# Favorite Eastern European Movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353 "2019-09-16T23:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/21 "2019-09-17T15:55:59Z")
**A Serbian Film**. KIDDING! Jesus, don’t even Google that. I dunno about “favorite” but I enjoyed [Kontroll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontroll). There’s also Tarkovsky’s better efforts: **Solaris** and **Stalker**. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/22 "2019-09-17T15:58:07Z")
[QUOTE=J Kieślowski’s \*Blue, Red, \*and _White_.[/QUOTE] I spent my 25th birthday at a triple bill of those films, I had already seen Blue before, can’t remember whether I’d seen the others before. There is also _The Double Life of Veronique_ which I enjoyed, and a lot of other Kieslowski films which I haven’t seen. Years ago, when a kitchy TV version of Thomas Hardy’s novel _The Return of the Native_ was on, I said I wanted to see the 6 hour 1960s Polish film of the book, filmed in black and white on location on some damp heath, with minimal dialogue. I hope it really exists. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/23 "2019-09-17T16:45:13Z")
Closely Watched Trains Ashes and Diamonds Loves of a Blonde ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/24 "2019-09-17T16:50:16Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/25 "2019-09-17T17:38:58Z")
H-8… (1958) Nikola Tanhofer Not Eastern bloc, but still. It gets really frustrating if you want to see anything more recent and actually Eastern bloc. Not a lot of knowledgeable reviews in English or decent English subtitles available. Filmmakers like Szabolcs Hajdu make me wish I understood Hungarian. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/26 "2019-09-17T17:41:19Z")
The Polish holocaust film Korczak > **[Korczak (1990) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099949/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1)** > > Korczak: Directed by Andrzej Wajda. With Wojciech Pszoniak, Ewa Dalkowska, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, Marzena Trybala. Account of the last days of life of the legendary Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish... [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBwsoD-AV0) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/27 "2019-09-17T18:18:58Z")
[Solaris](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069293/) ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/28 "2019-09-18T13:07:10Z")
I just saw “Edes Anna”. Pretty good. 7/10 ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/29 "2019-09-18T14:04:13Z")
“The Witness,” directed by Peter Bacso. It’s a political satire on 1950s Stalinism in Hungary - and it was made while the communists were still in power. The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. How did they get away with such a scathing portrayal of the hard-line communists? And it pointedly references real-life atrocities and absurdities. It’s no wonder that this 1969 film was banned until 1981. > **[The Witness (1969 Hungarian film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(1969_Hungarian_film))** > > The Witness (Hungarian: A tanú, also known as Without A Trace), is a 1969 Hungarian satire film, directed by Péter Bacsó. The film was created in a tense political climate at a time when talking about the early 1950s and the 1956 Revolution was still taboo. Although it was financed and allowed to be made by the communist authorities, it was subsequently banned from release and grew a cult film following among the population. As a result of its screening in foreign countries, the communist auth In... ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/30 "2019-09-18T18:23:05Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > “The Witness,” directed by Peter Bacso. > > It’s a political satire on 1950s Stalinism in Hungary - and it was made while the communists were still in power. > > The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. How did they get away with such a scathing portrayal of the hard-line communists? And it pointedly references real-life atrocities and absurdities. > > It’s no wonder that this 1969 film was banned until 1981. > > [The Witness (1969 Hungarian film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(1969_Hungarian_film)) I was thinking of watching this movie today. [The Witness (1969) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065067/) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/31 "2019-09-18T18:42:02Z")
No love for the classics? _Alexander Nevsky Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 Ivan the Terrible, Part 2_ _Battleship Potemkin_ is commie agitprop, and probably responsible for more deaths than _Birth of a Nation_, but I must admit that it’s an entertaining flick. Would a German film set in the DDR count as East European? _The Lives of Others_ was . . . interesting. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/32 "2019-09-18T18:52:07Z")
Well, it was produced after the reunification, but it’s about East German: _[Goodbye, Lenin!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye,_Lenin!)_. It’s about a woman who is a diehard Communist, but who falls into a coma and awakes after the reunification. Warned that a shock could cause another heart attack, her son works to pretend that East Berlin is still under communist control. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/33 "2019-09-18T19:11:42Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > A Serbian Film :o I was going to say that. 😃 Does **Good Bye Lenin!** count? It’s German, but it’s about East Germany. A woman who’s a dedicated Communist in East Germany goes into a coma, and while she’s unconscious, the Wall falls and Germany reunites. When she comes out of her coma, her family is afraid she’ll die if she finds out about all of the changes, so they try to make her think things haven’t changed. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/34 "2019-09-18T20:49:45Z")
Would [a documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_vs_Communism) count? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/35 "2019-09-18T21:15:01Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Kieślowski’s \*Blue, Red, \*and _White_. > [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > I spent my 25th birthday at a triple bill of those films, I had already seen Blue before, can’t remember whether I’d seen the others before. There is also _The Double Life of Veronique_ which I enjoyed I think of those as French films with a little Polish thrown in, myself. Or I’d have listed them too, I love them. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/36 "2019-09-18T21:52:52Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Would [a documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_vs_Communism) count? Sure, why not?! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/37 "2019-09-18T22:10:30Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > _Worker and Parasite_ The American remake, Stingy and Battery, was inferior. I remember liking Kontroll but the plot is fuzzy. Also if Bosnia counts as Eastern Europe, 2001 film No Man’s Land. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/38 "2019-09-19T11:38:29Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think of those as French films with a little Polish thrown in, myself. Or I’d have listed them too, I love them. Good point. Okay, how about this? “Moon Father,” a 1999 Uzbeki film that I saw (in 1999) in Merida, Mexico, of all places (oh, wait, Uzbekistan is Central Asia, not Eastern Europe. Oh, well.) > **[Moon Father](https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/moon-father-1200459438/)** > > A delightful tragicomic tale from Central Asia, "Moon Father" ventures into the realm of magic realism to recount a plucky girl's search for the man who impregnated her, a man she has never seen. Western-financed production values well serve this... ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/39 "2019-09-19T13:22:57Z")
People find the movies of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki either terribly funny or terrible. He has a style that I guess you could call updated, deadpan, hip Buster Keaton without the slapstick. _Leningrad Cowboys Go America_ is largely set in the US, _I Hired A Contract Killer_ is set in London but _Drifting Clouds_ is all Finland. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353/40 "2019-09-19T14:45:27Z")
A couple of Andrzej Wajda films: [Man of Marble](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075902/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1) [Man of Iron](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082222/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_24) I liked the marble one better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-eastern-european-movies/840353.md?page=3)