The Klassiki Podcast

Klassiki

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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20 episodes
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Episodes20

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Today · 39 min
Mark Cousins tells the story of documentary film
Among his many achievements, the Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins is perhaps best known for his sprawling documentaries charting the history of cinema: The Story of Film: An Odyssey, originally released in 2011, and Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, from 2019. Now, Mark is back with a third entry in this pantheon: The Story of Documentary Film. Like its predecessors, it's an epic undertaking, with 16 hour-long chapters running from the 19th century to the present day and ranging all across the globe, examining the political, social, and aesthetic factors that have shaped documentary, with examples ranging from the canonical to the deliciously obscure. This week, host Sam Goff sits down with Mark for a fittingly wide-ranging conversation about how he approaches these long-form odysseys, his personal experiences in Eastern Europe, from visiting Moscow during perestroika to watching films in bomb shelters in Sarajevo, and some of his favourite filmmakers from the region. Explore Klassiki’s collection of documentary titles here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
July 27 · 45 min
The most important art: Ian Christie’s journey through late Soviet cinema
Long time listeners of the show will be familiar with the film historian Ian Christie, who’s joined us to discuss topics ranging from Aleksandr Sokurov to Powell and Pressburger, the Soviet avant-garde to The Saragossa Manuscript. His new book, The Most Important Art: Exploring the Hidden Histories of Russian and Soviet Cinema, collects writings and interviews from decades of pioneering work on subjects ranging from the silent era to contemporary figures like Andrei Zvyagintsev. Ian spent the final years of the Soviet era travelling back and forth to the USSR, witnessing the social and cultural revolution that was unfolding and befriending many of the leading figures in the film industry. This week, host Sam Goff invites Ian back on the pod to reflect on those experiences and to share his memories of encounters with artists like Andrei Tarkovsky, Kira Muratova, Elem Klimov, and many more. The Most Important Art: Exploring the Hidden Histories of Russian and Soviet Cinema is on sale now from Sticking Place Books. Klassiki subscribers can explore a special watchlist featuring many of the films that Ian discusses on this episode here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
July 20 · 41 min
Otar Iosseliani’s fables of modern life
Renowned in his native Georgia as one of the nation’s greatest filmmakers, Otar Iosseliani spent the majority of his career in his adoptive home of France after emigrating in the early eighties. The news that Cinema Guild will be releasing a slate of restorations has occasioned an extensive retrospective in New York, where audiences can acquaint themselves with the director’s bustling long takes, mordant satire, and anarchic sympathy for the drunks, losers, and misfits of both Soviet communism and western capitalism. Otar Iosseliani: Fables of Modern Life opens this week at Asia Society before heading over to Metrograph, and we’re delighted to say that Klassiki will be co-presenting the programme at both venues. This week, host Sam Goff speaks with Edo Choi, Film Programmer at Metrogaph, and Inney Prakash, Curator of Film at Asia Society, about the retrospective and Iosseliani’s unique cinematic sensibility, which bears comparison with directors from Jacques Tati to Jean-Luc Godard, and even the Safdie Brothers. Fables of Modern Life kicks off at Asia Society on 24 and 25 July, then continues at Metrograph from the 8 to the 23 August. Klassiki subscribers can watch a double bill of Iosseliani titles on the site from this Thursday 23: his debut feature Falling Leaves, and the French farce Farewell, Home Sweet Home. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
July 16 · 33 min
BONUS: Golden Apricot festival report
We have a bonus episode for you this week. Host Sam is in Yerevan, Armenia, attending the Golden Apricot International Film Festival – always a highlight of the year for us here at Klassiki. The festival is renowned for its championing of films from the Caucasus and Near East, and for its engagement with the Armenian diaspora. Sam took the opportunity to sit down with Savina Petkova and Flavia Dima –two of our favourite critics (and Klassiki Podcast alumni) – to discuss some of the films they’ve caught so far, including Marlene Edoyan’s A Fire There, Comes Chahbazian’s Here, Elsewhere, and Inna Sahakyan’s Outliving Shakespeare, as well as Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cannes-approved Fatherland, starring Sandra Hüller. You can read a selection of reviews from Golden Apricot’s Critics’ Campus here. We’ll be publishing more from Yerevan on the Journal over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
July 13 · 12 min
Unravelling the twisted crime films of Corneliu Porumboiu
For this episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal for an essay on the Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu. The most elusive of the founding fathers of the Romanian New Wave, Porumboiu’s postmodern comedies play on questions of language and identity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his crime dramas, Police Adjective and The Whistlers, where genre thrills undergo playful revisions to the point of absurdity. As Porumboiu completes work on his first feature in seven years, there’s never been a better time to take a closer look at his deceptively playful films. Read the original piece here and watch Porumboiu’s gangster film The Whistlers on Klassiki for the next month, until 13 August only. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
