Astra Film

Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

Director: Petr Lom
Country: Canada/ Czech Republic
Year: 2004
Length: 52

The film observes an ancient Kyrgyz custom, which is still active today although it has been declared illegal some years ago. In Kyrgyzstan, one of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, a man would abduct the woman he has chosen for a wife. Typically, he takes several friends, hires a car, stakes out his bride-to-be's movements, snatches her off the street, and takes her to his family home. A delegation is then sent to her family to inform them of the kidnapping. The abducted woman is kept by the groom’s relatives until someone from her family arrives to discuss the marriage. The level of consent and the familiarity of the bride with the groom vary. Sometimes the kidnappings are consensual - the bride is engaged to the groom and agrees to the kidnapping. In this case, the kidnappings are merely playful rituals. In many other cases however, the bride does not want to marry her suitor, or has never even met him before. Recent studies estimate that about half of all marriages in Kyrgyzstan today are conducted through kidnapping and that in half of these cases the woman is forced into marriage against her will. This documentary follows the dramatic stories of four of non-consensual kidnappings.

Carpatia

http://www.carpatia.info/index_e.html

Director: Andrzej Klamt
Country: Germany/ Austria
Year: 2004
Length: 127

The Carpathians link the Alps with the Balkan Mountains like a spinal cord extending from Central Europe to the East, and branching off as far as western Ukraine. A journey to the rural regions of the Carpathians is an opportunity to encounter ethnic groups with weird names such as the Hutsul or the Gorals, to meet people who still live according to ancient customs and believe in wizards, to see traditional trades alive, and to realize that, as strange at it may seem, everything is part of a common European cultural heritage. This documentary is a poetic journey portraying people, places and the spectacular landscape of the Carpathian Mountains.

And Then, Who Are We?

Director: Barbara Schuch, Sophie Sensier
Country: France
Year: 2005
Length: 58

Three and a half million Jews used to live in Poland before 1939. 350,000 of them survived the Holocaust. How many Jews are living in Poland today? Nobody knows for sure. Directed as a personal journey, the film attempts to discover the life of Poland’s so-called “new Jews”, sixty years after the Holocaust and fifteen years after the fall of communism. Since 2001, when the Polish President officially acknowledged the pogroms thus taking the first step towards reconciliation, the Jewish community has tried to renew Jewish life. What does this renewal mean for the few thousands – or maybe even less - Polish Jews? The film looks for answers to these questions and reveals what it means to be a Jew in today’s Poland.

One Day in People Poland

Director: Maciej Drygas
Country: Poland
Year: 2005
Length: 58

One Day In People's Poland chronicles an ordinary day in the life of ordinary citizens in communist Poland. After a three-years long research of archive material from the communist period, the director chose to reconstruct October 27th,1962. It was just another day, when nothing remarkable happened. Yet, each personal account reveals memorable things about the absurdities of those times. The film combines original footage, letters and official documents. Those who have experienced communism will recall many things that used to govern their lives in those times. As for younger viewers, they are offered a glimpse at a period they neither know nor understand.

Borderline Lovers

Director: Miroslav Mandić
Country: Bosnia & Herzegovina/ Czech republic
Year: 2005
Length: 84

A Croatian woman form Dubrovnik has been dating a Montenegrian whose compatriots were attacking her city not long ago. At a young coupleţs marriage in Sarajevo, neither the groom’s nor the bride’s parents attended the wedding. His father had fought in the Serbian Army while her family had been under siege on the other side. Anesa and Dragan both live in Mostar. But the fact that she lives in the Eastern part of the city and he lives in the West makes a great difference. The film tells the stories of couples who refuse to be separated by artificial boundaries. “I am interested in people who refuse to fail. Or rather, people who have the courage to behave as authentic individuals, regardless of boundaries imposed on them.” says director Miroslav Mandic.

Praising the Masters

Director: David Bán
Country: Hungary
Year: 2005
Length: 61

A variety of small trades were visible in the urban space until not very long ago under the form of small shops: the quilter’s, the hatter’s, the shoemaker’s etc. You could buy soda water from the soda booth and have your broken household items fixed at the craftsmen’s shops. A skilled craftsman was highly appreciated. Nowadays, you hardly ever come across craftsmen’s shops on the streets of the city. The small trades are slowly vanishing. The documentary portrays ten representatives of urban professions putting together a piece of urban history.

