with english subtitles | in english

With English Subtitles:

Bulgarian | Romanian | Serbian/Croatian/FYR

BULGARIAN:

14 KISSES  1997  98 min.  (VHS)  

Director:  Plamen Maslarov

Cast:  Krystjo Lafazanov, Vasa Gancheva, Aneta Sotirova

An old rich aunt offers to make a bet with her nephew, a 35 year old orphaned bachelor.  If he succeeds in captivating the hearts of 14 women and the aunt sees with her own eyes the 14 kisses, she will leave him her huge estate.  The nephew is forced to accept the aunt's offer and to play the role of "seducer" but this puts him in countless funny awkward situations. 

AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?  1988  98 min.  (DVD)  -  NEW

Director: Rangel Vulchanov

Cast: Albena Stavreva, Ani Vulchanova, Antoaneta Stancheva, Georgi Enchev, Georgi Staykov, Genadi Nikolov, Darina Georgieva, Dimitar Goranov, Elena Arsova, Krasimira Miteva, Konstantin Trendafilov, Iliana Kitanova, Mariana Milanova, Nikolai Urumow, Petar Popyordanov, Todor Elmazov, Tsvetana Mircheva

This film is about an imaginary actors exam. In order to choose the best one the exam jury uses even immoral ways of selecting - spying, making conflicts, humiliating the applicants, taking advantage of its power.

CANARY SEASON  1988  133 min. (VHS)  

Director: Eugeny Mihaylov  
Cast: Plamena Getova, Paraskeva  Djukelova, Peter Popyordanov
Angry and defiant upon his release from prison, young Malin confronts his mother and forces her to reveal horrors of Bulgaria's "lost generation" (1960-1990) that she had hoped he would never know.  Through a series of flashbacks we learn of the repression of the communist regime: rape, prostitution, torture, political murder, and psychiatric asylums.

BORDER  1993  85 min.  (VHS) 

Director:  Ilian Simeonov and Christian Notchev

Cast:  Petar Popyordanov, Elena Petrova, Marian Volev

The film takes place at a small military frontier post at the southern border of Bulgaria in the 1970's.  Two soldiers are assigned to guard the wire fence that runs along the border and they gradually realize that the guarding is not so much for keeping people from coming into the country, but for not letting anyone out of the country.

THE GOAT HORN  1994  89 min.  (DVD)  -  NEW

Director: Nikolay Volev

Cast: Alexander Morfov, Elene Petrova, Peter Popyordanov, Alexander Doynov, Valentin Ganev

This movie is about a Christian shepherd and his small family during the Ottoman rule.  He and his family are traumatized by the murder of his wife by Turks and he trains his young daughter to exact revenge on those who murdered his wife.  He later stuggles with his daughter as she becomes a woman and falls in love with a lonely Muslim shepherd.

THE PEACH THIEF  1964  103 min.  (DVD)  -  NEW

Director: Valo Radev

Cast: Nevena Kokanova, Rade Markovich, Mikhail Mikhailov, Naum Shopov, Vasil Vatchev, Ivan Bratanov, Georgi Georgiev, Ludmila Cheshmedjieva

World War I is coming to its end.  Prisoners of war are coming into the town wht Serv Ivo among them.  During one of his escapes from tthe camp, he finds himself in a private garden.  There he meets Lisa, the wife of the town-major- a severe and heartless colonel.  She is sad, lonely and meeting with Serb excites her.  Gradually, her compasion for the Serb develops into a deep mutual love.  Their meetings become more frequent.  But the lovers are doomed.

TIME OF VIOLENCE  1987  158 min.  (DVD)  -  NEW

Director: Ljudmil Staykov

Cast: Yosif Sartchadgiev, Roussy Chanev, Anya Pentcheva, Ivan Krastev, Vasil Michailov, Kalina Stefanova

A miller's son is a highly trusted janissary, with the task of converting his entire home valley to Islam.  But the people will not submit.  The janisarry becomes more and more brutal in his attempts to convert the valley, for he must slaughter them all if they don't take the turban.

