Big Culture Issue This week, CER offers up a bumper crop of articles dealing with Central and East European culture, including composers Janáček and Tüür, poet Eminescu and a special on film director Sokurov.
M U S I C: Janáček from All Angles Zuzana Slobodová Recent academic debate on Leoš Janáček has been full of effusive praise for the now fashionable Czech composer. In the frenzy to pay homage to his genius, not everybody has come to terms with his extreme misogyny.	M U S I C: Purveyors of Prog Mel Huang The experimental and groundbreaking Estonian rock group Ruja managed to gain massive public devotion, while producing some of the best examples of progressive rock.

M U S I C: The Visionary of Hiiumaa Mel Huang Estonians often refer to the island of Hiiumaa as a national paradise for its rural and quiet atmosphere. Hiiumaa-born Erkki-Sven Tüür has managed to bring his vision from the small island to the world.
N E W ! CER BOOK REVIEW ARCHIVE A list of all our past book reviews and links to them.	P O E T R Y: 2000: Year of Eminescu Catherine Lovatt The year 2000 has been crowned a year in memory of the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu. A national figurehead, his poetry has been passed down through generations, epitomising the essence of the Romanian consciousness.

Kinoeye Focus: Aleksandr Sokurov Popularly considered to be the heir to the late Andrei Tarkovsky's film mantle, Sokurov has been, since the international commercial release of Mat' i syn, the most talked about Russian film director. All the more so since his films are dense, complex and even frustrating works which refuse to be pinned down to a singular meaning.

K I N O E Y E: The Elusive Hitler Aleksandr Sokurov's Moloch Benjamin Halligan Sokurov's most recent film depicts a day in the life of Adolf Hitler as he relaxes at his Alpine retreat, Berchtesgaden. Controversially, war and even evil seem to be totally remote in Moloch as Sokurov presents an even more disturbing image of Fascism. K I N O E Y E: Angels or UFOs? Aleksandr Sokurov's Dni zatmeniia Andrew J Horton Based on a science-fiction novel, Dni zatmeniia is replete with unexplained events and ambiguous images. Do they add up to make the film a religious one or a political one, though?

K I N O E Y E: Staring into the Soul Sokurov's Povinnost' Donato Totaro Sokurov's four-and-a-half hour existentialist maritime epic makes use of the "stare," almost a trademark feature of Sokurov, to bring about a trance-like state of altered awareness in the viewer. K I N O E Y E: Sokurov Online CER Staff Where to buy Mat' i syn online, read Nick Cave's eulogy to Sokurov or just generally find out more about the director. THE KINOEYE ARCHIVE Resources on Central and East European cinema.

H E R I T A G E:
The Upside of Top-down
Andreas Beckmann
Few people west of the former Iron Curtain are aware that besides appalling environmental and cultural devastation, the former Communist regimes in Central Europe also left behind some remarkable treasures of natural and cultural heritage.

S L O V A K I A:
Reshuffling the Deck
Michael J Kopanic, Jr
Slovakia's Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda has been toying with the idea of a new party since this past summer. A series of secret meetings led to rumors that something was afoot, and on 17 January 2000, Dzurinda formally announced his intention to establish the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU).

RUSSIA: Economic Evasion: Part 3 Piotr Przychodzki and Andrei Markine The third part of our in-depth analysis of the legal procedures that have paved the way for chronic debt-dodging in Russia's corporate sector, resulting in massive capital flight.

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Books and Literature

B O O K   R E V I E W:
Orwell He Ain't
Seán Hanley
Despite Timothy Garton Ash's charm, erudition and undoubted skill as a writer and observer, A History of the Present comes across less as a biting critical defence of democratic values than as a slightly complacent affirmation that the established political and cultural elites are, or at least are close to, doing things right.

S U P P L E M E N T:
The CER Book Shop:
Books about Central and Eastern Europe
Have a look at CER's list of books on the region - all available from Amazon.com. The updated list is spread across several pages and contains many new offerings.

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