VTLIB, VU-FOR, BB-FOR

Before the Rain

In a monastery in Macedonia, a young man must abandon his vows of silence to save a girl from a hate-filled mob. In London, a woman torn between a loveless marriage and a passionate affair with a war photographer finds fate dictates a choice she couldn't make on her own. And in Yugoslavia, the photographer returns to a nation divided by religious hatred and violence. His efforts to salvage some small portion of peace will have an impact no one could foresee, and bring all three stories full circle. Is shot like Pulp Fiction, in three individual--not necessarily chronological--episodes. I highly recommend this one.
 
 

VTLIB (Video 2909)

Man of Marble aka Czlowiek z marmuru (1977)

Compelling, controversial, brilliantly directed tale of determined filmmaker Janda retracing the life of Radziwilowicz, naive bricklayer lionized in the 1950s as a worker-hero of the State. Wajda celebrates the role of filmmaker as a speaker of truth; ironically, the film's finale, an explanation of the bricklayer's fate, was excised by the Polish censors. Followed by MAN OF IRON.

Crna macka, beli macor  aka Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
 

Grga Pitic and Zarije Destanov are two old friends--and rivals--who haven't seen each other in years. But a series of events beyond their wildest dreams leads to a raucously funny reunion filled with gypsy mobsters, dirty deals and shotgun weddings. Yugoslavian comedy.

VTLIB (Video 834)

Shop on Main Street aka Obchod na korze (1965)

Potent, poignant drama set in WW2 Czechoslovakia, where an old Jewish woman loses her small button shop, and depends on man who takes it over to shield her from further persecution. Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film. Originally titled THE SHOP ON HIGH STREET.  Slovakia during WW2. Tono lives a poor life, but the  authorities offer him a take over the Jewish widow Lautman's little shop for sewing material. She is old and confused and thinks that he is looking for employment and hires him. The odd couple begin to like each other. But some time later the authorities decide that the Jews must leave the city. What should he do with the old lady?

VTLIB (Video 69, or Video 3074)

Ashes and Diamonds aka Popiól i diament (1958)

Stark, intelligent, perceptive account of the Resistance  movement in Poland during the closing days of WW2.Cybulski, the Polish James Dean, came into his own with his portrayal of a young Resistance fighter. The last of Wajda'sWar trilogy, following A GENERATION and KANAL.
Maciek, a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka, a Communist district leader, on the last day of World War II. Though killing has been easy for him in the past, Szczuka was a fellow soldier, and Maciek must decide whether to follow his orders.

Blood and Belonging: Lifting the Yoke

This program examines the emotional effects of the establishment--or 're-establishment'--of an independent Ukraine and the tension between Russian settlers and native Ukrainians after the break up of the Soviet Union. Is documentary-style, so not appealing to all, but relatively short.
 

VU-FOR

Ivan and Abraham (1993) aka Moi Ivan, toi Abraham (1993)

In 1930s Poland, it was traditional for some Christian boys to live for a time with Jewish families in order to learn a trade from Jewish craftsmen. For this reason, Ivan has gone to live on a large estate with Abraham and his family, has learned Yiddish, and has become Abraham's best friend. But the anti-Semitism born of poverty, ignorance, and superstition is fierce in this community of and the two boys run away into the countryside to flee an imminent conflict. Journeying together in a menacing environment, they reveal their innocence and inseparability.
 

BB-FOR

Canary Season (1993) aka Canary Season (1993)

It's 1980. Malin is fatherless, angry, and in trouble. At 20, he's spent a year in jail for assaulting a lover of Lily, his mother. In her desk he finds a soldier's photograph and assumes he's found his father. He confronts the man, now a teacher, and gets nowhere. At home again, he mocks his mother. Finally, she tells him her grim story, from the year before his birth. We see a people's court, where Lily's parents seek justice for their grandchild to be. We follow Lily to a prison camp, to the city where she's told to inform on the only person who's been kind, to an asylum, and finally to her current poverty and loneliness. How will Malin respond to these revelations?
 
