EuRaw Stories Past Editions

How are you going now that you’re doing everything from the confinements of your home? Have you managed to keep some kind of a decent relationship with all the others who share the same prison as you? Your family members, or maybe your partner, kids, parents, house mates? Or if you’re on your own, do you feel like smudging the bathroom mirror with toothpaste by now? It could be worse, you could have all the freedom and still feel trapped like the couple in this film, in a passive aggressive funny nightmare. Watch their silent bickering escalate to a very… [Read more]

Dear Euraw Stories lovers, I am sure you’ve noticed, we have taken a break this year. If you’re missing our screenings, check this page once in a while. We’ll post movie links and short films to keep the Euraw spirit alive.  I believe we’ve posted this one before, but this short film is so relevant now. And I don’t know about you but I tear up every time I watch it. The story is really simple but the performances are superb. Luminita Gheorghiu is the queen of Romanian New Wave. Stay safe and love one another. And now that all… [Read more]

This black comedy allows us to learn that the first living being in space was not actually a dog called Lajka but a Hungarian crop-sprayer by the name of Lajkó. <November Hungary 2018 Drama 1’30 min Director: Balázs Lengyel Languages: Hungarian In early 1957, the Soviet Union decides to give Hungary the honour of providing the first cosmonaut to orbit in space. The most suitable candidate turns out to be none other than Lajos Serbán, known to all as Lajkó, whose life as a pilot reflects his lifelong attraction to the stars and an unexplored infinity with outer space. When he… [Read more]

On this day 30 years ago, an important event occurred: the ideological and physical division between east and west was finally removed. On the night of the 9th of November 1989 the commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing yielded, allowing for the guards to open the checkpoints and allowing people through with little or no identity checking. As the Ossis swarmed through, they were greeted by Wessis waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing. Soon afterward, a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall and were soon joined by East German youngsters. To commemorate this event we’ll screen a hilarious German film… [Read more]

A critical and audience favourite at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (where it was awarded the Best Director prize) and a major 2019 Oscar contender, Paweł Pawlikowski’s follow-up to the Academy Award-winning Ida (screened in Euraw’s 2016 program) is a ravishing, music-fuelled romance charting two mismatched lovers caught between East and West in 1950s Europe.< Poland 2018 Drama 1’30 minDirector: Paweł PawlikowskiCast: Tomasz Kot, Joanna Kulig, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza, Cédric KahnLanguages: Polish In the ruins of post-WWII Poland, pianist Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) is commissioned by the Soviet state to form a musical ensemble to help rekindle national pride. Whilst touring the villages in search… [Read more]

An ethno tale with humour and tears from Hungary. Hungary 2017Comedy 1’30 minDirector: Csaba M. Kiss, Gábor RohonyiCast: Erik Lakatos, Barnabás Bergendi, Dániel Viktor NagyLanguages: Hungarian Chaos bursts out among the gypsy minority of the town of Acsa when the mayor, urged by the new young priest of the village, announces that this year the gypsy football team called Brazilians can also take part in the football championship of the village; and this year, thanks to a Brazilian millionaire originally from Acsa, the winning team will be invited to Rio de Janiero. The championship starts. Events, emotions and anger take unpredictable directions. Those who… [Read more]

The multi award-winning drama from Andrey Zvyagintsev (the director of Elena screened with our 2016 program), arguably the most fearless and vital filmmaker in modern European cinema, LOVELESS is a razor-sharp and gripping portrayal of a family – and society – on the precipice of collapse. <March May> Russia 2018Drama 1’30 min Director: Andrey ZvyagintsevCast: Maryana Spivak, Alexei RozinLanguages: Russian Boris (Alexey Rozin) and Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) live together in the same Moscow apartment, but their relationship is all but over. Caught in a spiral of slanging matches and eager to be freed into the company of new lovers, the only thing… [Read more]

Our second screening for 2019 it’s a piece of art, literally. <February April> Poland/ United Kingdom 2017 Drama/ Animation 1’30 min Director: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman Cast: Douglas Booth, Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan Languages: English Nominated for an Academy Award in 2017, the feature-length painted animation — the first film of its kind — explores the life and unusual death of Vincent Van Gogh via depictions of his artworks. A young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist’s final letter and ends up investigating the artist’s final days. Book tickets for… [Read more]

<December We are back for 2019 and we take off with more amazing tales from the Golden Age of Romania. Three short films to transport you into a communist past that can be hard to believe, funny, brimming-full of reminiscence. Join us for some traditional Eastern European fare and by now classic films. Bring your own stories of the Golden Age. For those of you who joined us in December, this is Tales from the Golden Age – part 2. Just as fun, we promise. Book your tickets for 16 February now, and meet us at The Loop Projects Bar… [Read more]

Hello dear friends and Happy New Year. We hope you enjoyed our last year’s program and we’d love to invite you to the 2019 Annual General Meeting. If you are a member with a 3 month or a 10 month pass, or if you’d like to get a bit more involved with our events and join the Euraw Inc Committee, join us this Sunday from 2pm-4pm at Loop Roof, the rooftop terrace on top of our venue. On the agenda: 2018 rundown and wrap up reiterate the Board/Committee structure what’s on for 2019: brainstorm ideas regarding our venue’s new fees and discuss the future format of our events… [Read more]

