OSCAR SUBMISSIONS 2021- Eastern Europe (22 films)

I'm in the middle of an international move and there are so many movies this year so I'm a lot slower than usual...But here is the largest group- the 22 submissions from Eastern Europe...I've seen exactly half. 

FRONTRUNNERS:

1. GEORGIA- "Brighton 4th"

In A Nutshell: A Georgian father travels to Brooklyn, New York to help his son out of gambling difficulties. 4

Pros: Levan Koguashvili is a master director who should have been nominated before (for "Street Days"). The film won Best International Feature at Tribeca- proving that it's relatable to American audiences and not auteurs. The New York milieu and its Georgian community will seem both familiar and exotic.  

Cons: Not much buzz...I may be biased because (like the Tribeca voters) I'm actually from New York (and grew up near this neighborhood). 

2. CZECH REPUBLIC- "Zatopek"

In A Nutshell: A biopic of underdog Czech Olympian Emil Zátopek.

Pros: A rousing and inspiring sports drama. Although it looks old-fashioned and of no interest to me whatsoever, that didn't stop "Charlatan" (another Communist-era biopic with lots of testosterone) from being shortlisted. Seems likely to be one of the high-rated films on the list with very little chance of actually making the nominations. 

Cons: Reviews are strong but perhaps not Oscar-worthy.  

3. RUSSIA- "Unclenching the Fists"

In A Nutshell: A young woman comes of age in a depressed mining town in the Russian ethnic republic of North Ossetia.

Pros: Winner of "Un Certain Regard" 2021. Some of the strongest critics reviews in this group. Despite its exotic setting, it's an eminently relatable family drama. 

Cons: Stories about women (see Kosovo) rarely score here, and neither do grim, neo-realistic stories like this one (ask Romania and the Dardenne brothers). Some cite screenplay issues. 

DARK HORSES: 

4. KOSOVO- "Hive"

In A Nutshell: A young widow tries to make ends meet by starting a business, despite the fierce opposition of her nasty, patriarchal village.

Pros: It was the big winner at Sundance, becoming the first film to sweep all three major awards in the International Competition...proving it has real appeal to U.S. audiences. Unlike some of the other films, you can appreciate the drama without knowing about the politics. 

Cons: While watching it, I said to myself "this is exactly the sort of small, female-centric film that never gets picked". It's very well-made, but it's an intimate little story that may not stand out in a field of 93. Last year's Kosovar entry- "Exile"- was even better...and wasn't shortlisted.  

5. LATVIA- "The Pit"

In A Nutshell: An emotionally disturbed 10-year old with behavioral problems is sent to live with his grandmother in a secretive country village.

Pros: Mostly wonderful reviews. Cineuropa called it "a small jewel of a film" (though Variety was less enthusiastic). Oscar often likes children's stories and small town secrets. This is a real potential dark horse. The film scored a U.S. digital release with Film Movement starting this month. 

Cons: Nobody has ever heard of it. Variety complained it was "heavy-handed".

6. ROMANIA- "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn"

In A Nutshell: A respected educator has her life turned upside down by a sex tape. 

Pros: It won the Golden Bear in Berlin. 

Cons: Yes, I know "Collective" just got nominated but Romanian cinema, comedies and Radu Jude have repeatedly failed to impress the International Oscar selection committee. Long scenes of hard-core sex are likely to turn off conservative viewers.   

7. BULGARIA- "Fear"

In A Nutshell: An abrasive but lonely teacher living on the Turkish border unexpectedly takes in an African migrant

Pros: A highly relevant topic (asylum-seekers), addressed with sensitivity and humor, plus a charming lead performance from Svetlana Yancheva. The film won Best Picture in Tallinn. 

Cons: Another "small" film that may struggle to get noticed, especially with competition from a more buzzy film about Islamic migrants to Bulgaria- Iraq's "Europa" (ironically also co-starring Yancheva). The portrayal of Bamba, the African migrant, is slightly cliche. 

A RESPECTABLE FINISH:

8. MACEDONIA- "Sisterhood"

In A Nutshell: Two best friends- one shy and one outgoing- use social media to advance their social status and destroy another girl's reputation. 

Pros: Though the film takes place in Macedonia, the rise of social media means the story could literally take place anywhere...which is a terrifying thought. The film has an exciting story with a number of twists.  

Cons: Probably will appeal more to younger audiences than you normally find on the Oscar committee. 

9. POLAND- "Leave No Traces"

In A Nutshell: A murder witness is terrorized by Communist authorities in 1980s Poland. 

Pros: It's traditional Oscar bait....

Cons: The film is overlong and reviews have not been good....but many are still predicting it makes it to the next round. 

10. ESTONIA- "On the Water"

In A Nutshell: A 13-year old boy comes of age in a small Estonian village circa the 1980s. 

Pros: I heard very good things about this film and that it could be a surprise....

Cons: ...but when I saw the film, I disagreed. I can understand how it might be entertaining to Estonians who grew up in the 80s, but to me this felt like an extended episode of a 1950s American sitcom, a la "Leave It To Beaver" albeit with some slightly darker tones. Very local...I don't think it will appeal to this committee. 

