Jane Sloan Media Librarian jsloan@rci.rutgers.edu August 2006

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Media Collections:
Feature Films East and Central Europe

This guide is a browsing aid to selected titles in the video/DVD collections at Rutgers Libraries. The most up-to-date, accurate, and complete information regarding the libraries' holdings is available only through IRIS, our online catalog.

Ajándék ez a nap A priceless day 1993

Iren, a 30-year-old kindergarten teacher shares an apartment with her lover, a married man. When the wife and mistress meet, both conclude they want to be rid of their man.

1 videocassette (87 min.)

MEDIA 2-6425

Akropolis 1971

A drama depicting prisoners in a concentration camp during World War II as performed by members of Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theater.

1 videocassette (ca. 60 min.)

MEDIA D-343

Arsenal 197-

Provides a picture of life in the Ukraine in 1914 by intercutting scenes showing the miseries of the class struggle in the countryside and the horrors of war at the front.

1 videocassette (70 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1264

Bilans kwartalny The balance 1989

A woman with a happy marriage, a good job, and a child falls in love with an old friend who represents freedom from a safe but dull life.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5224

Border Street 1985

The lives of several families from different social classes in a neighborhood of pre-war Warsaw are changed by tragic events of a period.

1 videocassette (110 min.)

MEDIA 2-6454

Bure Baruta Baril de poudre = Cabaret Balkan 2000

Various individuals cross paths in Belgrade during the Balkan Wars in this dark comedy from Yugoslavia.

1 videocassette (102 min.)

MEDIA 2-7255

Canary season 1998

" ... story of the 'lost generation' (1960-1990) of Bulgaria. Angry and defiant upon his release from prison, young Malin confronts his mother Lily and violently forces her to reveal the truth of the horrors that she had hoped Malin would never know."--Container.

1 videocassette (133 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5053

Capitaine Conan 1998

Capitaine Conan, a dashing soldier who does not let World War I interfere with his pursuit of wine, women and song, leads a band of cutthroat commandos on the front lines of the Bulgarian border. Feared by his enemies and respected by his subordinates, Conan's cunning and blood lust serve him well in war, but when a peace treaty is signed and the soldiers are shipped to Bucharest, Hungary to await further orders, the trouble begins.

1 videocassette (130 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3773

The capricious summer Rozmarne leto 2000

In a sleepy, second-rate resort, three middle-aged friends have their lives disrupted by the sudden appearance of a magician and his assistant. The trio forget about swimming as each man sets about to seduce the assistant.

1 videocassette (74 min.)

MEDIA 2-6427

Le Chęne The oak 1994

Set in Romania during the last days of the Communist dictatorship, the beautiful, recklessly defiant Nela, after the death of her father, runs off to the country, where she and a brilliant, rudely irreverent doctor conduct a makeshift love affair while trying to survive in a disentegrating society.

1 videocassette (105 min.)

MEDIA 2-7223

Closely watched trains 1989

Touching film about a shy, sexually inexperienced train dispatcher. This comedy-drama follows the journey of this young man seeking to fulfill his manhood.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1228

Covek nije tica ljubavni film = The man is no bird : a love story 2000

A middle-aged engineer comes to a factory to install machinery and falls in love with a young local girl. Presents a harsh look at love and life in a small industrial town set in eastern Serbia.

1 videocassette (80 min.)

MEDIA 2-7221

Czlowiek z marmuru Man of marble 1990

The man of marble takes the form of an investigation into a man's life through recollections of several characters. A filmmaker uncovers the explosive facts behind a once-celebrated worker's elevation to "stardom" his subsequent downfall and disgrace and his eventual disappearance.

1 videocassette (160 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 994 2-2645

Czlowiek z zelaza Man of iron 1993

The Polish Solidarity strike takes place at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980. An alcoholic TV journalist is ordered to smear one of the Solidarity's key figures, coined the "man of iron.".

1 videocassette (140 min.) :

DANA 302

Das Boot ist voll The boat is full 1989

A group of refugees from Nazi Germany seek asylum in Switzerland by posing as a family.

1 videocassette (104 min.) :

DANA MEDIA 926 2-2125

Dom za vesanje ljubavni film = Time of the gypsies : a screen romance 1990

A young gypsy with telekinetic powers is lured into a life of crime by a flamboyant gang leader.

1 videocassette (136 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5540

Dziewczeta z Nowolipek 1988

A picture of turn-of-the century Warsaw as experienced by four young girls. The film begins as the heroines finish primary school and must begin adult life.

1 videocassette (ca. 94 min.)

MEDIA 2-6863

Eltávozott nap The girl 1987

"A young woman leaves a state orphanage to find her mother. The two are reunited, but discover a wide gulf in their sexual and social roles, dividing them on a whole new level."--Container.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2651

Food 1993

In a series of vignettes, Svankmajer animates grey-suited men as human vending machines, shows a pair of men at dinner devouring the contents of a restaurant, and takes us on a tour of a cannibalistic banquet.