Romania 2009 Comedy/Short Films 2’35 min Directors: Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer,  Constantin Popescu Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Ion Sapdaru, Viorel Comanici Tales from the Golden Age consists of six short films from the same historical period and following the same narrative pattern. The screenplays have, as starting point, Romanian urban legends from the late communist period – popular and humoresque stories believed to be true. Comic, bizarre, surprising, these myths drew on the often surreal events of everyday life under the communist regime. Humour is what kept Romanians alive, and Tales from the Golden Age aims to re-capture that mood, portraying the survival of a… [Read more]

Hungary 2015 Comedy 1’30 min Director: Károly Ujj Mészáros Cast: Monika Balsai, David Sakurai Liza, a timid nurse takes care of Marta, the widow of a Japanese Ambassador to Hungary for 12 years. On her 30th birthday Liza goes to a McDonald’s to find romance. During her short leave Marta gets killed by Liza’s imaginary friend, Toni Tani, a late Japanese pop singer from the 70’s. Relatives report Liza to the police, for murdering Marta to inherit her apartment. Ensign Zoltan is put on the case. The policeman moves into Liza’s apartment as a lodger to keep an eye on… [Read more]

Serbia/Croatia 2016 Drama 1’25 min Director: Zrinko Ogresta Cast: Ksenija Marcovic,Lazar Ristovski Vesna is a middle-aged visting nurse in Zagreb. She goes about her quiet daily life: babysitting for her son, helping her daughter to prepare for her wedding. Out of the blue, she gets a call from her husband Zarko, who left his family on the eve of the war to fight for “the other side”. His reappearance sends her carefully reconstructed life in a tailspon, endangering her new identity… [Read more]

Poland 2017 Detective 1’30 min Director: Agnieszka Holland, Katarzyna Adamik Cast: Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka Janina Duszejko, a former engineer, an astrologist and vegetarian, lives in a small picturesque village in the Sudeten Mountains. One night, she stumbles on the dead body of a neighbour. The poacher died a mysterious death. There are traces of roe deer hooves around his house… In time, dead bodies of the local VIPs are discovered. All of them were hunters. Duszejko tries to convince the local police force that they were murdered by wild animals. As another VIPs is found dead, Duszejko becomes the main suspect. When… [Read more]

Croatia 2016 Comedy 1’30 min Director: Igor Šeregi Cast: Rene Bitorajac, Matija Kačan, Marko Cindrić https://vimeo.com/197296263 ZG80 is an action comedy about one of the greatest rivalries in football fans history – the one between football fans Bad Blue Boys (football club “Dinamo“, Zagreb, Croatia) and Delije (football club “Red star“ Belgrade, Serbia). In a dawn of Yugoslavia war, football hooligans from Zagreb went to game in Belgrade, Serbia, home of their favourite enemies “Delije“ of football club “Red star“. This is a story of a friendship, loyalty and a senselessness of politics and war in former Yugoslavia. Book tickets for… [Read more]

We went home and scoured our mothers’, aunts’ and neighbours’ memories for what would make a good Bulgarian food staple to introduce to you. We are happy to announce that this month’s featured delicacy is … drum roll … the Bulgarian banitsa –  a coil of traditional cheese and yogurt pastry. The banitsa you can taste at our next screening on 19 May will be prepared with love by Lars Caterers (who have been so very supportive of our experimentation); they are making individual twisted cheese pies with filo pastry, topped with yogurt and parsley. The accompanying film is Uncle… [Read more]

No cultural immersion is complete without some traditional food. To make the Czech experience more wholesome, we went on a search to find the right culinary match for The Teacher, the Czech film we are screening this Saturday. And guess what? We found the only place in the whole of Melbourne that makes kolache – the traditional Czech soft bun. Kolache Cravings from Melbourne’s North were thrilled to come on board and help us feed you. If you haven’t heard of kolache before, don’t wait any longer to try them. We did, and could barely stop at one. Phil and… [Read more]

Every March the most multicultural city in Australia celebrates its diversity with Multicultural Diversity Week and we are joining in again, this year with a screening of The Citizen. The festival theme for 2018, proud to belong, acknowledges that belonging is an achievement that has its challenges for newly arrived people and encourages sharing and embracing everyone’s cultural heritage. We chose The Citizen because Wilson, the main character, is the perfect person to take you behind the scenes on the journey of a refugee trying to make a new home for himself. After losing his whole family to war in Guinea-Bissau, Wilson hopes to become a… [Read more]

Dear movie lovers, you guessed it, during the first screening you’ll be able to taste the best borscht in Melbourne, cooked by our very good friends at LARS Caterers. Borscht (or borsch, borshch, borsht, borș, bortsch, barszcz, борщ, באָרשט‎, etc) is a very popular soup throughout Central and Eastern Europe as well as The Balkans, with many recipe variations between the cultures. The dish most of the world associates with borscht is a beetroot based sour soup with a distinctive red colour. The LARS Caterers team have created for us the most sublime Romanian beetroot borscht, served cold, with dill paste and optional crème fraîche. It’s gluten free, vegan and… [Read more]