
Eastern European Movies - danielam
https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/
======
jagrsw
My favorite is 'The Saragossa Manuscript' \-
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-saragossa-
manus...](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-saragossa-manuscript)
\- a word of warning: it's ~3h long (but well worth it) - a masterpiece of
scenography and camera handling.

The second would be probably The Pharaoh -
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/drama/pharaoh](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/drama/pharaoh)
\- for its scenography + for the script which focuses on a quite interesting
problem (politics + well.. astronomy;)

The vast majority of those movies will most likely seem quite atypical for a
person who is mostly familiar with modern Hollywood/world cinema, as they're
in most cases slow-paced, melancholic, and in many cases focusing on
intellectually-interesting problems (e.g. The Pharaoh's 'dilemma')

I can maybe compare them to video games from 80's and 90's. Today's games are
visually beautiful and movie-like, but it's those games from 80's/90's which
have 'soul' and ability to captivate players through well thought-out stories
and hand-drawn art.

~~~
virgilp
I think mine is still Black Cat, White Cat
([https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/black-cat-white-
cat](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/black-cat-white-cat)).

From the Romanian movies present there, I liked Aferim -
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/aferim](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/aferim)
\- but only because it's a sobering look at our history; for non-romanians, it
might not be so good. Filantropica
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314067/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314067/))
is also a great movie that illustrates well the post-revolution atmosphere in
the country (and it's more likely to be universally-enjoyed than Aferim), but
they don't have it on this site.

~~~
razius
Romanian I would also recommend "Moartea domnului Lazarescu"
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-death-of-mr-
laz...](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-death-of-mr-lazarescu)

~~~
virgilp
That's a depressing and really slow-paced movie.. one can appreciate that this
is part of the message, but honestly I don't think many people will really
enjoy it. Not saying it's a bad movie... it's just that it's (intentionally)
not a pleasant watching experience.

I also don't think it will leave one enlightened in any way - has the strange
quality of being both accurate & misleading at the same time. Plus, the state
of our medical system is a topic of interest for Romanians but not really
anybody else, I believe.

~~~
lqet
> I don't think many people will really enjoy it.

Well, it has 7.9 points on IMDB based on over 13,000 votes, so there
definitely seem to be some who like it!

------
cyjyar2
On a related note, Mosfilm has a Youtube channel with high quality version of
many of their films, including most Tarkovsky. The channels is all in Russian
but English sub are typically available, and search works in English too.

With regards to copyrights, it seems all films released after 1973 are covered
by it, however the laws between ex-Soviet countries differ. Sources:

[http://www.kirj.ee/public/trames_pdf/2014/issue_3/Trames-201...](http://www.kirj.ee/public/trames_pdf/2014/issue_3/Trames-2014-3-199-219.pdf)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Un...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Union)

I would encourage people to use legal means to watch these movies, especially
in Europe where many of them have been re-published legally with English subs,
often by small/indie companies.

~~~
pjc50
The other day I watched "White Sun of the Desert", and found it excellent:
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066565/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066565/)
\- very much reminded me of the _Dollars_ trilogy.

(recommendation from Chris Hadfield, of all people; apparently this film is
traditional to watch the night before Soyuz launches)

~~~
morazow
Wow. This was one of the most watched movies around our household during my
childhood.

The place in the movie is just near my hometown, old Merv in Turkmenistan.

~~~
pjc50
Thankyou! I spent quite a lot of the film wondering where these amazing
locations were.

------
weinzierl
I could not find them on Eastern European Movies but the movies directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky left an impression at me. While some were made when he lived
in exile and are therefore technically not Eastern European they still fit the
genre. Besides the obvious _Solaris_ and _Stalker_ I can recommend
_Nostalghia_ and especially _The Sacrifice_.

On a more lighter note I really enjoyed the children movies and TV series that
were made in Czechoslovakia in the 80s a lot as kid and so does my kid today.
My favorite is _The Visitors_ aka _Adam '84_. Classics are also _Pan Tau_ ,
all the fairy tale movies from Hofman/Polák, _Lucie, postrach ulice_ and
_Létající Čestmír_. Generally everything out of studio Barrandov is worth to
have a look at.

~~~
david927
Andrei Tarkovsky was one of the greatest film directors, ever.

