most poignant creation...

Directed by Ilya Povolotsky • 2023 • Russia

An unnamed father and daughter traverse the empty roads of provincial Russia in a battered old van, eking out a living selling pirated DVDs at the impromptu screenings they mount with an onboard mobile cinema. Ilya Povolotsky’s compellingly strange deb...

Directed by István Orosz • 1989 • Hungary

A late socialist take on M. C. Escher from the master of the mathematical and the absurd, István Orosz. Mind the Steps! reimagines a typical apartment block in Budapest from the ever-shifting perspective of a young boy. The architecture and its inhabitan...

Directed by Dóra Keresztes and István Orosz • 1985 • Hungary

Recalling the avant-garde artistry of Chagall and Kandinsky, as well as the folk traditions of the Carpathians, this short from master animators Dóra Keresztes and István Orosz is a fine example of the Hungarian psychedelic school. Dep...

Directed by Janyl Jusupjan • 2023 • Kyrgyzstan

Buzkashi is a traditional sport of Central Asia in which teams of horsemen battle to carry a goat carcass across a goal line. In this strictly gendered world, only men can play the game – but there are windows of opportunity for enterprising women. ...

Directed by Richard Viktorov • 1981 • USSR/Russia

Richard Viktorov’s newly restored cult classic is one of the most striking Soviet sci-fi features. Scripted by the beloved author Kir Bulychyov, Per Aspera Ad Astra blends childlike wonder at the cosmos with the cynicism of the Brezhnev era. Elen...

Directed by Ester Krumbachová • 1970 • Czechoslovakia
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Ester Krumbachová was the hidden mastermind behind the Czech New Wave, contributing costumes, set design, and screenplays for some of the most celebrated films of the era. This n...

Directed by Jaromil Jireš • 1969 • Czechoslovakia
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Adapted from the breakout novel by the great Milan Kundera, The Joke is one of Czech cinema’s most piercing political statements. During the Stalinist era, happy-go-lucky student Lu...