 

VTLIB (Video 6622), BB-FOR

Kolya (1996)

Winner of the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, Czech director Jan Sverak's warm and witty seriocomedy follows a down-and-out cellist and confirmed bachelor who agrees to a marriage of convenience with a friend's beautiful Russian niece. When the new bride leaves to be with her German lover, however, she leaves Kolya, her 6-year-old son, behind in her "husband's" care. Zdenek Sverak (the director's father, who also scripted) and Andrej Chalimon star. 105 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
 
 

BB-FOR
 

Time of the Gypsies (1989)  aka Dom za vesanje (1989)
 

In this luminous tale set in the former Yugoslavia, Perhan, an engaging young Gypsy with telekinetic powers, is seduced by the quick-cash world of petty crime which threatens to destroy him and those he loves.  Many students think this is a freak movie not worthy of the list, so be forewarned.
 
 
 

BB-DRAMA

Welcome To Sarajevo (1997)
 

Achingly realistic, unsentimental look at reporters covering the Bosnian war in Sarajevo. One British TV reporter becomes especially outraged by the plight of orphaned children and finds his casual promise to a young girl--that he will lead her to safety--being put to the test. Based on a true story, and told with a compelling blend of genuine and staged footage. Difficult to watch at times, but rewarding.
 
 

VTLIB (Video 3084)

Europa

Narrated by Max von Sydow. Sukowa plays a railroad magnate's daughter who may be in synch with postwar Nazi         sympathizers called ``werewolves. '' Audacious black-comic fantasy utilizes high-tech mixed media, creative use of rear     projection, and dramatic shifts in pigment. Though it feels like a stunt, this is a rare contemporary movie that makes one feel      privy to the reinvention of cinema.
 
 

VTLIB Video 7396, BB-FOR

Hey Babu Rita

In 1985, four middle-aged Yugoslav emigres return to Belgrade for the funeral of Mariana, their beautiful compatriot. They called her Esther, for Esther Williams, she was the coxswain for their four-man rowing team, and they each loved her. They'd last seen her in 1953, when they rowed her across the Adriatic, pregnant, to join her exiled father in Italy. In flashbacks  we learn the story of their youthful baptism into sex, smoking, rock and roll (Hey Ba-ba-re-bop), Hollywood and Swedish films, blue jeans on the black market, and their  rivalry with Ristic, the Communist Party youth leader for whom they had instant antipathy.
 

VTLIB (Video 7305)

Underground

The story starts from an underground manufacture of weapons of Belgrade, during the WWII, and evolves into fairly surreal situations. The black marketeer who smuggles the weapons to partisans forgets to mention to the workers that the war is over, and they keep producing. 50 years later, they become suspicious, and break out of their underground "shelter" --- only to    convince themselves that the guy was right: the war is still going on.

VTLIB, BB-DRAMA, VU-DRAMA

Schindler's List (1993)

Staggering adaptation of Thomas Keneally's best-seller about the real-life Catholic war profiteer who initially flourished by sucking up to the Nazis, but eventually went broke saving the lives of more than 1,000 Polish Jews by employing them in his factory, manufacturing crockery for the German army. Filmed almost entirely on location in Poland, in gritty b&w, but with a pace to match the most frenzied Spielberg works, this looks and feels like nothing Hollywood has ever made before. The three central characters rate--and receive--unforgettable performances: Neeson, who's towering as Oskar Schindler; Kingsley, superb as his Jewish accountant (and conscience); and Fiennes, who's frightening as the odious Nazi commandant. Outstanding screenplay by Steven Zaillian and cinematography by Janusz Kaminski.

VTLIB (Video 3168)

Kanal (1957)

September, 1944. It's the 56th day of Warsaw's uprising against the Nazis. The third Platoon of the Resistance is down
to 43 heroic men and women, and they're penned in. After a last day of fighting, and of good-byes to family, to love making,
and to music, a handful of doomed survivors wade into the city's underground sewers in hopes of escape. Their valor is tested a final time.
Intense, almost unrelentingly graphic account of the final daysof the September, 1944, Warsaw uprising in Nazi-occupied
Poland. This is the second of Wajda's war trilogy, after A GENERATION and before ASHES AND DIAMONDS.
Also known as THEY LOVED LIFE. Not shown in U. S.  until 1961.