Here is a shot vs shot comparison with Iñárritu's 2016 The Revenant film which
won an Oscar:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpcdhNq_VPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpcdhNq_VPM)

~~~
swimfar
It took me a bit to figure out what I was watching. It's a comparison between
scenes from "The Revenant" and scenes from various films directed by Andrei
Tarkovsky.

------
js8
Couple years ago, my american boss mentioned that he liked the poisoned cup
scene in Princess Bride, and if you do also, you should watch the poisoned cup
scene in "The Emperor and the Golem". The movie itself I am not sure, but the
sheer brilliance of that one scene:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zYy9lXwumQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zYy9lXwumQ)
(unfortunately no subtitles)

The premise of the scene is that emperor Rudolf II. invites Tycho de Brahe to
explain heliocentrism, and he uses cups of wine to demonstrate, but the
emperor's one is poisoned.

~~~
jacobush
Very good scene.

Another interesting thing: I think blackface appears in the last cut.

~~~
honzzz
Based on what he is wearing, he is a chimney sweeper.

~~~
glogla
Yup. Those have common place in Czech fairy tales.

------
Razengan
I recommend Kin Dza Dza, an old Russian sci-fi with some unique ideas and nice
world-building.

Also has a very good animated remake:
[https://youtu.be/tRwuvQUSG5c](https://youtu.be/tRwuvQUSG5c)

~~~
stas2k
I always use cak(the bell that a certain class has to wear on their nose) as a
metaphor for current mask usage. :D Source:
[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oCmUxI1UdME/maxresdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oCmUxI1UdME/maxresdefault.jpg)

~~~
pound
Could you clarify connection between masks in current health situation and
'certain class has to wear'?

~~~
Razengan
They didn’t mean that a certain class has to wear masks. Just reminds them of
the bells.

------
schnevets
I took a quick glance through the Polish collection and I was floored by how
gorgeous the majority of posters were. Many of them made intriguing statements
about the movie without giving anything away, and they looked so perfectly
designed.

I understand there's business motivations behind today's bland "cram in the
stars, put on an organge/purple filter, and throw an explosion in the
background" approach, but I'd be so much more likely to click a streaming link
and/or buy a physical copy if it was displayed with an enticing work of art.

~~~
SSLy
You'll enjoy
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ForeignMoviePosters/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ForeignMoviePosters/)

------
alexashka
There's a link to Soviet & Russian movies at the bottom.

Having seen a lot of them, I can recommend this, being my favorite movie of
all time:

[https://sovietmoviesonline.com/melodrama/252-zhenya-
zhenechk...](https://sovietmoviesonline.com/melodrama/252-zhenya-zhenechka-i-
katyusha.html)

It's about a dreamer misfit during wartime and his relationship with the world
and a romantic interest in particular. This movie in many ways showcases the
best qualities in people, and highlights the random nature of the world. The
way the main character and others deal with what comes their way is so deeply
human and sincere, I consider this movie a timeless masterpiece for anyone who
identifies with the main character.

One more movie that I think a larger audience may appreciate, is the most
famous movie to have been made in Russia (not USSR) called 'Brat' (Brother).

[https://sovietmoviesonline.com/melodrama/68-brat.html](https://sovietmoviesonline.com/melodrama/68-brat.html)

Having talked about it with many people, people see and appreciate different
aspects of it but one comment I've heard over and over again, is that it
speaks deeply to the way Russian people felt, during those difficult and
chaotic years (1990s).

------
jungletime
The Red, White and Blue trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski is pretty cool. Each
film is beautifully shot with theme and a color grading matching its title.

I've seen Blue in film, in an old historic cinema in Vancouver called The
Roxy. To this day it's made me appreciate the dynamic range of film. And just
sitting there through out this film, and being enveloped in different shades
of blue light for two hours.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Colours_trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Colours_trilogy)

------
lalalandland
Leviatan is a stark insight into corruption in Russia
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802154/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802154/)

~~~
SauciestGNU
Funny enough it's based on the American "killdozer" incident. Excellent film
though.

~~~
lalalandland
I didn't know that.

------
_hardwaregeek
So happy to see the Dekalog here. It's hard to find it streaming. Dekalog 1 is
a particularly relevant film for HN since it deals with a programmer and his
idolization of technology. There's a small moment at a shrine with wax that is
immensely beautiful. Kieslowski has such a great eye for the small details and
poetry within the scene.

------
timurlenk
Has anyone been able to identify what is the name of the organisation behind
the website and where is it legally established?

