Pay tribute to the trailblazing female filmmakers of Eastern Europe with four subversive and playful takes on gender roles and social norms, from the Czech New Wave to post-Communist Hungary, via Soviet Ukraine and Georgia.

Ester Krumbachová was the hidden mastermind behind the Czech New Wave, contributing costumes, set design, and screenplays for its most celebrated films. Her sole directorial effort, Murdering the Devil (1970, UK only), is a surreal fairy tale that revels in the grotesqueries of both male and female fragility. Ukrainian auteur Kira Muratova’s sophomore feature The Long Farewell (1971) was shelved by censors until 1987, then heralded as a lost masterpiece – a simple tale of maternal jealousy and filial rebellion brought to life by Muratova’s trademark visual wit. A pioneering feminist work from the legendary Lana Gogoberidze, Some Interviews on Personal Matters (1978) is one of the most vital films produced in Soviet Georgia, starring Sofiko Chiaureli (The Colour of Pomegranates) as a journalist in search of the true meaning of equality. The conclusion to Márta Mészáros’s autobiographical Diary trilogy, which traces the life story of the orphan Juli through Hungary’s tumultuous post-war history, Diary for My Father and Mother (1990) charts the failure of the 1956 Revolution, blending together documentary footage and personal drama as Mészáros brings the curtain down on her most ambitious filmmaking endeavour in grand style.