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| Eastern Pearls
| | | Eastern Europe has generated numerous interesting films in recent years. Whether this is due to the social change these countries have been going through in the last decades, or to something else entirely, be sure not to miss these Eastern European films during this year's festival.
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Tuesday, After Christmas
Katalin Varga | | Romanian cinema caught everyone's attention with Christian Mungiu's prizewinning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile). Espoo Ciné screens two new Romanian films this year: Radu Muntean's Tuesday, After Christmas (Marţi, după Crăciun) and Katalin Varga, which is directed by British Peter Strickland.
Tuesday, After Christmas is a marital drama, in which preparations for Christmas unexpectedly lead to an encounter between the wife and the lover.
Katalin Varga, then, is an unforgiving, yet beautiful depiction of a woman's journey through the Transilvanian mountains with her son.
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|  Kawasaki's Rose Photo: Karel Kucera
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| Jan Hřebejk, one of the foremost Czech directors, delves into the country's political history. In the family drama Kawasaki's Rose (Kawasakiho růže), the past ties of an elderly, honoured psychiatrist to the secret police suddenly come to the fore.
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Slovenian Girl | | The protagonist of Damjan Kozole's Slovenian Girl (Slovenka) also has a dark secret. No one knows Alexandra is an English student by day and a prostitute by night. The double life soon becomes exhausting as Alexandra finds herself involved in a police investigation.
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Donkey | | Antonio Nuić's Donkey (Kenjac) from Kroatia focuses on troublesome family relations, which in this case are caused mainly by male stubbornness, symbolized by the figure of the donkey. In the film, Boro decides to take his family on a visit to his native village in Herzegovina. The relationships with his father and brother are difficult to mend, however, when no one is ready to give in. | | | 
On the Path | | From Bosnia and Herzegovina comes Jasmila Žbanić's On the Path (Na putu), a story about the crisis of a newlywed couple. Amar is unemployed and drowns his worries in a bottle, while Luna is hoping to get pregnant. When Amar finds work in an Islamist community, Luna becomes worried about his new radical way of thinking. |
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