I would like to know if the access fee benefits the artists in any way - the
east european movie industry is not exactly swimming in money.

~~~
miroz
I wondered about this too. In the DMCA policy they state that authors can
self-publish on their platform but they don't monitor, screen or review
uploaded media, which means they don't have any contact with the authors. Too
bad. They could start getting infringement notices.

But in most of the eastern Europe movies are not commercial anyway. They are
financed by different sponsorships from state and local companies. They don't
make a lot of money once they are made, with rare exceptions. For older movies
it's hard to find actual copyright owners. I think some of them could be
considered abandonware.

------
dangelov
Love the idea. I'll have to browse their lists and look for some new movies to
watch.

I did notice North Macedonia is missing from the list so here are a couple of
recommendations for amazing movies (imo) for those interested:

\- Honeyland (2019, Oscar nominee, Documentary)

\- Before the Rain (1994, Oscar nominee, Drama)

\- Bal-Can-Can (2005, 2nd highest grossing)

\- Secret Ingredient (2017, comedy)

~~~
ranit
>> North Macedonia is missing from the list

It seems there are only old (before 1990) films there. The list of the
countries is from that time: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia.

------
philshem
cool site!

Russia (USSR) wasn't on the list, but I can recommend THE IRONY OF FATE (1976)

> The film is widely regarded as a classic piece of Russian popular culture
> and is traditionally broadcast in Russia and almost all former Soviet
> republics every New Year's Eve (Andrew Horton and Michael Brashinsky likened
> its status to that held by Frank Capra's 1946 It's a Wonderful Life in the
> United States as a holiday staple).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irony_of_Fate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irony_of_Fate)

------
rayrag
You can watch some Polish movies with English subs on Studio Filmowe TOR
channel -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZJOdnu_og&list=PL2gv9m758a...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZJOdnu_og&list=PL2gv9m758aYIO_93z_7IphRvYQbdzZGa2)

------
082349872349872
Super! This may well beat the old school method, which involved searching for
video and subtitles separately (if not simply watching undubbed).

I found: [https://sovietmoviesonline.com/ru/melodrama/345-dom-
durakov....](https://sovietmoviesonline.com/ru/melodrama/345-dom-durakov.html)
(set in the chechen wars) but can't remember the name of a former-yugoslav
dark comedy, in which a bunch of slavs go underground during WWII, only to
emerge forty years later to find the countryside is riven by war and everyone
is still fighting "fascists". (on the other hand, maybe it's just as well,
given how many former-yugoslavia refugees we have in my area, that I've
forgotten how to say "flipping fascist melonfarmers" in one of their local
languages) Can any kind HN'ers remind me? Thanks!

Incidentally, comparing soviet-era movies to western fare clearly shows how
different the censorship was on each side of the iron curtain. One can
probably quickly get an idea just from browsing the placards, without even
watching any.

~~~
jagrsw
> but can't remember the name of a former-yugoslav dark comedy, in which a
> bunch of slavs go underground during WWII

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(1995_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_\(1995_film\))

~~~
082349872349872
Dziękuję ci

~~~
SSLy
Don't use word-for-word translations, they sound odd

------
artpi
Oh, this is amazing!

I live in Poland and recently played Witcher 3. It made me realize how
different it is from many Hollywood tropes. It really has a distinct European
vibe.

There are so many movies here, that I didn't know about!

------
burntoutfire
My recomendations from the Polish cinematography:

"The promised Land"
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072446](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072446)):
a film set during the rapid development of textile industry in XIX century
Łódź, where fortunes could be made relatively quickly.

"Camouflage" (legal link with Eng subtitles:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciGr-
hi9He4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciGr-hi9He4)): a story of a PhD
student entering the corrupted science world of communist Poland. Relevant to
basically anyone who has to function within a corrupted institution (which
makes all of us?).

"The structure of crystal" (legal link with Eng subtitles:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozV9J8bVA0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozV9J8bVA0)):
similar to the previous one (same director), but this time the young PhD
student explores more philosophical questions.

There's plenty more of great stuff if one wants to explore (Kieślowski, Wajda,
Zanussi, the whole movement of "cinema of moral anxiety"), Polish cinema
during communism was really prolific for some reason.