July 6 · 41 min
The Klassiki Kino Club: Tough Kids
We’re a few weeks into season seven, so it’s about time to open up the Kino Club, our watch-along exploration of the Klassiki catalogue. For this edition, I spoke with one of our favourite critics, Botagoz Koilybayeva, who’s written for the Klassiki Journal among many other outlets. As always, we asked Botagoz to pick a film from our library that she hadn't seen before, watch it, then jump on a call to discuss. Her pick was Tough Kids, the 1983 social drama about teen delinquency and redemption by the sorely underrated Soviet director Dinara Asanova. Botagoz and host Sam Goff get into Asanova’s tragically short career and her controversial working methods, as well as the social and emotional undercurrents of her filmography. Watch along with us on Klassiki now! And make sure to check out Botagoz’s writing on Ali Khamraev and the politics of contemporary Kazakh film. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
June 29 · 52 min
Beyond Mr Nobody: documentary under Putin
Russian documentary has been in the limelight following the Oscar win for Mr Nobody Against Putin earlier this year. The film consists of footage covertly shot by videographer Pasha Talankin inside the school where he worked, capturing how the militarisation of the modern Russian state makes itself felt in the classroom. Mr Nobody raises important questions about the ethical and logistical challenges of non-fiction filmmaking in wartime Russia – but its profile risks overshadowing a rich documentary tradition. In their new edited volume The New Russian Documentary: Reclaiming Reality in the Age of Authoritarianism, scholars Masha Shpolberg (Bard College) and Anastasia Kostina (Columbia) argue that in the face of growing repression, the 21st century has actually seen a boom in Russian non-fiction cinema: from new film schools and festivals to formal experimentation and theoretical debates, inspired by a desire for objectivity in the face of media manipulation from an increasingly coercive regime. This week, host Sam Goff welcomes Masha and Anastasia onto the pod to discuss the history and the role of documentary film in Putin’s Russia. Check out Masha’s and Anastasia’s book here. Explore our collection of contemporary Russian documentaries here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
June 22 · 50 min
Boris Barnet: poet of the outskirts
Last week saw the 124th anniversary of Boris Barnet, one of the most influential filmmakers of the Soviet Union. In Europe, Barnet’s lyrical and humanistic cinema has long been canonised – but in the English-speaking world, he was until recently a more acquired taste. That’s changed in recent years: there have been major retrospectives in Chicago and New York, and our friends at Outskirts Magazine (which is named after one of Barnet’s most beloved pictures) published a fantastic dossier on his work in their first issue. To understand this shift, this week host Sam Goff speaks with Boris Nelepo, who listeners might remember from our episode last year on Marlen Khutsiev. Boris is a programmer and critic from Moscow now based in Lisbon, where he is Co-Head of programming at the DocLisboa International Film Festival. Sam and Boris take on the long, difficult sweep of Barnet’s career, which stretched from silent comedies to wartime thrillers and sixties road movies, touching on the utopian spirit of his films and the loneliness that contributed to his tragic early death from suicide in 1965. Watch Boris Barnet’s films Girl with a Hatbox and Outskirts on Klassiki now. Read Boris Nelepo’s writing on Barnet here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
June 15 · 38 min
Valeska Grisebach returns with The Dreamed Adventure
Welcome back to season seven of the Klassiki Podcast! We’ve got ten more episodes coming up for you on the past and present of eastern European film, including some reporting from the summer festival circuit and a very exciting screening series coming up for our American friends. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss an episode. One of the highlights of last month’s Cannes festival was the long-awaited return of German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach, who took home the Jury Prize for The Dreamed Adventure, which arrives nine years after her previous feature Western. The Dreamed Adventure sees the director return to Bulgaria, Grisebach crafting a brilliant subversion of her genre influences with the story of Veska, a female archaeologist who gets tangled in the criminal underworld of her small border town. Host Sam Goff sits down with Valeska Grisebach to discuss her attachment to Bulgaria, her understanding of gender and genre, and the incredible real life stories that informed her unique take on the gangster film. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
April 20 · 14 min
The moral maze of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog
We’ve reached the end of season six. Thank you to all our subscribers and listeners old and new. We’ll be back in the summer – but in the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and please leave us a review and a five-star rating. Thank you! For this final episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal for an essay on one of the masterpieces of Polish cinema: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s monumental Dekalog. Ten hour-long films inspired by the Ten Commandments, all set in the same Warsaw tower block complex, this intimate epic of everyday life arrived at the end of the communist era and asked penetrating questions about the spiritual and material direction of Polish society as transformation loomed. Read the original piece here and watch Kieślowski’s Dekalog spin-off feature A Short Film about Love on Klassiki now. Find out more about Poland in the eighties with our companion piece and explore Kieślowski’s career here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