Here We Are

Director: Jaroslav Vojtek
Country: Slovakia
Year: 2005
Length: 76

The film tells the moving story of a family in search of its roots. After the World War II, the Krnáč family moved from Central Slovakia to Sub-Carpathian Ukraine, and a village in the Kazakh steppe became their home for more than fourty years. When the USSR ceased to exist, they decided to move back to Europe, i.e. to Slovakia, a country they knew little about, except from the stories they had heard from their parents. But in Slovakia they find neglected villages and unemployment, and the chances for a better life are scarce. Meanwhile, memories of their lives in the Kazakh village get stronger and stronger every day. The question arises: Where is their real home?

Window

Director: Gayhar Sydykova
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Year: 2005
Length: 14

He is only eleven years old, but he has to work in a deserted coal mine. The place is dangerous, and the boy risks his life every day for 20 soms, which is no more than half a dollar. But it has to be done, because he is the only support for his invalid mother.

Getting Back

Director: Maciej Adamek
Country: Poland
Year: 2004
Length: 24

When you are fifty and you have been away from the world for ten years, it is quite a challenge to regain your place in society. The film tells the story of 50 years old Andrej who has been released from prison after having served a ten years’ sentence. His old apartment is a ruin; he has no income whatsoever and no one to rely on, except his mother who stands by him during this difficult time in his life. Finding a job and really getting back to a normal life is his utmost desire. Will he succeed?

Born Into Servitude

Director: Attila Moharos
Country: Hungary
Year: 2004
Length: 59

The institution of servitude has long standing traditions all over Transylvania, and Székelyföld is no exception. At the turn of the century, more than half of the inhabitants of the settlement called Kibed were servants, or at least had been in their childhood, partly due to economic reasons. The story begins in 1999, with teenager Levente Fülöp starting to work as a servant, and ends in 2004, when he has grown into an adult. He and his brother Csaba are bound to their working place and breaking free from this modern slavery system is very difficult if not impossible. The film parallels the lives of Levente and Csaba to those of their two luckier brothers, who live in better conditions and have access to education. Far away from their parents, the four siblings will have to manage by themselves in their attempt to start a new life.

New Eldorado

http://tiborkocsis.com/

Director: Tibor Kocsis
Country: Hungary
Year: 2004
Length: 76

A village where many houses have been preserved for centuries. A village where people treasure their land, their church and their long-gone ancestors. A village surrounded by mountains hiding tons of gold and silver ore. Because of its deposits of precious minerals, the village Roşia Montană has been courted by international corporations involved in the extraction industry. Roşia Montană Gold Corporation, a Canadian-Romanian company, wants to open a goldmine here. People will have to move to a new location, where modern houses are waiting for them. Gold and silver will be found in abundance in this New Eldorado. About eight hundred hectars will be covered with cyanide wastes, but there will be a dam to prevent contamination of the area. However, the village Roşia Montană with its centuries-old houses will disappear.

In Search Of Happiness

Director: Alexander Gutman
Country: Russia
Year: 2005
Length: 53

In 1934, Stalin had the strange idea of founding a so-called Siberian Israel, with the capital Birobidzhan. The hero of the film, Boris Rack, was born in the very same year, and the story of his life mirrors the fate of the weird land conceived by Stalin. Boris Rack is a person who lost his nationality, his culture and his language. His children migrated to Israel. The only concrete thing in his life is the ruined kolkhoz he used to work for as a manager.

Victory Day

Director:Meelis Muhu
Country: Estonia
Year: 2006
Length: 26

After Estonia became independent in 1991, most monuments of the Soviet era were removed. The Bronze Soldier, however, remained in its place. It is a statue of a soldier in Red Army uniform with medals on his chest and a rifle slung over his shoulder. Every year on the 9th of May, people gather at this statue and their behaviour creates a new social memory. The monument is no longer important for itself, but rather for the ceremonies and rituals that take place around the Bronze Soldier.

The Spectacle

Director: Jarek Sypniewski
Country: Poland
Year: 2005
Length: 22

North Korea is anything but an accessible country. It is not easy to enter it and it is even more difficult to enter it with the purpose of making a documentary film. The main feature line in The Spectacle is the colossal show “Arirang” with thousands of actors performing for thousands of people in the good old communist totalitarian style. The film crosses beyond the grotesque show to offer glimpses of real life in North Korea.