A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas showcasestwenty-five essays written by established and emerging filmscholars that trace the history of Eastern European cinemas andoffer an up-to-date assessment of post-socialist filmcultures.* Showcases critical historical work and up-to-date assessmentsof post-socialist film cultures* Features consideration of lesser known areas of study, such asAlbanian and Baltic cinemas, popular genre films, cross-nationaldistribution and aesthetics, animation and documentary* Places the cinemas of the region in a European and globalcontext* Resists the Cold War classification of Eastern European cinemasas "other" art cinemas by reconnecting them with themain circulation of film studies* Includes discussion of such films as Taxidermia, ElPerro Negro, 12:08 East of Bucharest Big Tõll, andBreakfast on the Grass and explores the work of directorsincluding Tamás Almási, Walerian Borowczyk, RomanPolanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Andrzej u³awski, and KarelVachek amongst many others

Notes on the Editor and Contributors viiiForeword xvDina Iordanova1 Introduction: Eastern European Cinema From No End to the End(As We Know It) 1Anikó ImrePart I New Theoretical and Critical Frameworks 232 Body Horror and Post-Socialist Cinema: GyörgyPálfi's Taxidermia 25Steven Shaviro3 El perro negro : Transnational Readings of DatabaseDocumentaries from Spain 41Marsha Kinder4 Did Somebody Say Communism in the Classroom? or The Value ofAnalyzing Totality in Recent Serbian Cinema 63Zoran Samardzija5 Laughing into an Abyss: Cinema and Balkanization 77Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli6 Jewish Identities and Generational Perspectives 101Catherine Portuges7 Aftereffects of 1989: Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East ofBucharest (2006) and Romanian Cinema 125Alice Bardan8 Cinema Beyond Borders: Slovenian Cinema in a World Context148Meta Mazaj and Shekhar DeshpandePart II Historical and Spatial Redefinitions 1679 Center and Periphery, or How Karel Vachek Formed a NewGovernment 169Alice Lovejoy10 The Polish Black Series Documentary and the British FreeCinema Movement 183Bjørn Sørenssen11 Socialists in Outer Space: East German Film's VenusianAdventure 201Stefan Soldovieri12 Red Shift: New Albanian Cinema and its Dialogue with the Old224Bruce Williams13 National Space, (Trans)National Cinema: Estonian Film in the1960s 244Eva Näripea14 For the Peace, For a New Man, For a Better World! ItalianLeftist Culture and Czechoslovak Cinema, 1945-1968 265Francesco PitassioPart III Aesthetic (Re)visions 28915 The Impossible Polish New Wave and its AccursedÉmigré Auteurs: Borowczyk, Polañski, Skolimowski,and u³awski 291Michael Goddard16 Documentary and Industrial Decline in Hungary: The"Ózd Series" of Tamás Almási 311John Cunningham17 Investigating the Past, Envisioning the Future: AnExploration of Post-1991 Latvian Documentary 325Maruta Z. Vitols18 Eastern European Historical Epics: Genre Cinema and theVisualization of a Heroic National Past 344Nikolina Dobreva19 Nation, Gender, and History in Latvian Genre Cinema 366Irina Novikova20 A Comparative Study: Rein Raamat's Big Tõll andPriit Pärn's Luncheon on the Grass 385Andreas Trossek21 The Yugoslav Black Wave: The History and Poetics of PolemicalCinema in the 1960s and 1970s in Yugoslavia 403Greg De Cuir, Jr .Part IV Industries and Institutions 42522 Follow the Money - Financing Contemporary Cinema inRomania 427Ioana Uricaru23 An Alternative Model of Film Production: Film Units in Polandafter World War Two 453Dorota Ostrowska24 The Hussite Heritage Film: A Dream for all Czech Seasons466Petra Hanáková25 International Co-productions as Productions of Heterotopias483Ewa Mazierska26 East is East? New Turkish Cinema and Eastern Europe 504Melis BehlilIndex 518