A STRONG SHOWING:
7. 
SLOVAKIA- “Victim”
(3.1)
8. 
MACEDONIA- “Happiest Man in the World” (3.4)
9. 
MOLDOVA- “Carbon”
(3.2)
10. 
ROMANIA- “Immaculate”
(3.2)
MIDDLE OF THE PACK:
11. 
KOSOVO- “Looking for
Venera” (3.3)
12. 
SLOVENIA- “Orchestra”
(3.5)
13. 
LATVIA- “January”
(3.5)
14. 
CZECH REPUBLIC- “Il
Boemo” (3.3)
AN UPHILL BATTLE:
15. 
SERBIA- “Darkling” (3.3)
16. 
ESTONIA- “Kalev” (3.7)
17. LITHUANIA- “Pilgrims” (2.9)
18. 
HUNGARY- “Blockade”
(3.3)
Lithuania's "Pilgrims" was one of the most pleasant surprises of my film year, and it's one of my favorites of this year's submissions. However, I'm clearly in the minority, so it really doesn't have a chance of advancing to the next round. "Pilgrims" follows two young people as they go on a mysterious road trip visiting the locations of a brutal crime that happened four years before. Who are they, and why are they doing this? That's revealed slowly but completely. Though it starts off slow, it's a great screenplay with a cathartic ending.
Serbia's "Darkling" is practically a horror movie (and the director should be hired to make one) about one of the last Serb families in rural Kosovo. The family of three is the victim of a series of spooky, nighttime incidents (dead livestock, broken fencing etc.) causing the mother and daughter to want to flee, like almost all of their neighbors. But the grandfather insists on staying behind.
As for Estonia and Hungary, they've selected little-known films- both set in 1990- about prominent moments in their late Cold War history. "Kalev" (Estonia) is about the Estonian national basketball team participating in the Soviet national championships at a moment when most of the country was demanding independence and refusing to take part in Soviet life and institutions. It's not particularly memorable or exciting and it can't seem to figure out whether to be a political movie or a sports movie. "Blockade" is about a taxi strike that served as one of the first signs of protest against Hungary's Communist regime. These are definitely going to resonate more with local audiences familiar with local history rather than AMPAS.
BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR:
19. 
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA- “A Ballad” (3.1)
20. 
GEORGIA- “A Long Break” (3.0)
21. 
MONTENEGRO- “Elegy of Laurel” (2.8)
22. 
AZERBAIJAN- “Creators” (2.2)
As always, I'm so happy that the smaller countries send films. Even when they're not nominated, they're almost always a fascinating look at the country, its people, its language and its culture. I've discovered a lot of wonderful films and directors among these underdogs.
Azerbaijan has had a great film year with a number of films at international film festivals. However, they have explicably decided to send a 60-minute documentary about Soviet architecture (it's possibly the others didn't get screened in cinemas). Needless to say, this is a non-starter. Neighboring Georgia, selected "A Long Break", a (very) talky drama about a man plotting revenge at a school reunion. Georgia is my favorite country to visit, and I love Georgian cinema but I think this will lose a lot in the translation...I liked it because I know Georgian culture but I still felt like I was at dinner party with people I didn't know.
From the former Yugoslavia, "Elegy of Laurel" was the only film that entered to represent Montenegro....This odd little movie features an old man whose wife leaves him at a health spa, whereupon he goes on a journey into the woods and meets a woman who used to be a snake. It keeps the viewer's attention but it really doesn't make too much sense. From neighboring Bosnia, "A Ballad" is Aida Begic's first venture into (slightly) lighter storylines, after years of making films about the Yugoslav wars. Unfortunately, critics haven't warmed to her new film as much as her earlier efforts. This story of an unemployed mother seeking custody of her daughter often feels as aimless as its main character,
Who’s Missing?: RUSSIA controversially announced that it would boycott
the Oscars due to their own brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine, failing to
submit a film for the first time since 1993. The head of the Russian Selection Committee-
Oscar-nominated director Pavel Chukhrai- said he wasn’t consulted and that he
had wanted to send a film. The only other country that’s absent is Russia’s ally,
BELARUS, which submitted films from 2018-2020.
Genres: Slovenia and Moldova have sent comedies. Armenia
and Azerbaijan have sent documentaries (Armenia’s submission is also an animated
film). Serbia's is almost (but not quite) a horror film.
I’ve Already Seen: 8- Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, but
I have five more screeners waiting to be watched before the end of the
year….Too much travel recently!
