This year’s Eastern Promises will reflect the current intense social changes and offer fresh perspectives on the past, giving it new meanings. Apart from that, we will also explore the mysteries of love and its less or more traditional concepts. Among the fifteen titles are five renowned filmmakers, including Agnieszka Holland, Radu Jude or Małgorzata Szumowska, and, in addition to these established names, another ten promising male and female directors from all around the former Eastern Bloc (Hungary, Bulgaria or Kazakhstan).

For the first time ever, we will visit Belarus to take a look at its totalitarian reality through the satirical drama Processes made by audacious opposition authors. The dismal present, dominated by the dictates of corporations and social networks, is playfully glossed in the Romanian fittingly-titled film Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. The Serbian reflection of the consequences of rapid capitalism, Working Class Goes to Hell, also makes mocking statements about the current reality.

The Polish films offering insights into the past Scarborn and White Courage. Scarborn employs the historical figure of general Kościuszko to make unexpected genre transitions or to comment on contemporary Polish-Russian relationships. White Courage looks into the harsh local history while tackling universal issues, such as the fight between good and evil or between two men over one woman.

Matters of the heart are also dealt with in the craftily revived classic Woman of…, which shows that real love can overcome even great challenges, such as the gender transition of one of the partners.