EASTERN BLOC

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<center></center> Directed by Ahmed Imamović | BOSNIA / HERZEGOVINA | 2010 | 90min | Subtitle US FESTIVAL PREMIERE Patience, faith, love and forgiveness are sorely tested among a community of Bosnian Muslims 15 years after the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belvedere Refugee Camp’s residents are mostly widows like Ruveyda. While caring for a kind but tempestuous paraplegic and his young son, she still hopes to collect her husband’s and son’s missing remains by stalking a former commander in nearby Srebrenica. As Ruveyda tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered and wartorn life, her nephew Ado is ready to move on, to live in the present and embrace his future. His choices are foreign to Ruveyda and unimaginable to a family and community lodged in the past. With visually arresting skill and unexpected humor, director Ahmed Imamovic paints an emotionally rich portrait of war’s troubled aftermath.

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<center></center> Directed by Magdalena Holland-Lazarkiewicz | POLAND | 2010 | 97min | Subtitled | (Q&A) US PREMIERE DANCE MARATHON is a comedy from Poland about a crowd that has gathered for a dance competition in the provincial town of Dabie. The crowd includes a priest, a nun, a mother and a son, and a young woman who needs the reward money for medical bills. The dance competition isn’t everything. There is a love story between a local boy and a star singer who is performing at the festival. Troubles within and outside of the competition also add to the entertainment. Each episode is captivating, and the excellent directing maintains the balance between emotional pathos and sentimentality. (Jeon Chanil) - Pusan International Film Festival

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<center></center> Directed by Florin Serban | ROMANIA / SWEDEN | 2010 | 94min | Subtitled Watch Movie Trailer Silviu is an aloof but watchful teenager in his last week of incarceration in a brutal juvenile prison camp in Romania. When he learns the mother he blames for ruining his life is about to claim his little brother, he comes unglued. Florin Serban’s directorial debut, cowritten by producer Catalin Mitulescu, is reminiscent of the best work of the Dardennes brothers. And, after 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST and THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, Romania offers evidence that its out of- nowhere New Wave continues to evolve and thrive. In WHISTLE, Serban offers a patient, meticulous depiction of ungovernable circumstances closing in on our hero, creating only impossible options for him. All of this is best expressed in non-professional George Pistereanu’s central performance, which combines silence and explosive violence to stunning effect. Romania’s Best Foreign Film Oscar submission, Winner of the Silver Bear (Jury Grand Prix) at the Berlin International Film Festival. - LG - Telluride Film Festival

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<center></center> Directed by Adis Bakrach | BOSNIA / HERZEGOVINA | 2010 | 88min | Subtitled | (Q&A) US PREMIERE Watch Movie Trailer In a post-war Sarajevo, we are introduced to the “Days of New Meetings” home for abandoned and delinquent children. The children are given basic schooling, taught domestic skills, and are even exposed to art and culture by the sympathetic manager and loving head mistress. Alen (Tony Grga), a kind-hearted thirteen-year-old boy, dreams of being reunited with his mother, who he believes is a journalist traveling through Europe. Sento, the home’s devious benefactor, plays on Alen’s hopes, promising to reveal his mother’s location in exchange for errands of petty theft and drug deals. When one such errand ends in violence, Alen is forced to leave his home and is left on his own. In a turn of events Alen is taken in by a caring family, but will he be able to escape the betrayal he has experienced in his past? This is director Adis Bakrac’s first feature film. - Tara Parillo

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<center></center> Directed by Aktan Arym Kubat | FRANCE / KYRGYZSTAN / GERMANY / NETHERLANDS | 2010 | 80min | Subtitled They call him Svet-ake, which translates as “Mr. Light.” The local electrician in a small Kyrgyz village, he has been stealing electricity to help the impoverished local residents. Like moths, everybody is drawn to his kindness. He not only brings electric light (which is often out) to the lives of the inhabitants of this village, but he also spreads the light of love, loyalty, life, and most of all, lots of laughter. He only has two dreams: to someday have a son and to provide people with cheaper energy through wind power. When a wealthy land developer and former villager, Bekzat, comes to buy up the land for a group of Chinese investors, Svet-ake quickly learns that not everyone has the best interests of the village community at heart. Bolstered by the charismatic performances from producer-director-star Aktan Arym Kubat and the rest of the largely non-professional cast, THE LIGHT THIEF is a funny and touching portrait of small-town politics in a rapidly globalizing world. - Adapted form Toronto International Film Festival

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<center></center> Directed by Viktor Chouchkov Jr. | GERMANY / BULGARIA | 2010 | 94min | Subtitled US PREMIERE Love, friendship, and business in the age of communism collide in director Victor Chuchkov’s TILT. Stash (Yavor Baharov) and his buddies B-Gum, Angel, and Gogo have big dreams of opening a pinball-themed bar amidst the harsh reality of Cold War Bulgaria. To make it happen, the skateboarding quartet hustles their way through a myriad of schemes, including selling pornographic videos on the Black Market. While trying to navigate an intricate maze of avoiding the authority of the military state and living a tenuous coexistence with members of organized crime, love intervenes. Stash falls for an eccentric and seemingly mute Becky (Radina Kardjilova), a mysterious girl who always seems to be near the group when they do business. The romantic Stash’s affections complicate the pragmatic B-Gum’s (Alexander Sano) plan. This throws a wrench into the group’s friendship that once seemed so strongly bonded, yet is now as precarious as the age in which they live—forcing them to make decisions that they may ultimately regret. This is the first feature film for director Viktor Chouchkov.

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<center></center> Directed by Jirí Vejdelek | CZECH REPUBLIC | 2010 | 118min | Subtitled | *Adult Situations and Language* US PREMIERE WOMEN IN TEMPTATION is a romantic comedy that looks at the impact family and romantic relationships have on our lives and which one truly leads to happiness. Helena has seen her normal life turn into an ironic situation. Her experience as a marriage counselor is not helpful when she catches her husband cheating with another woman. Middle-aged, single and unwilling to let go of the past, Helena reluctantly looks for guidance from her free-spirited daughter and outrageous mother in order to step back into the dating world. With no hope in sight and her misery continuing to grow, Helena begins to find solace from the most unlikely person. Faced with a moral dilemma and a revelation that challenges her already-troubled relationship with her mother, will Helena let go of her conservative line of thinking and live the life she has fought so hard to avoid? Written and directed by Jirí Vejdelek, this is the Czech answer to Sex and the City! - Vince Palomarez

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