R U R A L   P O L A N D:
Ready for the Chop

Poland's antiquated and inefficient farming sector urgently needs a drastic overhaul. If restructuring succeeds, however, an employment crisis will be hard to avoid. Not surprisingly, the political consensus necessary to implement such a delicate plan is nowhere in sight.

Rudolf Hermann

C Z E C H   F U D G E:
Nothing but Nation

The rhetoric of "national interests" is heard ever more frequently in the Czech Republic, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the major political parties do not consider rapid EU entry to be in the national interest.

Pavel Tychtl

Theme of the Week The Political Spectrum

LEFT  AND  RIGHT: The Failure of Pure Democracy Catherine Lovatt The Romanian political spectrum spans far beyond right and left, and the extremes of that diversity are crippling democracy.

RIGHT  AND  LEFT: Three Vaclavs Andrew Stroehlein In Czech political thinking, left, right and centre are not nearly as important as Vaclav, Vaclav and Vaclav.

Kinoeye This week, Kinoeye's coverage of the 34th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival focuses on two films in a genre dear to Czech hearts - the light comedy.

KARLOVY VARY: Summer of Discontent: Jan Hrebejk's Pelisky Andrew J Horton Although Pelisky is a socio-historical analysis of the end of the Prague Spring in 1968, it also works as a humorous portrait of how acutely embarrassing parents can be.	KARLOVY VARY: Catching in the Rye: Roman Vavra's Co chytnes v zite Andrew J Horton Documentarist Roman Vavra's 1998 feature debut, Co chytnes v zite was well-received but is more modest and less adventurous than Pelisky.
THE KINOEYE ARCHIVE Resources on Central and East European cinema. Over 80 new links added this week.

P R O S E:
A Lovely Tale of Photography

Last month, the ever-unpredictable Prague-based publisher, Twisted Spoon Press, again threw a tasty morsel to English-speaking fans of Central European literature with yet another addition to its Contemporary Writing in Central Europe Series - the unique "film novella" A Lovely Tale of Photography from Hungarian writer Petr Nadas. This week, CER brings you an excerpt from this hallucinatory piece of prose-poetry.

Petr Nadas

N E W   G E N E R A T I O N:
Confronting Jewishness
Part 3 - Tradition and normality

Jewish identity for those in Central Europe who are grandchildren of the survivors of the Second World War has long been rumoured to be a largely unconscious affair, if not completely extinct. In post-war Central Europe, identity was torn between the twin temptations of assimilation and emigration. However, a group of young intellectuals from this "third generation" after the Holocaust are currently challenging this view. In this, the final part of this series, we will look at how these authors view the concepts of tradition and normality.