We’d love to invite you to our 2020 Annual General Meeting. If you are a member with a 3 month or a 10 month pass, or if you’d like to get involved and join the Euraw Inc Committee, join us this Saturday (the 18th) from 10:30-12:30 at Mr Tulk (on the La Trobe side of the State Library) for brunch and a chat.
On the agenda:
2019 rundown and wrap up
reiterate the Board/Committee structure
what’s on for 2020: discuss the future program of Euraw Stories
chat, nibble, socialise
All pass holders are welcome to participate and join the Euяaw Inc Committee and help our events grow bigger and run better.
See you on Saturday at Mr Tulk, corner of Swanston and La Trobe St, within the State Library of Victoria.
In true European style, Hier is a coproduction between 6 countries, directed by a Hungarian, with a Romanian lead actor, spoken in French and English, and shot in Morocco. It’s also known by three names: French – Hier, English – Yesterday, Hungarian – Tegnap.
Hungary, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Morocco 2018
Drama 1’59 min
Director: Bálint Kenyeres
Languages: French
The central character, 50-year-old Victor Ganz owns a thriving building and civil engineering company that operates worldwide. Some very costly problems on a building site in North Africa mean he has to go there (he hates traveling), to a country where he is confronted with memories of his youth, which have been carefully buried in the depths of his mind. Meetings in ministries, disinformation, the reappearance of a past love who had mysteriously disappeared, an investigation in the local underground to find her: Victor Ganz slowly plunges into a labyrinthine world where present and past intertwine.
Germany/ Czech Republic 2013 Adventure/ Comedy 1’30 min Director: Markus Dietrich Languages: German
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnicT2UGQD4
For ten-year-old Friederike October 1989 gets off to a disastrous start: her beloved Uncle Mike (27) is expelled from the GDR and has to leave the country within 48 hours. Inspired by her big idol Captain Burgh, Friederike and her friends Jonathan (10) and Fabian (10) construct a teleporting machine to “beam” her uncle Mike back to the GDR. But the experiment dramatically fails. Instead of successfully beaming the three kids across, the entire village population disappears! For a moment it seems that Frederike and her friends are the last remaining kids on earth. But TV proves what Frederike had immediately suspected: they have managed to beam everybody but themselves to West Berlin. They witness on TV how their families and friends desperately try to climb back over the Wall to their home country. Only quick thinking and action can undo the experiment and prevent the worst from happening before the border guards open fire. A race against time and the nasty local policeman Mauder begins.
BULGARIA 2013
Documentary 1'27 min
Director: Mina Mileva & Vesela Kazakova
Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service is a feature documentary debut for Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, made without state funding for production and dedicated to Mina’s animation teacher and outstanding animator Antony Trayanov/Uncle Tony.
The film became a mirror for a post-communist society that hasn’t dealt with the role of the totalitarian Secret Service in recent history – a role that commands daily life till nowadays and creates a complex political problem. Bulgaria hasn’t had a proper lustration process and the dossiers are still closed allowing many former agents and informers to take high political positions.
The authors of the film, subjected to threats and intimidation, were also attacked within their own Film Guild. Official letters were exchanged by the main institutions with the aim to prevent distribution. The Ministry of Culture, FILMAUTOR, CEM (the Council for Electronic Media), the Bulgarian National Television, the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers and the tax authorities each responded with their own position and contacted the production company Activist 38 for relevant inspections. The copyright society FILMAUTOR illegitimately revoked the contract with Activist 38 and as result the Bulgarian National Television refused to air the film.
This campaign was triggered also by the fact that the film was seen as defaming several prominent directors from the past amongst whom the legendary Donio Donev. Donev, a brilliant animation director, whom Uncle Tony worked alongside with, is perhaps the best known name of Bulgarian cinema. He was also an informer for the Secret Service.
The controversy caused by the film was covered by the main media of the country and some international editions too. The European organisations EDN (European Documentary Network), EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) and Cineuropa published support articles. An intellectual group at home created a Facebook page in support of the film entitled: Please sign in support of freedom of speech, expression and thinking in Bulgaria.
Despite attempts to discontinue screening the film, it was shown in the cinemas in Sofia for several months, which marks an unprecedented longevity for a homegrown documentary film.