ROMANIAN:

BUCHAREST EXPRESS  (DVD)  -  NEW

This is a fictional docu-drama about trafficking of women in Eastern Europe.  "An American journalist, a mysterious Gypsy woman and a bookkeeper with an inside angle try to stay one step ahead of a gang of ruthless killers as they uncover the horrors of the human trafficking of sex slaves in the Balkans..."

THE CRAZY STRANGER  In French and Romany:   1997  97 min.  (VHS) 

Director:  Tony Gatlif

Cast:  Romain Duris, Rona Hartner, Isidor Serban

A young man from Paris travels to Romania looking for his recently deceased father's favorite singer.  He wants to put the singer's music on tape.  He befriends an elderly Rom gentleman and spends six months living in the the old man's community.

THE OAK  1992  105 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Lucian Pintilie
Cast: Maia Morgenstern, Razvan Vasilescu
In this edgy, savagely funny depiction of Romania in the last stages of Ceausescu's dictatorship, Nela, whose secret police father has just died, sets off into the desolate countryside with his ashes in a coffee jar. When she lands in a run-down, overcrowded hospital, Nela begins a makshift love affair with a brilliant, rudely irreverent doctor.

STONE WEDDING  1971  85 min.  (VHS)
Stone Wedding is comprised of two short films based on stories by the classic Romanian writer Igor Agarciceanu, dealing with peasant life and traditions in the Carpathian mountains.  Includes Fefeleaga (directed by Mircea Veroiu) and At a Wedding (directed by Dan Pita).

AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER  In English, French, Romaian, and Bulgarian:  1995  82 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Lucian Pintilie
Cast: Kristin Scott-Thomas; Claudiu Bleont; Olga Tudorache; George Constantin; Ion Pavlescu
Kristin Scott-Thomas stars as Marie-Thérèse, a young woman sent to a remote military outpost with her army officer husband and their children. She tries in vain to establish a genteel, civilized presence in this backward region. Ultimately, she and her husband are thrown into conflict as he is ordered by his superiors to execute a local group of bandits that may or may not be guilty.

SERBIAN/CROATIAN/FYR

ATOMIC WAR BRIDE  1966  (VHS) 

Director:  Velijko Bulajic

Cast:  Anton Vrdoljak, Ewa Krzyzewska

Eternally optimistic John Johnson decides to get married just as war is declared.  But immediately after his wedding, John is "moblized" by the military to fight.  He soon ends up leading a protest against the war.  A darkly satirical sci-fi film, which isn't afraid to be both silly and grim. 

BEFORE THE RAIN  1994  115 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Three intertwined stories are joined in this haunting feature about individuals facing hard choices. Set in the former Yugoslavia and London, it combines ethical and moral quandaries with compelling situations and jarringly striking settings. Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Picture. 

CABARET BALKAN  1998  102 min.  (VHS)

Director: Goran Paskaljevic  

Cast: Nikolas Ristanoski, Lazar, Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic, Sergej Trifunovic

Driven by both rage and humor, this visually exciting film presents a dark portrait of life in the war-torn Balkans. The black comedy and rising tension of the plot combine to create a powerful though despairing emotional tone. The story shifts among several characters confronted by, or committing, acts of violence, betrayal or total madness, culminating in one explosive night.  

CHARUGA  1991  108 min.  (VHS) 

Director:  Rajko Grlic

Cast:  Ivo Gregurevic, Davor Janjic, Petar Bozovic

A sophisticated and spectacular action-adventure film with political themes, Charuga is the story of a Croatian Robin Hood.  Charuga was a 1920's fanatic ex-soldier and Bolshevik who tried to bring the Soviet Revolution to Yugoslavia.  He began by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.  But as with many self-styled revolutionaries, he soon began robbing from everyone and keeping it all for himself.

CHICKEN ELECTIONS   2005  48 min.  (DVD)  - NEW!

Director:  Goran Radovanovic

A film about 'contemporary social life in the rural Balkans...an old Serbian peasant is trying to learn how to operate a used mobile phone which she got from her grandchild, a local traffic policeman...Finally, when she somehow learns how to use it she dies...'

