Also included in this section is Kusturica's compatriot Goran Paskaljevic, with his film Powder Keg , Jerzy Hoffman's Polish nationalist epic By Fire and Sword , and Moloch , the latest work from perhaps the most important contemporary director in the region, Alexandr Sokurov. Sokurov, as well as wowing critics, became popular with audiences with his last film, Mother and Son . All eyes will be watching to see if he can consolidate on this cult hit, admired by the likes of Nick Cave and Martin Scorsese. Independent cinema isn't so active in former Communist countries, where being able to make a film at all is seen as a miracle - even if one has to conformed to the mainstream. However, six of the section's fourteen films come from Germany.
Czech films have their own section.
Also on show will be The Cow - as homage to director Karel Kachyna. This section of over twenty films stretches across the entire region and includes films from Azerbaidzhan, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Austria. Nothing , by Poland's rising star Dorota Kedzierzawska, will be one to watch, as will quirky new-age director Jan Jakub Kolski's The History of the Cinema in Ashes . Also well worth watching is Outskirts , Peter Lucik's pastiche tribute to Soviet cinema of the 1930s. Alternatively, if you prefer Western cinema, you might be tempted by the collection of Belgian surrealist films or Canadian animated shorts.