1 videocassette (14 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2576

Hideg napo Cold days 1991

Based on memories of four men awaiting trial for the 1943 massacre of several thousand Jews and Serbs at Novi Sad.

1 videocassette (102 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5530

Horí má panenko The firemen's ball 2000

In a small provincial town arrangements and events surrounding the firemen's annual ball, honoring a retiring fire chief, go wrong at every turn.

1 videocassette (73 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5523

Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 1975

Minutely details three days in the life of a housewife/prostitute. When her daily routine is disrupted, her reactionis extreme.

2 videodisc (200 min.)

MEDIA 10-652

Kanal 198

Grim drama, set in Warsaw in September 1944, about a group of Polish insurgents trying to escape from the Nazis by taking to the city's sewers.

1 videocassette (96 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2352

Knife in the water Nóz w wodzie 1991

A married couple invites a young hitchiker along on a cruise. After a series of psychological clashes and interplays, an overt struggle develops between the two males over the silent but seductive presence of the wife.

1 videocassette (94 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5534

Korczak 1993

Tells the true story of Janusz Korczak, a renowned physician and author who ran a home for Jewish orphans in 1930's Warsaw.

1 videocassette (118 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6122

Krzysztof Kie slowski I'm so-so 1995

An interview with the Polish filmmaker shortly before his death in which he describes his early life and the political and social events that influenced his filmmaking.

1 videocassette (56 min.) :

DANA 1827

Lásky jedné plavovlásky Loves of a blond This delightful comedy reflects all the pathos and awkwardness of post-adolescent love and provides an amusing view of life in provincial Czechoslovakia. A factory girl who is bored with her existence falls in love with a jazz musician and follows him to Prague.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5529

Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera Lemonade Joe ala horse opera 2001

A spoof of westerns.

1 videocassette (87 min.)

MEDIA 2-6944

María-nap Maria's day 1989

An aristocratic family whose present cannot live up to its past must face an inevitable tragedy.

1 videocassette (113 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2665

Medea 1991

A modern-language production of the classic tragedy of a proud woman betrayed by the man she loves.

1 videocassette (107 min.) :

DANA MEDIA 1602 2-85

Messidor 1995

Two girls find danger and mayhem hidden in the quite serenity of the Swiss countryside.

1 videocassette (118 min.)

MEDIA 2-6701

Montenegro or, Pigs and pearls 1981

Marilyn Jordan is a repressed wife trapped in an unloving household who is slowly slipping into quiet madness. Through a mix-up at the airport, she loses track of her husband and misses their flight. She falls in with a bizarre band of Yugoslavian immigrants celebrating the New Year and takes a charismatic young zoo keeper named Montenegro for a lover.

1 videocassette (97 min.)

MEDIA 2-6865

Musíme si pomáhat 2001

During World War II and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslavakia, a couple, Josef and Marie, decide to hide a young Jewish neighbor in their small apartment. They keep getting a visit from their neighbor, Horst, who is a German sympathizer and has his eye on Marie. When she rejects his advances he seeks revenge by trying to move a Nazi clerk into their home, forcing the couple to tell a lie that will change their lives forever.

1 videodisc (122 min.)

MEDIA 10-322

My Prague spring 1993

"In its 'velvet revolution' of 1989, the people of Czechoslovakia toppled its communist dictatorship and embraced democracy and capitalism. During that first spring of remarkable change, what was life like for an average Czech family? A young Czech-American filmmaker travels to Prague to discover how his cousins are coping with a world turned upside-down."--Container.

1 videocassette (57 min.) :

DANA 910

Nevinost bez zastite Innocence unprotected 1996

Film is a collage combining the first Serbian talkie, a melodrama lust vs. true love, with interviews some twenty years later with its acrobat star and others who made the film and with wartime newsreels.

1 videocassette (78 min.)

MEDIA 2-7219

Ostatni etap 1998

Daily life (and death) of the women prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, based on actual events experienced by Wanda Jakubowska, the film's director.

1 videocassette (110 min.)

MEDIA 2-5215

Popiól i diament Ashes and diamonds 199

Portrait of a young Polish nationalist assassin who, when World War II ends, finds himself living uncertainly, moving from echoing bars to seedy hotel rooms, finding comfort in a girl and crazy jokes.

1 videocassette (105 min.) :

DANA 920

La promesse 2001

Under the conscienceless guidance of his father Roger, fifteen-year old Igor appears destined to a life of petty crime. All changes, however, when Igor delivers an uncompromising promise to Hamidou, an immigrant who, while working illegally for Roger accidentally falls to his death. As Roger scrambles to cover-up the accident, Igor suddenly finds himself torn between his loyalty to Roger and the agreement he made with Hamidou. Suspicious of Roger's motivation and intimately drawn to the heart of his promise, Igor must choose between his love for his father and the demands of his awakening conscience.

1 videodisc (93 min.)

MEDIA 10-638

Rajska jablo n dramat spoleczno-obyczajowy = The apple tree of paradise : a social drama 1985

The scene is Warsaw in the early 1920's. Each of the three school friends from Nowolipki Street in Warsaw lives her own life.