11. CROATIA- "Tereza37"

In A Nutshell: After yet another miscarriage, a married woman changes her life after her gynecologist jokes she should try getting pregnant with someone else. 

Pros: It's a great little film! Funny, savage, tragic....and Lana Barić gives a brave, lead performance...She also wrote the script. 

Cons: This is a film designed to often make the viewer uncomfortable and I expect not everyone will like it. Some may not sympathize or understand poor Tereza. The film reminded me a bit of the brilliant "Eva Nova", which was not shortlisted. 

12. SLOVAKIA- "107 Mothers"

In A Nutshell: Set in a Ukrainian women's prison and shot like a documentary, the film follows several of the inmates and one young warden. 

Pros: Screenplay award in Venice. The director really makes you feel that you are in this claustrophobic prison alongside these women. A strong ending. 

Cons: This is a film that is designed to show the grim, monotonous lives of its prisoners....which naturally makes the film a bit of a difficult watch. The docudrama format sometimes becomes dull. The film begins with an uncomfortably close segment of a baby's birth...

AN UPHILL CLIMB:

13. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA "White Fortress"

In A Nutshell: A teenager working for the local mafia meets a girl from a prominent local political family. 

Pros: A cute romantic story with amiable leads. Some delicate issues (like trafficking) well-handled.  

Cons: While the film is never dull, it's fairly slow-paced. I wish the whole film had the same whimsical and charming tone that we see in the last fifteen minutes. Not good enough. 

14. LITHUANIA- "Isaac"

In A Nutshell: A man is haunted by guilt for his part in the murder of a Jewish man during WWII. 

Bottom Line: A baity plot but reviews were mixed and some say the film is a confusing film noir. I hoped to see it for myself but my screener expired...

15. SERBIA- "Oasis"

In A Nutshell: A strangely structured docudrama set in a home for intellectually disabled youth.

Bottom Line: The three lead actors are non-actors, and real-life residents of a similar facility. It's a fascinating cinematic experiment, and has mostly positive reviews....but unlikely to crack the Top 15. 

16. HUNGARY- "Post Mortem"

In A Nutshell: A man and a girl are confronted by ghosts in a Hungarian town after the First World War. 

Bottom Line: Genre bias...Although the film looks interesting, it has some of the lowest ratings on sites like Letterboxd (2.9) and IMDB (5.8) of any films in the race. "Natural Light" was expected to represent Hungary.

17. UKRAINE- "Bad Roads"

In A Nutshell: A series of grim vignettes about life in the Russian-occupied Donbass.

Bottom Line: Reviews from "auteur" critics have been strong (including an award in Venice) but this was a surprising choice by Ukraine and the film is said to be a grueling and difficult watch, including a brutal scene of sexual assault. 

BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR:

18. ARMENIA- "Should the Wind Drop"

A French bureaucrat is sent to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to decide whether to reopen a politically complicated airport.  

19. SLOVENIA- "Sanremo"

A lonely old man confined to a nursing home falls for an attractive, forgetful resident. 

20. ALBANIA- "Two Lions to Venice"

Two filmmakers on their way to the Venice Film Festival meet a pair of beautiful Italian porn actress on a road trip.

21. MONTENEGRO- "After the Winter"

Five (very attractive and often undressed) old friends from a small Montenegrin maintain their friendships despite living in three post-Yugoslav cities. 

22. AZERBAIJAN- "The Island Within"

An introverted chess prodigy feuds with his father in the first half before fleeing the an island to visit an old hermit in the second. 

I live in the Caucasus and it makes me sad to put two of the three Caucasus films in this group. I enjoyed both films a lot and I'm especially happy to see Azerbaijan returning to the race after five years away. However, "The Island Within" feels like two different films; the first half a quirky comedy and the second half an arthouse drama of landscapes and long silences. The shift doesn't really work but it's still an endearing film full of interesting characters. From neighboring Armenia, "Should the Wind Drop" relies a lot on understanding the complicated political and cultural context in the region, and I just don't think Americans (or anyone else) will have that background. I've been surprised to see many say they didn't like the film, probably because they didn't understand it.

From the former Yugoslavia, Montenegro's "Big Chill" feels like a TV soap opera. The cast looks great (and acting is fine) and the characters and story somehow remain interesting, but it's not a great film by any means. Slovenia's geriatric romance starts really makes you think about getting old- something many Oscar committee voters may have on their mind-  and there are some really charming moments between the two leads. But when the nature of the romance changes two-thirds of the way into the film, the story goes off the rails. 

As for Albania, does the film even exist? No online reviews, no festival play, no buzz....My Albanian friends have never heard of it and I can't find anyone who has seen it. And Oscar doesn't usually go for comedies anyway....But, having said that, it has one of the most charming trailers of all 93 films so I would be thrilled with a surprise.  