~~~
honzzz
Any chance you remember the name of the movie that is about dwarfs living in a
weird totalitarian regime trying to get some magic potion and escape to our
normal-sized world? I saw it as a child and I loved it but I only remember it
vaguely.

~~~
cyberdrunk
If you liked that, Seksmisja is similar (also a comedy, by the same director)
- it's a story of two guys waking up in the future from a scientific project
studying hiberation, finding out that all men are extinct (the women reproduce
via labs) and the world is a sort of all-women Orwellian dystopia. Very funny.

------
efrafa
I can't recommend `The Cremator` enough
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-
cremator](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-cremator)

------
joyj2nd
I did not see this one: Ulysses and the Stars (1976)

Loved it when I was a child. But I will give you a few excellent Russian
movies:

Duelist
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5282006/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5282006/)

Kollector
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5031998/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5031998/)

Mermaid (more a girls movie but underrated in my opinion)
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7162390/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7162390/)

------
dzhiurgis
Corpus Christi is a good recent one I loved.

I love watching movies in local language, will have to look into these.

Others being Aurora and Parasite.

------
tropdrop
If you buy a membership for a month you can _download_ (as opposed to stream-
only) any movie you like with all the subtitles!

My favorite so far has been Wajda's 1977 _Man of Marble._ An oddly magnetic
and fast-paced film that captures the spirit of unbridled, unrealistic
optimism (the Soviet, communist variety) and its detriments. You _will_ fall
in love with Birkut's herculean brick-laying powers!

I also love _Daisies_ and _Pearls of the Deep_ (both Vera Chytolova) - solid
gems of the Czech New Wave. Anyone who loves reading magical realist novels -
Murakami, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kundera - would also enjoy these films.

~~~
distances
What's the quality of the downloads? Wondering if these are high-quality
restored movies or some random YT downloads.

~~~
tropdrop
The ones I've watched seem to be higher quality than some of the same films on
YouTube - the subtitles are certainly much better quality, which is the reason
I was willing to pay and download several films for which I had a harder time
finding accurate (not automatically generated) subtitles.

~~~
distances
Do you have some numbers to share in terms of file size and resolution?

------
Tade0
Here's something unusual:

[https://www.netflix.com/pl-
en/title/81232964?preventIntent=t...](https://www.netflix.com/pl-
en/title/81232964?preventIntent=true)

It's a story about a man obsessed with fishing.

Notable is the fact that this is a movie adaptation of an internet copypasta.

~~~
snicky
I've seen the pasta dozens of times on the web, but never heard about this
movie before. The trailer starts with those exact words being read off the
screen, ROTFL.

~~~
Tade0
I had my worries about Piotr Cyrwus but the way he said "skurwysyny"
addressing the angler's association got me sold.

~~~
pndy
I think he deserves some special credits after "escaping" Klan trap

------
rasz
For people interested in surrealities of living under the iron curtain
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/teddy-
bear](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/teddy-bear) by Stanislaw Bareja
is an absolute classic.

------
mdmoll
Not much here for Estonian movies, but Kevade is the obvious standout; it
isn’t my favorite older Estonian film, though. I’d recommend trying to find
The Last Relic (Viimne reliikvia), if you get the chance. It’s a medieval
adventure with some catchy songs, especially “Põgene, vaba laps!”

~~~
ZWoz
Those are influencial in local culture, but probably don't mean much for
foreigners. "Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel" in other hand is good international
film.

------
flohofwoe
The German section is seriously confusing because it contains both West- and
East-German movies (and with no further indication which is which). E.g. a
movie like "Sexy Sisters" would be very untypical for any Eastern European
country I think ;)

~~~
Merem
That section is pretty pointless, considering it's supposed to be the GDR (see
flag). You would have to do research on what movie actually belongs there and
which do not.

------
vizzah
Curated list of Eastern EU movies (good), asking to pay for a pirated content?
(bad)

------
omega3
This looks like an illegal streaming service hiding behind a beautiful
website.

~~~
rasz
It sure does, uploads are scene/torrent releases. On the other hand this is
how you do business in Central/Eastern Europe.

For example www.cda.pl. Owners, father and son, build OdSiebie.com mega like
pirate content sharing website in 2008 and got raided by Police/BSA in 2009.
One year was enough to earn so much money to lawyer up and win unwinnable
court case :o. With this experience and first class legal team they started
another pirate streaming website www.cda.pl with small twist - DMCA submit
form (triggering instant reupload of reported content from one of many bot
accounts, so no loss for the portal). Progressively paid Premium option
started sharing revenue with legit Movie distributors, instead of DMCA you
could claim your content and join profit redistribution program. In 2012 they
made $10K profit, 2013 $300K, 2014 >$1. Today CDA makes >$1mil legal profit
per quarter and is listed on the stock exchange with $80mil capitalization.
This is towering over other local options like Netflix and Amazon. They are
ranked higher than twitch, netflix or pornhub in traffic and attention.