1 videocassette (ca. 112 min.)

MEDIA 2-6880

Red 1994

The final installment in the director's trilogy named after the colors of the French flag, Red is the story of a beautiful young woman and her meeting with an unusual stranger--a meeting that leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

DANA 911

The Shop on Main Street Obchod na korze 1965

In 1942, Tono and his wife are struggling because of his antipathy towards the fascist regime. His brother-in-law, the local fuehrer, chooses Tono to oversee a button shop owned by a sweet, harmless Jewish widow, Mrs. Lautman. When the Jews are ordered deported, the well-meaning Tono decides to shield her from the Nazis.

1 videocassette (128 min.) :

DANA MEDIA 277 2-865

Sje cas li se, Dolly Bell? Do you remember Dolly Bell? 1986

Kustrurica's beautifully modulated tale of a young man's entry into adulthood, his loss of virginity in the company of a B-movie stripper and prostitute. Set in the early 60s, Kusturica grafts the pathos of the Eastern European village movie into a complex tale of intrusive cultures, when Western influences such as fashion and rock and roll and the promise of European socialism threatened to roll over traditional customs, practiced rituals and Tito's political reign.

1 videocassette (106 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5532

Sweet movie 1989

Beautiful Carole Laure, winner of the Miss Virginity World Contest, is married to Mr. Kapital, a Texas oil billionaire who, instead of consumating their marriage, sterilizes her body with rubbing alcohol. In Paris, Carole has a sexual encounter with El Macho, a rock star, and ends up at a radical therapy commune. The second story features Anna Prucnal, a survivor of the Revolution, now the captain of a boat floating the canals of Amsterdam, whose joyous sexual encounter with a sailor from the Battleship Potemkin ends up in his murder in a vat of sugar.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

MEDIA 2-930

Szabad lélegzet Riddance 1987

Jutka, a young woman who works in a factory, falls in love with Andras, a university student. She pretends to be a student, first to him and then to his parents, and tries to live a lie. Finally she rebels against Andras, his demands and the social conventions that forced her to live a lie.

1 videocassette (84 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5060

Szerelem Love 1991

The relationship between two momen, an aged aristocrat nearing 100 years and her daughter-in-law who cares for her while her husband is imprisoned on political charges.

1 videocassette (92 min.) :

MEDIA 2-3082

Szindbád 1987

An aging man who has made a life of being a lover to women, and then leaving them, revisits his ex-lovers, complaining they are all old or dead. While the women were desolated at his leaving earlier in their lives, they have a variety of reactions to his return.

1 videocassette (98 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5524

A tanú The witness 1993

An irreverant political satire, tracing the rise and fall of a hopelessly inept civil servant.

1 videocassette (116 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5526

Theresa/Tereza 1961

Shows Theresa a young police detective involved in the investigation of murder.

1 videocassette (91 min.)

MEDIA 2-6487

The trial 1985

A symbolistic study of the tyranny of modern social systems. Portrays the experiences of a young man who is mysteriously arrested by agents of the police for an unspecified crime and is prepared for questioning and trial. Filmed primarily in Yugoslavia.

1 videocassette (VHS) (118 min.) :

MEDIA 2-340

Trois couleurs Three colors. White 1994

Part of a trilogy of films (Three colors) by director Krzysztof Kieslowski, White presents the mysterious tale of a man whose life disintegrates when his beautiful wife of six months deserts him. Forced to begin a new, he rebuilds his life, only to plan a dangerous scheme of vengeance against her.

1 videocassette (92 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5531

Tusztörténet Stand off 1990

Based on a true story, two brothers hold a group of high school girls hostage while demanding ransom and passage to the West.

1 videocassette (103 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5551

Tuzolto utca 25 almok a hazbol = 25 Firemans Street 1987

Elderly residents of an old Hungarian house, about to lose their home, reminisce one night about their lives, dreams, and nightmares from the period before, during, and after World War II. Set on a single hot night somewhere in contemporary Hungary.

1 videocassette (VHS) (97 min.) :

MEDIA 2-336

Underground 1998

A tragicomedy about love, friendship, betrayal, manipulation and lies. Deals with the conflicts of the Yugoslav history of the past fifty years. Crooked arms dealer in World War II conspires to keep his equally crooked partner in underground refugee quarters indefinitely.

1 videocassette (167 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5533

Unsichtbare Gegner Invisible adversaries 1987

Anna, a Viennese photographer, discovers that extra-terrestrial beings are colonizing the minds of her fellow citizens by raising the human aggression level. The outer world immediately becomes disjointed, but the inner world, too, as Anna and her lover try to hang on to their deteriorating relationship.

1 videocassette (112 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5097

Z 1980

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1969. Political thriller about events preceding the military coup in Greece in the 1960s.

1 videocassette (128 min.) :

MEDIA 2-40

Örökbefogadás Adoption 1987

Approaching 43, Kati wants a child, but her married lover won't agree. So it falls to young Anna, her newfound friend, to help Kati make the decision to adopt a child and learn to love and survive.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2663