Number I Predicted
Correctly: 9 out of 22…..Armenia,
Bulgaria, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Film I’m Most Excited To
See: Definitely Moldova’s absurdist
black comedy “Carbon” and Albania’s heart-rending “A Cup of Coffee and New
Shoes On”
Big Three Festivals: Very few!
· Cannes- Poland (Jury Prize)
· Berlin- Ukraine (Audience Award, 2nd Place)
· Venice- Lithuania (Best Film, Horizons Section), Macedonia, Romania,
Slovakia
Women Directors- Six out of 22: Aida Begić (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Maryna
Er-Gorbach (Ukraine), Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia), Inna Sahakyan
(Armenia), Norika Sefa (Kosovo) and Monica Stan (Romania). Co-director Monica Stan
is only the second woman to represent Romania, and the first since 1973 (!).
Oldest and Youngest Directors- 84-year old Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland) is by far
the oldest director in the entire competition (69-year old Rachid Bouchareb is
#2). The youngest is probably 30-year old Monica Stan (Romania)
Languages Represented- It’s a very confusing question. So many of the
plots of this year’s Eastern European films feature a variety of languages:
Slovenians visiting German-speaking Austria, Ukrainian migrants in the Czech
Republic, Russians invading a bilingual region of Ukraine, an Armenian refugee
escaping to the United States via Europe, a Czech artist
living in Italy etc.
All I can say is that five of the films are in the Serbo-Croatian
languages, two are in Albanian, and the rest are in a mishmash of Bulgarian, Czech,
German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Ukrainian,
the three Baltic languages (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) and the three
Caucasian languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian).
How Many Have a Chance
at the Shortlist?- Maybe
eight or nine?
Most Likely to Get Shorlisted/Nominated
for the First Time- Probably Ukraine, for partly sentimental reasons
Buzziest Films: Probably “EO”
Letterboxd Ratings (as
of 19 December 2022): Best: Croatia (3.8), Worst: Azerbaijan (2.2, but
with only 5 votes) and Montenegro (2.8)
Controversies and
Changes: Of course, the biggest
controversy was the Russian Academy’s flip-flop and their decision to boycott
the Oscars.
Bulgaria originally
selected “Mother”, which is set in Kenya, but was informed that it had too much
English. The director said that the producers had determined it was more than
50% in Bulgarian and Swahili and were surprised by the decision, noting that it
was unclear to her whether they were supposed to count time, or words, or what…..
Oscar
History: Bosnia’s Aida Begić is
representing her country for the fourth time following “Snow” (2008), “Children
of Sarajevo” (2012) and “Never Leave Me” (2018).
Five other directors are
here for a second time: Shamil Aliyev (Azerbaijan, “Steppe Man”), Viestur
Kairish (Latvia, “The Chronicles of Melanie”), Gentian Koçi (Albania, “Daybreak”),
Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia, “I’m From Titov Veles), and Jerzy Skolimowski
(Poland, “11 Minutes”)
Of the 22 competing
countries, only four have won (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland),
four others have been nominated (Estonia, Georgia, Macedonia, Romania), and
three others shortlisted (Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia). The other eleven are
waiting for their first trip to the second round.
Most Notable
Omissions:
The most surprising
omissions were Oscar winner Danis Tanovic’ “Not So Friendly Neighborhood Affair”
(Bosnia), a topical comedy about life under COVID-19 and “RMN”, the latest from
Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu. Oscar winner Jan Sverak’s “Bethlehem Night” (Czech
Republic) was also shortlisted and snubbed, but it was never expected to be
selected.
Also missing: “The
Staffroom” (Croatia), “The Last Race” (Czech Republic), “Sleeping Beast” (Estonia),
which reportedly lost by one vote after a reportedly “tense” debate, “Otar’s
Death” (Georgia), “The Game” (Hungary), “The Balcony Movie” (Poland) and co-production
“The Nightsiren”, which was shortlisted by both the Czechs and Slovaks.
I was also surprised by
the omission of Bujar Alimani’s “The Albanian Virgin” but that may have been “too
German” to compete for Albania.
Most Famous Faces: Just Isabelle Huppert, who has a small role in Poland’s
“EO”.
Last Year’s Race: I really liked a lot of the Eastern
Euro films from last year especially “Tereza37” from Croatia, “Brighton 4th”
from Georgia, “The Pit” from Latvia, “Bad Luck Banging” from Romania and “Bad
Roads” from Ukraine (all A-), all of which would have made worthy nominees (but
none of them even made the shortlist ☹). followed by Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo and Macedonia (B+),
Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia (B-), Lithuania, Poland,
Russia and Serbia (C+), Estonia and Slovakia (C-). I failed to see the films
from Albania and the Czech Republic.