[https://www.marketscreener.com/CDA-
S-A-58002347/](https://www.marketscreener.com/CDA-S-A-58002347/)

Polish source
[https://technologia.dziennik.pl/internet/artykuly/504361,cda...](https://technologia.dziennik.pl/internet/artykuly/504361,cdapl-
skad-sie-wzial-serwis-z-filmami-i-grami-cdapl.html)

~~~
omega3
> On the other hand this is how you do business in Central/Eastern Europe.

Honestly, I don't see it. This approach you've highlighted is the same one
that YouTube took in the early days (excl. the bot accounts) there is nothing
except perhaps for lax regulation and enforcement that made it possible in
CEE.

------
operatorius
Highly recommend "On the silver globe". Polish sci-fi masterpiece

------
honzzz
Awesome, I see some of my favorite movies there. Too bad that many times there
is "The movie is not available" although the page for the movie lists very
specific list of subtitles - is this some geo-blocking thing? For example this
one... [https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-
cremator](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-cremator)

EDIT: After going through many movies, it seems that the majority is not
available, at least not to me.

~~~
082349872349872
I used to find vo movies on YT then find subtitles separately by searching on
Yandex (which also had some videos that weren't available on YT).

------
axegon_
Nice initiative. There are plenty of movies coming from these parts that never
got the exposure they deserve. For instance a very little known fact is that
the premiere of The Goat Horn[1] was postponed by the Soviet Union's order
because it had a really strong chance in beating Tchaikovsky (Russian-made
film) in the Oscars.

[1] [https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/drama/the-goat-
horn](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/drama/the-goat-horn)

------
dvfjsdhgfv
A great masterpiece for me is [https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/whos-
singin-over-th...](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/whos-singin-over-
there) It is such a joy to watch. Totally exotic, showing a glimpse of a lost
world, with a sense of humor, but at the same time with some serious themes.
It's a legennd in ex-Yugoslavian countries, but virtually unknown abroad.

------
noncoml
I recommend “Underground” and “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”

------
roknovosel
I can't recommend 'Lepa sela lepo gore'
([https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/pretty-village-
pret...](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/pretty-village-pretty-
flame)) enough. IMO, it is one of the best and most underrated war films of
all time. A tense depiction of the Bosnian conflict with a healthy amount of
dark comedy thrown in there.

------
cosmodisk
Lithuanian: "Forest of the Gods"

([https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0453366](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0453366)) The
story about one man- an artist and an intellectual- who was imprisoned by two
brutal regimes, the Nazis and the Soviets. 'The Professor' is a man who lives
by his own personal version of the Ten Commandments. After miraculously
surviving imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a bit of ironic
fate, he writes a memoir of his life, which becomes the target of the Soviet
censors. The so-called "freedom" of Communism becomes just as oppressive as
the German concentration camp. -Anonymous

~~~
guiraldelli
"Forest of the Gods" is a very good film.

But there are a few Lithuanian films that are my all-time favourites (besides
"Forest of the Gods"):

1\. "The Ancient Woods": [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/487463-the-ancient-
woods](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/487463-the-ancient-woods)

"The Ancient Woods" is, perhaps, the best film I ever watched—it is actually a
documentary.

It has one shot with a human and there are no human voices in the whole film.

It is a love letter to the "untouched nature" (of Lithuania).

2\. "The Collectress":
[https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/56074-kolekcionier](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/56074-kolekcionier)

3\. "You Am I": [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/12681-a-esi-
tu](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/12681-a-esi-tu)

4\. "Vanishing Waves":
[https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/133764-aurora](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/133764-aurora)

5\. "The Summer of Sungaile": [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/310568-the-
summer-of-sangai...](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/310568-the-summer-of-
sangaile)

And some to not use too much the brain and have a fun time:

* "Redirected" (by the way, in English): [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/190469-redirected-u-lietuv](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/190469-redirected-u-lietuv)

* "Patriotai" ("Patriots"): [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/408809-patriotai](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/408809-patriotai)

* "How Saul and Paul Robbed Them All": [https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/349954-how-saul-and-paul-ro...](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/349954-how-saul-and-paul-robbed-them-all)

\---

Just to add to your comments, the events on (the book) "Forest of the Gods"
(which the film is based on) are based on the real experience of the main
character, "the Professor" [1].

There are some criticism on whether the events are 100% faithful to the
reality [2], but indifferent to that, it is a hell of a piece of art!

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balys_Sruoga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balys_Sruoga)

[2]: I am sorry, but I don't remember where I got that information. It is not
that important, anyhow.

------
kerbobotat
No Russendisko unfortunately, but I guess that's German and not technically
Easter-European.

That film is my white-whale, Ive searched high and low for a copy of it with
english subtitles since I saw the trailer back in 2011 or 2012. Mainly I just
want to see it because I'm a fan of the band Leningrad and they did some of
the soundtrack.

------
julienchastang
There are quite a few Kieslowski videos:

[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/?s=Kieslowski](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/?s=Kieslowski)

His Blue, White, Red series as well as Decalog are well worth watching. I
especially loved "Red" as I recall -- saw it many years ago.

------
markvdb
Here's a masterpiece almost unknown outside the Latvian community:

A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469785/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469785/)

------
k_bx
There's a small but mighty new project "Netflix for modern Ukrainian cinema"
called Takflix
[https://takflix.com/en/?lang_id=2](https://takflix.com/en/?lang_id=2)

------
ravingraven
Very sad to see Greece missing from this. Theo Angelopoulos was a world class
director.

