Return to Europe / Balkan Express

Winner of the 2008 Erasmus European Media Award

Hop on and let's take a ride across the south-east of Europe. What is so fascinating about this colourful entity called the "Balkans"? History is told on old Roman and Ottoman roads, in young urban centres like Tirana, in the mountainous countryside of Montenegro. With stories written by life - and based on the results of sound scientific research by the European Stability Initiative (ESI).

"These are documentaries all citizens of the European Union should have the opportunity to see!" Giuliano Amato, former prime minister of Italy

 

Martina Kudláček - Notes on Marie Menken

"Notes on Marie Menken" explores the almost forgotten story of the legendary artist Marie Menken (1909-1970) who became one of New York's outstanding underground experimental filmmakers of the 1940s through the 1960s, inspiring artists such as Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger, and Gerard Malanga. She was a probable role model of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and ended up as a Warhol Superstar. The documentary allows a glimpse into her social and artistic struggle and radical integrity, drawing the picture of a modern myth in personal diary style.

Ivan Ladislav Galeta - Obsession: Structuring Time and Space

Ivan Ladislav Galeta from Zagreb is the neo-Platonist among European experimental film directors. Galeta hides a true chamber of wonders behind the clear, mathematically abstract structure of his films and videos, meticulously compiled rhythmically frame for frame, each work likewise presenting an analysis of the film medium. Concealed therein, culled from deep in the medium's prehistory, are hermetic parallel universes in whose number ranges and symbolic spaces, Galeta's precisely constructed film compositions find a formalist anchor.

Flaming Ears - Ursula Pürrer, A. Hans Scheirl, Dietmar Schipek

Shot in Super-8 and exploded to 16mm, "Flaming Ears" is a German "Blade Runner" - about a sexed-up pyromaniac, her red-plastic-clad mate, and a revengeful comix artist - characterized by a fierce, punky throb and gelatinous F/X. As sapphic thrillers go, it's twenty times more fun than "Basic Instinct".

 

SAJMIŠTE - The History of a Camp

Sajmište, the place whose name used to be whispered in fear is today practically buried in oblivion. Present-day occupants of former Fairground pavilions, from which thousands of incarcerated camp prisoners were being taken to death, are common people who know very little or next to nothing about the horrific history of this site. Where concentration camp hospital used to be, concerts, boxing matches and fashion shows are taking place today. At the execution site there is only a modest memorial plaque as a reminder of the actual horrors unfolding in this place. Not so long ago, Sajmište, in these parts, represented something altogether different...