6 Recommended Eastern European/Russian Movies: Tracing the memories of ethnic groups and war, leading up to ``The Painted Bird''

6. “The Painted Bird” (19) Czech Republic/Ukraine Director: Václav Marhoğlu

Finally, it's time for the latest release to round out this list of six recommended Eastern European and Russian films. The film is based on ``The Painted Bird'' by Jerzy Kosinski, a Polish-born novelist who emigrated to the United States after the war, and took 11 years to make into a film by Czech director Václav Marhoğlu.

Somewhere in Eastern Europe during World War II. A boy escapes the Holocaust and is evacuated to the countryside, but when the elderly woman he takes in, who lives alone, dies of illness and her house is destroyed by fire, he ends up traveling aimlessly. Everywhere he goes, he continues to struggle desperately to survive, despite being treated horribly by the people around him who treat him as a foreign object.

When the film was shown in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, many people left the film midway through. Discrimination and relentless violence against young boys, abuse by their guardians, fear of being killed just because they are Jewish... The harsh situations that the boy encounters wherever he goes, as if he were on a tour of Inferno, are depicted with a dry touch in black and white.

The cinematographer is Vladimir Smutny, who worked on Kolya (1996). Utilizing 35mm film and a cinematographic angle of view, viewers are treated to stunning visual beauty, from wide shots of desolate backgrounds to close-ups of the deeply wrinkled faces of great actors such as Stellan Skarsgård and Harvey Keitel. nail it.

Kosinski's original work was published in 1965, but it was banned in many socialist countries, including his native Poland. The fact that the film was made into a movie after more than half a century is probably a sign that Eastern Europe was able to achieve freedom of expression.

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Above are six recommended Eastern European and Russian films from the past 30 years, from ``Flame 628'' (1985) to ``The Painted Bird'' (1919). Some of the films that I wasn't able to introduce this time are Danis Tanovic's " No Man's Land " (2001), Andrzej Wajda's " Katyn Forest " (2007), and László Nemes's " Son of Saul " (2015). ) and Jerzy Skolimowski's Eleven Minutes (2015) are also included in the group of unique masterpieces produced in the area. We hope you enjoy the charm of Eastern European and Russian films, which are becoming more and more interesting every year.

Text: Ikuya Takamori

Freelance writer, English-Japanese translator. Mainly contributes movie reviews and columns to web media, and translates news articles. The translated book is ``Science of Star Wars--Thorough verification! From the true nature of the Force to intergalactic travel” (written by Mark Blake and John Chase, published by Kagaku Doujin) and others.

"The Painted Bird"

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