SSEES 100 film festival to open next week in London

As part of its 100 year anniversary celebrations, University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies will host a centenary film festival, opening on Monday 12 October.

Co-hosted by the British Film Institute, SSEES 100: A Season of Film will showcase the national cinemas of Russia and eastern, central and south-eastern Europe, covering the countries whose languages are taught as part of undergraduate or graduate programmes at SSEES.

Selected across a range of genres and to reflect the diverse cinematic traditions of these countries, 23 films will be screened in total. Each film will be introduced by an academic, who will place the film within its historical, cultural and cinematic context.

The season will kick off with Czech director Gustav Machatý‘s Ecstasy (Extase) (1993) and will go on to feature such films as Ukrainian director Rollan Serhiienko’s White Clouds (Bili Khmary) (1968), which will be screened for the first time with English subtitles, and celebrated film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile) (2007) by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, among others.

The festival will run from 12 October - 17 December. The screenings will take place at UCL’s Bloomsbury Theatre and all films will have English subtitles. Tickets are free of charge but booking is essential.