Now the statistics:

Genres: 15 dramas, 2 comedies, (Albania, Romania), 3 comedy-dramas (Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia), 1 horror-drama (Hungary) and 1 docudrama (Slovakia)

Number of countries who have participated in the past: 24

Number of countries entering films this year: 22

Number of debuts: Zero. Every country has submitted at least twice.

Who Didn’t Submit?: Only BELARUS and MOLDOVA. Belarus is having political issues with the United States or they may be annoyed that they were disqualified last year…Or maybe they just didn’t have anything good to send. Moldova is inactive, and hasn’t sent a film since 2014.

Already Seen: I’ve seen 11 (half) films from Armenia (B+), Azerbaijan (B-), Bosnia (B), Bulgaria (B+), Croatia (A-), Estonia (C+), Kosovo (B+), Macedonia (A-), Montenegro (B-), Slovakia (B-) and Slovenia (B-). I have screeners for five more at home. 

Film I'm most looking forward to seeing: Berlin winner “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”. I love black comedies and I’ve enjoyed Radu Jude’s two previous Romanian entries.

Big Three Festivals: Berlin (Bosnia, Romania WINNER), Cannes (Armenia, Russia WINNER UCR), Venice (Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine)

Number of Female Directors: 5 out of 22….Blerta Basholli (Kosovo), Dina Duma (Macedonia), Kira Kovalenko (Russia), Nora Martirosyan (Armenia), Dace Pūce (Latvia). Kovalenko is only the 3^rd Russian woman ever to be selected since Russia/USSR began submitting in the 1960s.

Oldest and Youngest Directors: Peeter Simm, 68, of Estonia and Dina Duma, 30, from Macedonia.

Number of Languages Represented: As is common in this part of the world, a huge chunk of the films are multi-lingual. But we have four films in the Serbo-Croatian family, plus one film each mostly in Albanian (Kosovo), Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, French (Armenia), Georgian, Hungarian, Italian (Albania), Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian (Slovakia), Slovene, Ukrainian and, for the first-time ever, Ossetian (Russia).

Number of countries with a realistic chance at making the shortlist: Maybe 7?

Most Likely to Get Their First Spot on the Shortlist: Kosovo. 13 of these 22 countries have never been nominated and 11 have never been shortlisted.

Buzziest films: Sundance winner “Hive” and Berlin winner “Bad Luck Banging”

Controversies and Changes: Lithuania originally announced that they would be submitting defector documentary “The Jump” but then said that AMPAS had decided to “classify” the film as a Documentary instead of an “International Feature”. Of course, no such rule exists (documentaries like “Collective” and “Honeyland” have been submitted and nominated) so I presume it was disqualified for having too much English. In Bulgaria, there was some hubbub when one member of the selection committee (animation Oscar nominee Theodore Ushev) complained that the 7-person committee had voted remotely instead of in-person and that if only “in-person” votes had been counted, Maria Bakalova’s “Women Do Cry” would have won. He then added some vitriol about it was racist and sexist to choose a film directed by a man instead of a film directed by a woman. But who cares if people were there in person? “Fear” has much better reviews and was a much better choice.

Oscar History: This is the third shot at the Oscars for Radu Jude (“Aferim!”, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians”) and Danilo Šerbedžija (“72 Days” for Croatia and “Liberation of Skopje” for Macedonia), and the second time for Ivaylo Hristov (“Losers”), Levan Koguashvili (“Street Days”) and David Ondříček (“In the Shadow”). None were shortlisted or nominated, but “Street Days” (available on Amazon Video) is outstanding and certainly deserved to be.

Most Notable Omissions:  While France and Italy are used to the agony of picking just one film, the one-film-per-country is particularly  painful when a small country has two outstanding contenders, and this year’s main victim was “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?”, the critically acclaimed fantasy from Georgia. Kosovo To a lesser extent, this also applies to Romania as “Intregalde” probably would have been picked if “Loony Porn” hadn’t won in Berlin. (Romania delayed their announcement by a week…I wonder if there was a debate?) 

I was also surprised to see “Murina” (Croatia), Celts” (Serbia) and “Siege Diary” (Russia) out in the first round. 

Also out of the running: “Hyacinth” (Poland), “Volkonogov”, “Petrov’s Flu” (Russia) and “Reflection” (Ukraine). 

Familiar Faces: There's really nobody....Maybe Polish actor Tomasz Kot or French actor Gregoire Colin are familiar to some, but there are no really famous people in this group. 

Last year's race:  Last year, this region got two deserving Oscar nominations (for “Quo Vadis, Aida” and “Collective”) and one less-deserving spot on the shortlist (for the dusty “Charlatan”). My ranking: Bosnia and Kosovo (A), Slovakia and Croatia (A-; yes I know that everyone else hated the Croatian movie), Macedonia, Romania, and Hungary (B+), Latvia, Lithuania and Russia (B), Poland and Armenia (B-), Albania and Bulgaria (C+), Georgia Slovenia, and Czech Republic (C), Estonia and Montenegro (C-), and finally Ukraine (D). I failed to see the two Holocaust dramas from Belarus and Serbia.