Screen and Stage
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Romania: ‘Self-flagellation cinema’ rakes it in
19 February 2013137 Adevărul Bucharest -
Cinema: ‘Nazif Mujić returns to Sarajevo with two Silver Bears’
18 February 201329PresseuropOslobođenje -
Movie piracy: Jolly Roger flies over film industry
8 February 201328 3PresseuropDie Zeit -
Poland: ‘Death of the president’
25 January 201352 7PresseuropPolska The Times -
Poland: War film triggers examination of conscience
20 November 201256 34PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza, Uważam Rze -
Belgium: Hollywood on the North Sea
12 October 201267 1 De Standaard Brussels -
Netherlands: The East’s “strawberry pickers” make the stage
14 September 2012115 4 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Film: Portugal — action and... cuts!
25 July 201275 2 Libération Paris -
Eurovision 2012: Baku intent on buying respectability
25 May 201280 20 Eesti Päevaleht Tallinn -
Germany: Enough “politically correct” films!
11 May 201297 2 Die Zeit Hamburg -
Bosnia-Herzegovina: “In the Land of Blood and Honey” - soothing for elites and victims
28 February 2012126 7 Oslobođenje Sarajevo -
Theatre: A play about Breivik is essential for our time
27 January 201247 3 Politiken Copenhagen -
Cinema: The secret of Denmark’s success
20 January 2012299 1 Público Lisbon -
Cinema: “Play” — a film that upends racist clichés
10 January 2012296 1 Aftonbladet Stockholm -
Cinema: Estonia’s signature melancholy
19 September 201163 Postimees Tallinn -
Greece: Shattered films from a shattered country
2 September 2011170 1 The Guardian London -
Music: The opera Belgium can’t see
29 August 2011267 3 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Poland: Hollywood beckons for Polish producers
22 August 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Theatre: New talent comes from the East
27 May 201171 Polityka Warsaw -
Cinéma: Ingmar Bergman switched at birth
26 May 2011PresseuropDagens Nyheter -
Cannes film festival: Lars von Trier steps over the line
20 May 20113PresseuropBerlingske Tidende -
Culture: Scenario darkens for European cinema
8 March 201190 El País Madrid -
Cinema: Russian intrigue at the Berlinale
10 February 2011141 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
United Kingdom: The King’s Speech – a national fairy tale
21 January 2011145 The Guardian London -
Italy: Monicelli's dramatic last scene
30 November 2010PresseuropLa Stampa -
Cinema: Claude Chabrol, France's dark looking-glass
13 September 2010PresseuropLibération -
Comedy: Funny foreigners
20 August 201022 The Guardian London -
Cinema: Crossing cultures in Romania’s border zone
9 August 201025PresseuropEvenimentul zilei -
Cinema: Europe sweet-talks Hollywood
9 August 201047 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Theatre: Eight Gypsies and a play by Lorca
9 July 201083 El Correo Bilbao -
A town in Europe: Oberammergau, a passion for the Passion
2 June 201040 Die Zeit Hamburg -
Cinema: Afghanistan documentary rocks Denmark
18 May 2010PresseuropJyllands-Posten -
Cannes 2010: Rome snubs film festival
10 May 2010PresseuropCorriere della Sera -
Cinema: A Prophet, language is power
1 March 2010151 2 The Guardian London -
European of the Week: Agata Buzek, not just daddy's girl?
19 February 2010Polska The Times Warsaw -
Cinema: Bread and circuses at the Berlinale
11 February 2010PresseuropDer Tagesspiegel -
Belgium: Turkish cinema bigger than Hollywood
10 February 201013 De Standaard Brussels -
Trends: Better than Avatar, live big-screen opera
27 January 2010Svenska Dagbladet Stockholm -
European of the Week: Eric Cantona : striker universalis
26 January 201051 Le Monde Paris -
Cinema: Nuremberg Trials finally on screen
11 November 2009PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Cinema: Prague to boost European films
20 October 2009PresseuropLidové noviny -
Comedy: Yes, we kann
11 September 2009Cafebabel.com Paris -
Documentary: Filming the forgotten frontier
4 September 2009Cafebabel.com Paris -
Romania: For the love of Dacia
28 August 2009PresseuropCotidianul -
Germany: Making a drama out of the crisis
27 August 200925 1 Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Animation film : Putting Belgium back together again
22 July 2009PresseuropLe Soir -
The Stage: All the world's a train station
22 July 2009Die Zeit Hamburg -
Obituary: Pina Bausch, the final curtain
1 July 2009PresseuropFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -
Cinema: Austrians find Bruno hard to swallow
22 June 2009Die Presse Vienna -
Cinema: Machiavellian environmentalism
10 June 2009446PresseuropNeue Zürcher Zeitung
After Cannes, it was the turn of the Berlin Film Festival to honour a film from the Romanian New Wave, from a generation of filmmakers who have been ignored, and from a country without cinemas. Like “Beyond the Hills” by Cristian Mungiu, “Child's Pose” by Călin Peter Netzer expresses the “suffering and despair of Romanian life,” says a sociologist. 
With its well-preserved natural landscapes, tax breaks and competent technician, Belgium over the last few years has become the location of choice for European film makers. 
Through a theatre performance about Eastern European migrants, a theatre maker in the southern Netherlands town of Zundert, with some 3,000 Eastern European labour migrants, hopes to bridge the divide between local inhabitants and the immigrants. 
