In this innovative production of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless story of love, loss and sacrifice, “Anna Karenina”, the Xameleon Theatre Company fully lives up to its name. An all-female crew of four takes on thirteen different characters, most of which are men. Chameleon-like, the actors slip from one role into the other, taking the audience on…
| 03/06/2019
In 2015 when Ukrainian, Crimean patriot Oleg Sentsov was convicted of trumped-up terrorist crimes he didn’t commit, the Moscow district court was told he’s not afraid of the twenty year sentence – ‘the rule of blood thirsty dwarves in your country will end sooner’. Askold Kurov’s documentary frames the progress of Sentsov’s trial in the…
| 30/05/2019
It was only five months ago that Thom and his band first appeared at the Troubadour, but their show has changed a lot in that time. They included five songs from their latest CD All I Know but there were also a number of new ones, as well as three covers. The last time they were…
| 14/05/2019
The Riga indie trio Carnival Youth comprises twins Edgars and Emils Kaupers on guitar and drums respectively and Roberts Vanags on keyboards, while they all contribute vocals. They appear to have parted company with their bassist Alexsis in recent years. They’ve been together since 2012 and have so far released two albums, No Clouds Allowed (2014)…
| 30/04/2019
The 17th Polish Film Festival Kinoteka in London, featuring a selection of over forty different works, has served as a fitting example of positive direction within the issue of gender inequality in Polish cinema. The festival started and ended celebrating the success of Polish prominent men (opening with Another Day of Life, an homage to renowned Polish corresponder Ryszard Kapuscinski, and finishing with a gala celebrating…
| 19/04/2019
CEEL contributor Alison Miller met Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi just before the screening of his latest film, Ether (2018), at the 17th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival in London. A.M.: How did you direct your actors to portray ideas as well as come across as real people? K.Z.:The most important thing is always the cast – when the…
| 17/04/2019
CEEL contributor Alison Miller met Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi before the screening of his latest film, Ether (2018), at the 17th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival in London. Alison Miller: What I found fascinating about Ether was the way the philosophical questions were posed along-side a powerful historical drama – emotion was infused from one scene to the…
| 16/04/2019
In 2018, the Prague National Gallery held a retrospective to commemorate the 50thAnniversary of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. Jiří Kolář: Grimace of the Century concentrated on a selection of Kolář’s artworks connected with his poetry. According to Milena Kalinovská, Director of the modern and contemporary art collection, ‘this illuminated the unorthodox way in which he formulated…
| 13/04/2019
The BCSA’s 2019 writing competition is now under way, so do have a go yourself or encourage someone else to enter. 1989 – 2019 is of course the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. So ‘1989’ is the suggested optional theme. You can interpret ‘1989’ as you wish: before and/after, causes and/or effects, then and…
| 10/04/2019
Ninotchka play a wide mix of Irish, Gypsy, Klezmer and East European folk music, but the duo comes from Midsomer Norton in Somerset. Violinist Nik does have a Hungarian grandma, though. The group’s name means ‘Little Nina’ in Russian and refers to Nik’s late violin teacher. With Nik on violin and vocals and Syd on…
| 09/04/2019