Rolands Kalniņš: riding the Baltic New Wave with “Latvia’s Godard”
For this episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal. Today, host Sam Goff reads an essay about the work of one of Baltic cinema’s great innovators, Rolands Kalniņš, aka the Latvian Godard, whose playfully political films staged a colourful protest against Soviet occupation. This piece was written by friend of the show Joshua Polanski, a critic specialising in Baltic film who listeners may remember from our episode in season three about Jonas Mekas.
Read the original piece here and read more from Joshua on Baltic film on his site. And make sure to explore Klassiki’s collection of titles from the Baltic states. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
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The Klassiki Kino Club: István Szabó’s Confidence
This week we’re trying something new on the pod: the first edition of the Klassiki Kino Club. We wanted to find a way of championing our ever-growing library of films with our listeners. So we asked a friend of the show to pick a title available on Klassiki that they had never seen before to watch for the first time – and then to jump on a call to offer their reactions and reflections.
Joining us today is Alisa Goruleva, a Russian film critic and researcher based in Berlin who’s recently been writing some wonderful pieces for the Klassiki Journal. Her choice of film was Confidence (1980) by Hungary’s István Szabó. Alisa and host Sam Goff get into the film’s take on gendered power dynamics and its depiction of a world at war.
Watch along with us on Klassiki now! Make sure to check out Alisa’s writing over on the Klassiki Journal, and leave us a review to let us know which films you’d like us to tackle next in the Kino Club.
Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
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Romania before the New Wave
The cinema of communist Romania rarely gets a look in compared with the 21st-century New Wave of Cristi Puiu, Radu Jude, and co. At Klassiki we’ve just launched a new collection of classic Romanian titles from the 1960s and '70s that tries to redress the balance. From wartime epics to New Wave romance and subversive satire, these films reveal a different side of Romanian film and set the scene for contemporary favourites.
This week, host Sam Goff sits down with critic and programmer Flavia Dima to discuss this history and talk in depth about the four titles in our new collection.
Watch these Romanian classics on Klassiki now and read Flavia’s writing on the period here. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
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From Rossellini to Dracula: Radu Jude in Transylvania
Welcome back! We’ve made it to season four of the Klassiki Podcast. We’re kicking off with a return guest: one of our very favourite filmmakers, Radu Jude. After the success of last year’s gig-economy satire Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Radu is back in 2025 with not one but two new films: Kontinental ‘25, an homage to Roberto Rossellini’s classic morality tale Europa ‘51, and what promises to be an unmissable take on the Dracula legend – watch out for that one arriving soon.
Host Sam Goff sat down with Radu to discuss Transylvania, fascism, vampires, and TikTok. Listen to our previous episode with Radu here – and check out a selection of his brilliant shorts on Klassiki now.
Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
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Eastern European film past, present, and future
We’ve reached the end of the third season of the show! Thank you to everyone who’s listened along so far. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a five-star review or a comment on your podcast app of choice. We’ll be back soon with more great shows – subscribe now so you don’t miss a thing.
At the end of April, we’ll be running our third annual partnership with the goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. To preview this exciting season, host Sam Goff sits down with Heleen Gerritsen, who is stepping down in 2025 as director of the festival after eight years at the helm.
Heleen has been at the forefront of curating Eastern European film during a turbulent and tragic period for the region. She shares her perspectives on how to engage with the new realities facing filmmakers and film lovers, highlights goEast’s retrospective of the Indigenous filmmaker Anastasia Lapsui, and selects some of her favourite discoveries from her time at the festival.
Klassiki’s partnership with goEast runs from 24 April - 22 May. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
Delve into the wide world of Eastern European film with the Klassiki Podcast. Featuring interviews, roundtable discussions, recorded essays, and more, we take you beyond the headlines to explore the past, present, and future of this fascinating region. Sign up to Klassiki today to gain access to our ever-evolving library of classic and contemporary titles, as well as filmmaker interviews, video essays and introductions, programme notes, and much more.
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