CZECH REPUBLIC 2016
Comedy 1'42 min
Director: Jan Hřebejk
Cast: Zuzana Mauréry, Peter Bebjak, Zuzana Konecná
“From Oscar-nominated writer/director Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall), THE TEACHER is a wildly entertaining black comedy inspired by the true story of a Communist-era school teacher who manipulated her pupils and their families for unprecedented personal gain.
The early 1980s, Czechoslovakia. At the start of a new term at a suburban high school, a seemingly empathetic and kind new teacher, the middle-aged Maria Drazděchová greets her class. She asks them to introduce themselves and share what their parents do for a living, explaining that it’s important to know how their parents might collectively help the group. Soon after, she gradually begins to pressure both students and parents by seeking favours – grocery collection, handyman assistance, lifts and haircuts – and connecting them with special treatment in class and, most significantly, good grades.
Before long Maria’s demands grow more complex and dangerous, so when a serious incident finally draws her unscrupulous behaviour to her colleagues, the principal calls a secret meeting, seeking parents to sign a petition to move “Comrade Drazděchová” on from the school. But her high connections with the Communist Party hang above everyone in the room, and it’s soon evident that standing up for what’s right may be much easier said than done.
With production design and cinematography that recreates the era to wonderful effect, THE TEACHER delivers a timeless and universal story of opportunism, bias and human dignity. Laced with wicked humour and standout performances, this rousing morality tale employs a delicate touch to skewer not only the complications of communism, but the human characteristics that ensure it never quite works out as expected.” (Palace Films)
HUNGARY 2017
Drama 1'49min
Director: Roland Vranik
Cast: Marcelo Cake-Baly, Agnes Mahr, Arghavan Shekari
Award-winning Hungarian director Roland Vranik’s third feature film considers the many nuances of integration through the means of an unorthodox love story. The Citizen follows Wilson, who, after losing his entire family to the horrors of war and making the perilous journey to Europe as a political refugee, settles for a sedate life as a security guard in a Budapest shopping center. However, Wilson is driven by a quest: to become a model Hungarian citizen and to do so at any cost. The Citizen poignantly dwells on some of the most complex issues of modern society. With Spartan use of technology, a naturalistic and pared-down mise-en-scene and by employing mostly unprofessional actors, director Roland Vranik emphasizes the complexity of human emotion and lets the universal vulnerability of the heart mirror the equally universal vulnerability of humanity.
Rainy weekend afternoons are made for curling up on the couch with a good film, wouldn’t you agree?
If you have a full year pass and you couldn’t make it to one of our screenings, you can always borrow a DVD from our library. All films are available for hire after they have been screened. We don’t want you to miss out on any EuRaw Stories goodness.
Hire costs only $5 per film with a $25 deposit, reimbursable once you return the DVD in its original condition.
Send us an email if you want to hire any of the films we’ve screened, including the special screenings, and we’ll make it happen.
For the next few months, we’re screening our films on Sunday afternoons. Just around normal high tea time, but instead of tea and cucumber sandwiches, we are serving our signature dish of Eastern and Central European film and culture. Tempted?
Doors will open at 2:15pm with a start at 2:30pm. Hope to see you at our next screening.
We couldn’t wait to tell you about our very special guest at the March screening. The marvelous Clara Voda, who played Nicole in Domestic (Romania 2013), will be joining us for a Q&A session after the screening on the 19th of March.
Some of her film credits include:
‘The Death of Mister Lazarescu’, awarded Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2008
‘If I Want To Whistle I Whistle’, which won the Berlin Silver Bear and scored a European Academy Award nomination in 2010.
She is a key representative of the new wave of Romanian cinema and was awarded Best Actress in Romania several times, including in 2015 (UCIN Award for Best Actress).
As well as an impressive list of film credits, Clara also has extensive experience as a theatre actor. She performed in theatres around the world, including for Australian audiences during the Canberra Theatre Festival in 2000. During that visit, Clara felt a connection with all things Australian and she later moved to live with her family to Sydney.
Clara now lectures on Acting for Film and Scene Study at the New York Film Academy in Sydney and she has just finished working on her first Australian film, Pop-up, shot in Newcastle NSW and in Romania.
Director: 
Director: Roland Vranik
Cast: Marcelo Cake-Baly, Agnes Mahr, Arghavan Shekari
