Peter Strickland heads back to the East

Last week we launched the latest edition of Klassiki Picks, our series of watchlists curated by our friends in the world of cinema and eastern Europe. In this hot seat this time around is British filmmaker Peter Strickland, director of The Duke of Burgundy, Berberian Sound Studio, and In Fabric, among other weird and wonderful titles. Peter has a special link to the world of Eastern European film: after a number of years living in Slovakia and Hungary, he burst onto the international stage in 2009 with his feature debut, the rape revenge drama Katalin Varga. Shot in Transylvania on a tiny, self-financed budget, the film went on to screen in competition in Berlin and establish Peter as one of British cinema’s most singular talents.

Peter has curated a selection of five titles for Klassiki that reflect his personal and professional history in the region. He joins host Sam Goff on the pod this week to talk about his time living and working in Slovakia and Hungary, and his choice of films, which includes Sergei Parajanov’s classic Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, the children’s animations of Czech trailblazer Hermína Týrlová, Péter Gothár’s cult Hungarian satire The Outpost, and two Slovak films that explore the place of the church in authoritarian regimes: Štefan Uher’s New Wave gem The Organ, and Ivan Ostrochovský’s chilly political parable Servants.

Make sure to explore Peter Strickland’s Klassiki Picks, available to subscribers until 23 April.

Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online.

Listen above or head to your favourite podcast app to subscribe now. The Klassiki Podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Audible, and more.

Intro music by Juliet Merchant.