The young guard of Portuguese filmmakers has been making impact at international festivals. However, in their home country the crisis has led to a drastic reduction in state investment in culture which has put many small producers in an extremely difficult position. 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku. 
Reactions to the film Barbara show that 'feel-good' films worry German film producers. The director, Dominik Graf, implores filmmakers to dare to challenge the highbrow cinema strangehold. 
Given a triumphant welcome in Bosnia – and very criticised in Serbia – Angelina Jolie's film nonetheless maintains the victimisation promoted by a part of the Bosnian political, cultural and religious elite, regrets Croatian writer, Boris Dežulović. 
Can the radical manifesto of the killer of Oslo and Utøya really be staged? A theatre project in Copenhagen has raised strong protests in Norway and Denmark. But hearing the words of Breivik’s Manifesto 2083 is vital for understanding our times, responds its director, Christian Lollike. 
At a time when the drive for austerity has led most countries to cut back on cultural budgets, the Danish film industry remains one of the most successful in Europe thanks to a pro-active policy of grants and support for young film makers. 
Is this a racist movie? Ruben Östlund’s latest film — a story of poor black and middle class white children which deliberate plays on the audience’s prejudices — has sparked controversy in Sweden. 
Since independence, Estonian film makers appear to be incapable of producing anything other than films where melancholy plays the leading role, remarks Postimees, which argues that a certain dolefulness has become the hallmark of culture made in Estonia. 
Are the brilliantly strange films of Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari a product of Greece's economic turmoil? And will they continue to make films in this troubled country? 
The opera, The Mute Girl of Portici, has been a symbol of Belgian unity since 1830. But to see it staged today, you have to go to Paris, because in Brussels it could arouse political controversy. 
Europe has lost six great names in the performing arts, but their succession is assured by a new generation of directors, most of whom hail from Central and Eastern Europe. 
Seven Oscars and eight Palmes d'Or in 10 years: the results of the MEDIA programme that has subsidised film production in Europe are largely positive. But now the funding is on the chopping block – to the dismay of filmmakers, who have started a petition. 
A film by a German director about the Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky was to premiere at the Berlinale. But it’s been stolen – and the director is afraid. 
Hotly tipped for the Oscars, the newly released film confirms that World War 2 is now creation myth number one for Britons - and the Queen their only living connection to it. 
Heard the one about the German, the Italian and the Norwegian? They are all reinventing comedy in English by playing on nuances in their own languages 
For years, European film boards have been competing with offers of tax breaks and subsidies to lure major US film producers to their studios. France is the latest country to adopt such a strategy, but it still lacks the appropriate infrastructure. 
Take eight illiterate gitanas to perform a play by the great Spanish poet. The point of this experiment in Seville is to take at least the barb of artistic exclusion out of social segregation: a subject of debate for the European Encounters series at the Avignon Summer Festival. 
For nearly four centuries, the inhabitants of this Bavarian village have performed a Passion Play every ten years to ward off the danger of the plague: a highly colourful event, which attracts tourists from all over the world. 
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet has swept the board at France’s Césars, and looks set to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. One of its lessons is that in a fast-paced globalised world, the future belongs to those who can master two, or even three, languages. 
Voted one of the year’s ten best European actors at the Berlinale, the Polish film actress is chalking up one high-profile part after another – in life as on the silver screen. Agata, daughter of European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek, is making a first name for herself.
While too unrefined and exotic for the Flemish, and sometimes shown without subtitles, Turkish movies often draw bigger crowds in Belgium than even American or homegrown productions, thanks to a limited but avid audience. A report from De Standaard. 
In the wake of a successful initiative by the New York Metropolitan Opera, national opera companies are increasingly relaying live performances to cinemas across Europe. Svenska Dagbladet waxes lyrical about the new technique which will boost accessibility to high culture.
Having played himself in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, the former star of Manchester United is now preparing to take on a leading role in a major Parisian theatre production. Le Monde presents a portrait of a legendary footballer who has found a new career as a sensitive and committed artist. 
Comic characters like Bruno, Germany's Horst Schlämmer, and France's President of Groland, are increasingly blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. This is doubly true now that Horst Schlämmer, AKA Hape Kerkerling threatened to run in the upcoming German elections. A cafebabel.com report. 
Café Babel interviews Berlin-based French students Simon Brunel and Nicolas Pannetier, directors of The Inner Border, a documentary that travels along the former Iron Curtain in search of those whose lives were shaped by the now defunct and once forbidding boundary line. 
If there is one sector that is going strong in Germany and Austria in these days of dearth and doldrums, it is the theatre. The crisis furnishes a wealth of material for stage portrayals of human foibles and troubles in the grip of global capitalism. 
For 80 days, German, Turkish, Romanian, Croatian, Serb and Slovenian actors have been criss-crossing Europe on a train transmogrified into a theatre-on-wheels. The object of this project launched by the Stuttgart National Theatre is "to foster understanding between nations". Easier said than done, says a journalist from Die Zeit, who boarded the train for the stretch from Istanbul to Bucharest. 
After Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen is back as Bruno, the notoriously camp Austrian fashion journalist. The marketing campaign for his latest mockumentary is in full swing, but Austrians are less than amused by the negative national image the film conveys.