Monday Film Review: 5 Elephants

The Goethe Institut in Chicago is always showing movies or having cultural events to promote German culture. Despite taking classes there and being generally impressed, I never made it to their events until now.  They were showing Die Frau mit den 5 Elephanten (The Woman with 5 Elephants) and I forced my husband to attend with me.

Monday Film Review: Dekalog

You'll have to excuse if this post waxes rhapsodic or if I get overly emotional.  I have never loved a movie/series so intensely at first viewing.  At this point, I have viewed all of them at least three times and I have deliberately sought out more of his work.  The epic Dekalog film series by Krzysztof Kieślowski is a work of brilliance.  It was my first introduction to the legendary director and by all means was the best one.

Monday Film Review: Farewell

 One of my favorite films (I don't care about the haters out there) is rather conventional, relatively well-known for a foreign film, and deals with the time shortly before and after the fall of the Wall.  The main actor is pretty hunky and it's in German.  Good Bye, Lenin! is a general crowd pleaser, I know, and it will hardly be a surprise that I love it and it will keep a soft spot in my heart.  Like Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), it's palatable for an American audience; my husband is a relatively good barometer for American responses and he liked it.

Monday Film Review: Tapping In, Helping Out

This film is a little old, but still a powerful punch of morality in the Soviet realm.  If you haven't seen Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), you need to view it as soon as possible.  It was the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2007 and though I can't speak for the other contenders, this movie was worth every bit of its weight in Oscar gold.  Even my parents loved it, and they are not inclined to love communist things.  I can't remember if I picked it or not.

Monday FILM Review: Serbian Hero

Today's Monday review is going to be a film, not a book!  It's time to get a little multimedia in my reviews.  For those following me on Twitter, you saw that I went to see "Slaughter Nick for President" on Friday at CIMM Fest.  I seldom get to watch movies about eastern Europe because my husband does not have the same taste, and my selections tend to be downers (which he wishes to avoid).  I have to be careful about my selections because he would not tolerate a film like "Sátántangó", which is 7 hours long.  I don't even know if I can get him to commit to "Dekalog" (which I cherish in my heart) despite that it's essentially like a TV series.  The point is, we both had to win.  I got Serbia in there and he got some feel-good.

Baring It All: 4/12 Recap

Welcome to the recap of the week.  There's so much to read and know that I've taken the liberty of condensing it for you.  If you want to see these things as they happen, follow me on Twitter!  You just have to click that button over to the right.  It's not far...  You can also see who I follow; I discovered that Twitter is the best place to find anything on CEE and there are fantastic, smart people to interact with.

Let's get to it.

Country Spotlight: Montenegro

It's been a long, long time since I have spotlighted a country and it's time to revive it.  Today will be focused on Montenegro!  I have completely neglected the country, but here I am to shed some light on the country, which has been popping up in the news due to some presidential problems.  Though besotted with corruption, the EU approved accession talks.  Let's dive in to Crno Gora!

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Name

The name Montenegro actually comes from the Venetian word for Crna Gora (sometimes transliterated as Tsrna Gora): Monte Negro.  It means "black mountain".

Guernica and Romania

I want to refer you lovely readers to a website I have somewhat recently started following.  I came across this article a few days ago and wanted to share it.  Guernica is a thought provoking online magazine that integrates art and politics (with some intermarriage of economics).  They're really not all that separate, but they tackle all with the same tenacity and unite them in a fresh and interesting way.  I would try to work for them if I wasn't planted in Chicago--I'd love to learn how to run an independent magazine.

Belorusian Animation

Today we go back to Belarus––they have more to offer than Lukashenko.  Belorusian animation was similarly difficult to find.  What helped me the most was Niffiwan's uploads on YouTube and his corresponding LiveJournal blog.  Most of Niffiwan's posts and uploads are Russian, but a point he makes in this post is that Belorusians don't consider themselves separate from Russians.  This may be the case, but I'm going to be a stickler anyway because there is way more Russian animation available.

Macedonian Animation

Today's post is super short, partially because I don't have time and partially because I cannot find much on the interwebs.  Sadly, my search for Macedonian animation has led me to a scant supply of information.  My only disclaimer is that I don't speak Macedonian or know the Cyrillic alphabet, so my search may have been entirely hindered.  This is why I need to learn Cyrillic letters and a Slavic language ASAP; it's holding up my interests.

Czech Animation

My post on B.EAST magazine inspired me to do an entire week of CEE animation.  I loved the Polish animation of Jan Lenica enough to warrant some internet searching for other countries.  I've noticed that my design and fashion posts top the statistics chart and this week's theme will supplement the visual creativity interest my readers seem to have.  For no particular reason, I chose the Czech Republic.  Turns out that the Czech Republic has quite a lively and sophisticated animation community.