Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling

Anamarija starts a new job as a counsellor at a secondary school — a place full of petty conflicts and cliques among the teaching staff — and is immediately required to deal with several interlocked conflicts and PR nightmares. Initially, she tries to stay out of the power struggles of the headmistress, the teachers, and the parents, and dedicate her time to the children. But as she grows more familiar with the system, Anamarija begins taking charge in the staffroom.

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling

Janis is a young pioneer who lives on a Soviet collective farm called ‘Dawn’. His father is the enemy of the collective farm, and the Soviet system as such, who plans to burn down the farm's headquarters. Little Janis betrays his father, and the father takes revenge on his son.

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling

Ivan Prykhodko is one of the last folk artists of Ukraine. He is self-taught, lives in a small village, and creates sincere folk-inspired paintings in between feeding his animals and working the fields. Ivan's perception of the world is full of beauty and joy. One day, he is offered to present his paintings as part of an exhibition at the Art Arsenal, the main exhibition center in Ukraine. Arriving at the art gallery, he is met with both an intense enthusiasm and the urge to intellectualize his art for a contemporary art circuit. Will he exchange his small village hut for a life in the city, and a society of art critics and agents?

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

Co-directed with Georgian actor-director Dodo Abashidze, this film provides the final iteration of Parajanov's singular baroque visuality, developed in the so-called Caucasus Trilogy – together with Sayat Nova (The Colour of Pomegranates) and The Legend of the Suram Fortress. This time, Parajanov takes a popular Azerbaijani and Turkestani tale about a poor minstrel’s love for an aristocrat’s daughter as the basis for the mesmerising world he conjures on screen.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning (only for Rhythms of Lost Time), English subtitling

Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival proudly presents a double bill of documentary films — Rhythms of Lost Time (Аз «Алла» то «Вобалам») from Tajikistan and Distance (Вiдстань) from Eastern Ukraine — as part of its inaugural edition in 2022. Together, these films explore the issues of historical memory, separation and loss.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

Acasâ is a documentary telling about the Enache family’s struggle to adapt to urban life after being forcibly moved from their home in the rural part of the Bucharest Delta. Kids that used to spend their days in nature now have to go to school instead of swimming in the lake, and swap their fishing rods for mobile phones. Their identity has been questioned and transformed, along with their sense of freedom and family ties. Ciorniciuc presents a moving, lyrical portrait of the Enache family’s plight against the Romanian state, its bureaucratic structures, and the oppression, both social and institutional, that they often face.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

Landscapes of Resistance is directed by Marta Popivoda, a queer Serbian woman living outside of her home country who returns to Serbia to retrace her grandmother’s experience during the Nazi occupation. Alongside featuring intimate interviews with her grandmother Sofia, the film revisits the now-serene landscapes upon which Sofia’s experiences during the war are inscribed, including the locations where she had met her comrades in the Yugoslavian resistance movement and endured unimaginable horrors at the Auschwitz-Bikernhau concentration camp.

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling

Klassiki and Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival are proud to present a screening of Salt for Svanetia (1930), an early silent masterpiece by the legendary Georgian director Mikhail Kalatozov. A riotous experiment in camera technique, editing, and the use of non-professional actors, and an invaluable document in the history of cinema and/in the Soviet Union, this complex film will be screened with a world-premiere score, performed in person.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

Young sound engineer Vadym is a disenchanted and lethargic hipster from Kyiv. Jumping at the chance to leave the 'uncomfortable' Ukraine for an attractive Canada, he accepts a mysterious job offer, which requires him to complete a simple yet important task – to travel to the West of the country and record the voices of Transcarpathian animals. Things turn out to be more difficult than expected when Vadym realises that his companion on this journey is his mother.

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling (not for Q&A)

Freefilmers is a collective of filmmakers and artists, originally from Mariupol, Ukraine. For the past five years, they have been exploring urban transformations in East Ukraine, researching working-class creativity and the industrial past and present of post-socialist cities, and exploring memories and archives extending beyond official historical narratives. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Freefilmers have been actively involved in all kinds of essential work, transporting humanitarian aid such as medical supplies and equipment to regions most affected by the war, helping refugees reach safer places, and keeping visual war diaries. This event will include a screening of several of short films produced by the collective and an online conversation with its members.

Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling

Dovilė's life is shaken by her father’s death. But there is no time to mourn, as she must urgently organise the funeral. Trying to make it perfect, Dovilė takes care of every detail and finds herself in increasingly curious situations.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

In the dystopian grey landscape of Donbass, just a couple of miles away from the frontline, children, some of whom have only a vague, if any, recollection of their native town as a peaceful place, are trying to make sense of their reality and find ways to help their families survive. This film is a moving and contemporary portrait: with calm, discrete shots, it follows the children around as a silent observer. Youthful innocence contrasts strikingly with its bitter context, while Nastya and Yarik attempt to articulate the real meaning of war and its aftermath.

Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling

In 1800s Budapest, two impoverished twin girls, Dora and Lili, are separated from each other, and their lives are taken in vastly different directions. Decades later, the twins – one an anarchist who is planning a bombing, the other a manipulative socialite – meet on the Orient Express in a twist of fate.