Second Run

Observational documentary directed by Ilian Metev. The film follows Krassimir, Plamen and Mila, a paramedic crew in charge of an ambulance in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. Filmed over two...

Czech New Wave drama directed by Stefan Uher. The film follows the relationship between Bela (Jana Beláková) and Fajolo (Marián Bielik) and their dysfunctional home lives. Although the couple are...

Romanian-language drama in which a married man with a child finds himself compelled to choose between his wife and his lover in the lead up to Christmas. Paul Hanganu (Mimi Branescu) has been with...

Pia Marais' semi-autobiographical debut feature recounts the adolescence of Stevie (Ceci Schmitz-Chuh), a resourceful 14-year-old girl who finds methods of her own to cope with the unstable...

Polish director Andrzej Zulawski's award-winning debut feature is set in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. A young man, Michal (Leszek Teleszynski), escapes the massacre of his family, and...

Foreign drama set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the brutal civil war, Hungarian volunteers supported the 'Red' revolutionaries who were being hunted by the 'White' Government forces...

Foreign drama based on the novel by Ladislav Fuks. The film centres around the demonic, death obsessed Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrusinsky). He is the owner of a crematorium in the early stages of the...

Czech drama from director Frantisek Vlácil. Set in 16th century Bohemia, a miller and his son find themselves at the centre of an investigation after they are suspected of working with the Devil...

Perhaps best known for being 'banned forever' in its native Czech Republic, Jan Nemec's experimental film is a surreal, creepy allegory about the cause and effects of power and conformity. A group of...

Karel Zeman co-writes and directs this fantasy adventure starring Milos Kopecky as eccentric adventurer Baron Munchausen. After coming across young astronaut Tonik (Rudolf Jelínek) on the moon, the...

Karel Zeman co-writes and directs this fantasy adventure starring Milos Kopecky as eccentric adventurer Baron Munchausen. After coming across young astronaut Tonik (Rudolf Jelínek) on the moon, the...

Vaclav Vorlicek's 1973 reworking of the classic Cinderella is one of the most beloved films in all Central European cinema. Delightful and unconventional, Three Wishes for Cinderella places the...

Catalan historical drama co-written and directed by Lluís Miñarro. The film follows ruler Amadeo I (Alex Brendemühl) as he attempts to establish himself as the King of Spain in the early 1870s...

Low-budget Romanian drama co-written and directed by Cristi Puiu. Struggling entrepreneur Ovidiu (Alexandru Papadopol) is approached by a local crime lord with a job offer. Tempted by the prospect of...

Double bill of features from Czech film-maker Vera Chytilová. 'Something Different' (1963) follows the lives of frustrated housewife Vera (Vera Uzelacová) and gymnast Eva (Eva Bosáková). While...

Anand Patwardhan directs this documentary exploring the militarisation of his native India since the death of peace activist Mahatma Gandhi. Since Gandhi's assassination in 1948, the country has...

Historical drama directed by Albert Serra. As his life comes to an end, Giacomo Casanova (Vicenç Altaió) travels to the mountains of Carpathia to seek out young peasant girls with whom he can...

Karel Kachyna writes and directs this Czech drama starring Radoslav Brzobohaty and Jirina Bohdalova as husband and wife Ludvik and Anna. Ludvik, a senior official of Prague's Communist regime,...

Zoltán Fábri's striking film is a powerful love story set against the turbulent changes to rural life in 1950s Hungary. In her dazzling debut performance, the late, great Mari Törocsik plays a...

Oldrich Lipsky's one-of-a-kind Czech black comedy employs an ingenious twist - telling the life story of a philanderer and condemned murderer entirely in reverse: from his 'birth' at the guillotine,...

Second Run presents a selection of essential works by Polish filmmaker and iconoclast Jerzy Skolimowski, one of international cinema's most prolific and celebrated filmmakers. This special edition...

A manifesto for a new generation of young filmmakers, Pearls of the Deep is one of the delights of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Based on stories by Bohumil Hrabal, the film is a compendium of five...

Based on true events, and reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski's harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland, but survived and thrived on underground VHS...

With delirious visuals conjured by cinematographer Jaroslav Kucera (Daisies, Diamonds of the Night) and often described as 'the last film of the Czechoslovak New Wave', Juraj Herz's delirious tale of...

Eduard Grecner writes and directs this Slovakian drama. Set during medieval times, reclusive potter Martin Lepis (Radovan Lukavsky), who the villagers refer to as Dragon, returns to the mountain...

Classic Hungarian drama directed by Károly Makk. Luca (Mari Töröcsik)'s husband has been arrested by the secret police. As she cares for his sick mother (Lili Darvas), she can't bear to tell her...

Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel directs this comedy drama set in a labour camp in 1950s Communist-run Prague. The film tells the stories of the various characters interned in the labour...

Karel Kachyna directs this Czech thriller starring Iva Janzurová.

Vera Chytilová writes and directs this surrealist Czech comedy centred around the lives of two teenage girls known as Marie I and Marie II (Jitka Cerhova and Ivana Karbanova). When the girls come to...

Collection of three Hungarian classic dramas. 'Merry-Go-Round' (1956) stars Mari Töröcsik and Imre Soós as a young couple in love who wish to marry, but her father has arranged her marriage to an...