~~~
StavrosK
Greece isn't so much on the Eastern Bloc, I guess, so that's probably why.

~~~
ravingraven
Neither is Germany. The DDR, sure but there are movies from West Germany there
too, e.g. World on a Wire.

~~~
StavrosK
Yeah, I think they kind of mixed up there with the DDR, as West Germany is the
only exception.

------
dandare
Make yourself a favour and watch Rane (The Wounds)
[https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-
wounds](https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/comedy/the-wounds)

------
itwrangler
Hmm, only paypal payments, no contact details, not sure I'd put my cash here..

------
mosselman
This website looks absolutely amazing. The only thing that would improve it
for me would be increasing some of the font sizes. Apart from that it is one
of the most beautiful websites I have run across in a long while.

------
x87678r
This is great, anyone got a source of EE children's movies?

~~~
HideousKojima
One of my favorites is a Czech one called At Ziji Duchove, basically the local
troup of young pioneers team up with some medieval ghosts from the local
castle to fight some capitalists

------
nkg
Wow

"Leon, the 40-year-old former soldier who is an alcoholic now, gets a job as a
bodyguard. His duty is to take care of one of the Mafia leader’s daughters.
His problems begin when he falls in love with the 16-year-old girl."

Watch your steps, Leon.

------
kervantas
I can highly recommend The Fifth Seal. It's a masterpiece.

------
Abimelex
missing Macedonian movies, like "before the rain"

------
kindly_fo
Only Hollywood can make watchable movies.

~~~
galoisgirl
For you, maybe.

Communism came with heavy censorship. You had to be sly to pass some jokes.

For instance, Seksmisja features a scene where two guys end up in the middle
of nowhere. One says "let's go east, there must be civilization there". The
east if of course a dab at the Soviet Union. There were jokes that 99% of the
population would understand, and yet the censors would miss them.

~~~
d3ckard
I seriously doubt censors missed that. I think they were playing the game as
well. Seksmisja quote is a good example of that.

~~~
082349872349872
The entire premise of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome,_or_No_Trespassing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome,_or_No_Trespassing)
is that people who seek power (and hence rise in bureaucracies) take
themselves way too seriously. So maybe all a censor had to do was to make sure
the jibes were cerebral enough that uncultured people would automatically take
the opposite[1] Poe's Law interpretation...

[1] for polyvalence, cue the Stalin/moustache joke

(Based on Boyarskiy's stage personality, I'm guessing the following had some
ambiguity:

    
    
        Пора пора порадуемся на своем веку
        Красавице и кубку, счастливому клинку
    

despite being the theme song for a kid's show. Or am I overinterpreting?)

~~~
rimliu
Wait, that song was a theme song for a kids show? I only knew if as a song
from the soviet interpretation of "The Three Musketeers".

~~~
082349872349872
That's what I was thinking of (most recently seen by me in a Rule 63 quartet
complete with costume horses for New Year's carnival).

Sorry if it wasn't a kids' show; I had assumed so from the all the YouTube
comments when I discovered it to the effect of "cool, I totally remember
watching this at my grandmother's." But maybe that says more about how old
current internauts were in 1978 than what the target audience really had been?