HEY BABU RIBA  1986  109 min.  (VHS)

Director:  Jovan Acin

Cast:  Gala Videnovic, Relja Basic

Pop, Glenn, Sacha, and Kicha are four vivacious and impetuous teenagers coming of age in 1950's Belgrade.  All four are mad about Glenn Miller, the sport of rowing, American blue jeans, and Marina - their comely, ethereal rowing captain.  But suddenly, the powerful bond that links the five friends grows even stronger as together they endure their families' suffering and sacrifices in the wake of communism.

THE MELODY HAUNTS MY REVERIE  1981  103min.  (VHS)

Director:  Rajko Grlic

Cast:  Predrag Manojlovic, Vladica Milosavljevic, Maden Budiscak, Zijah Sokolovic, Erland Josephson

This is the story of an idealistic young partisan war hero who becomes a leader in the emerging socialist society of a small Croat village, and finds adjustment ot the "new Yugoslavia" extremely difficult.  He meets and falls in love wiht a middle-class ballerina, becomes involved with her bourgeois family and is eventually imprisoned.

NO MAN'S LAND  2001  97 min.  (DVD)

Director:  Danis Tanovic

Cast: Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic

Set in the unforgiving trenches of the Bosnian-Serb conflict, this film follows the story of three soldiers caught between two fighting lines.

PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME  1996  125 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Srdjan Dragojevic
Cast:  Dragan Bjelogrlic; Nikola Kojo; Zoran Cvijanovic  

Based on an incident that happened in the first winter of the war in Bosnia in 1992, Dragojevic's provocative and disturbing movie "unleashes a powerful assault on the insanity of the war" (New York Times). Two young boys, Halil, a Muslim, and Milan, a Serb, watch the inauguration of the new Brotherhood and Unity Tunnel in their neighborhood in 1980. Twelve years later, Halil and Milan are now on opposing sides, and Milan lies badly injured alongside wounded Serbs and Muslims in the same hospital as he recalls the events that brought him there. 

TIME OF THE GYPSIES  1990  136 min.  (VHS)
Director: Emir Kusturica
Winner of the Best Director Award at Cannes.  The story of a young gypsy boy with telekinetic gifts pursuing wealth in Eastern Europe. 

TITO AND ME  1992  104 min.  (VHS)   
Director: Goran Markovic  

Cast:  Dimitrie Vojnov; Lazar Ristovski; Anika Dobra
Set in Belgrade in 1954, a comical story of 10-year old Zoran, who to his parents' dismay, adores Yugoslavia's leader Tito more than he does his own family.  

UNDERGROUND  In German and Serbian:  1995  167 min.  (VHS)  
Director: Emir Kusturica
Cast:  Miki Manojlovic; Lazar Ristovski; Mirjana Jokovic; Slavko Stimac

Considered Kusturica's masterpiece, this film portrays the downfall of Yugoslavia.  The story follows two friends who reinvent their personal and political existences to the point of absurdity as they witness the massive changes that their country goes through from WWII to present.  Winner of Palme d'Or at 1995 Cannes.   

WARD SIX  1976  93 min.  (VHS)  
Director: Lucien Pintilie
Based on Chekhov's story of a doctor who oversees a grotesque mental ward and is judged mad and locked up with one of his patients.

WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSINESS  1985  144 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Emir Kusturica
A portrait of a boy's coming of age in 50's Yugoslavia. As little Malik takes up sleepwalking and experiences his first love, the family knows the real "business" Father is conducting--in a labor camp for his unrepentant Stalinist leanings and his philandering. 

THE WOUNDS  1998  103 min.  (DVD)

Director:  Srdjan Dragojevic

Cast:  Dusan Pekic, Milan Maric, Dragan Bjelogrlic

Two teenage criminals, Pinki and Krout, use violence to achieve the power and fame they crave in war-torn Bosnia.  Based on actual events, this is a portrait of a wounded country and its people.

FILMS IN ENGLISH:

BALKAN EXPRESS  1983  102 min.  (VHS)
Director: Branko
An offbeat comedy about a band of roving musicians who are con men, when the Nazis invade. Their madcap adventures contrast with the horrors of war.  Dubbed in English.

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