April 13 · 34 min
Artavazd Pelechian: poetry at a distance
This week, cinema audiences in London are getting the rare chance to see a selection of films by the great Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Pelechian as part of the Open City Documentary Festival. Pelechian’s work, described by Serge Daney as “a missing link in the true history of the cinema”, cuts across documentary, fiction, and essay film, exploring national and natural history, socialist labour, biblical symbolism, and technological progress and catastrophe. The Pelechian programme at Open City has been put together by an old friend of Klassiki: Sona Karapoghosyan, a program curator at Yerevan’s Golden Apricot Film Festival. So this week, host Sam Goff asked Sona to join him in introducing the poetic world of Pelechian’s films. Interstitial Cinema: the films of Artavazd Pelechian, screens over two consecutive nights this week at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London: Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th. Find all the information you need, book tickets, and read an essay by Sona here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
April 6 · 41 min
The Klassiki Kino Club: Getting to Know the Big Wide World
It’s been a while since we opened up the Kino Club, our watch-along exploration of Klassiki’s ever-expanding catalogue. We’re putting that right this week with a brand new guest: critic, programmer, and teacher Savina Petkova. As always, we asked Savina to pick a film from our library that she hadn't seen before, watch it, then jump on a call to discuss. Her pick was Getting to Know the Big Wide World, the 1978 construction site romance by the inimitable Kira Muratova. Savina and host Sam Goff find plenty to admire in Muratova’s unique approach to love triangles, cinematic mirrors, and the beauty of the building site. Watch along with us on Klassiki now! Subscribers can also check out Muratova’s early films Brief Encounters and The Long Farewell on the site. You can find more from Savina here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
March 30 · 43 min
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 Katalin Varga, shot in Transylvania on a tiny, self-financed budget. Peter has curated a selection of five titles for Klassiki that reflect his personal and professional history in the region. He sits down with host Sam Goff to talk about his time living and working in Slovakia and Hungary, and his picks, which include Sergei Parajanov’s 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’s Klassiki Picks, available to subscribers until 23 April. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
March 23 · 53 min
The Czechoslovak New Wave and beyond
When it comes to Central and Eastern European film, few movements loom larger than the Czechoslovak New Wave. Emerging in a period of political liberalisation and protest, the New Wave produced formally and politically audacious films before the so-called Prague Spring was crushed by a Soviet invasion in 1968. 2026 marks 60 years since the release of canonical films like Věra Chytilová’s Daisies, Jiří Menzel’s Closely Observed Trains, and Jan Němec’s A Report on the Party and Guests. But what exactly does the New Wave mean after all this time? Which names get left out of the conversation? What happened after the Prague Spring? And what about the often overlooked Slovak aspect of this Czechoslovak phenomenon? To try and answer some of these questions, this week host Sam Goff speaks with Prague-based writer and programmer Christopher Small, co-founder and co-editor of the wonderful Outskirts Film Magazine, and an editor and writer for the Locarno Film Festival. Make sure to check out Outskirts Film Magazine and Podcast. Explore Klassiki’s collection of Czech and Slovak titles here. Over on the Journal, we’ve got you covered for more writing on the New Wave, Věra Chytilová, Ester Krumbachová, and Juraj Herz. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
March 16 · 32 min
To dance is to resist: queer life in wartime Ukraine
This week sees the return of one of the highlights of London’s cinematic calendar: BFI Flare, the largest LGBTQ+ film festival in Europe. One of the world premieres this year is To Dance is to Resist, a new documentary from German filmmaker and musician Julian Lautenbacher. Julian has spent five years travelling to Ukraine to document the personal and professional lives of Jay and Vol’demar, dancers in Kyiv’s vibrant underground queer club scene. His film captures a couple and a community finding their way through wartime hardship, juxtaposing striking scenes of dance performance with domestic portraits and visions of a capital city under attack. Ahead of the festival, host Sam Goff spoke with Julian about his experiences working in Kyiv, the idea of dance culture as a form of resistance during invasion, and the cultural connections and contrasts between Germany and Ukraine. Get tickets for screenings of To Dance is to Resist on 28 and 29 March here. BFI Flare runs from 18-29 March. Explore the festival programme here. Explore Klassiki’s queer film collection here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
March 9 · 40 min
Building film culture in Uzbekistan
For many cinephiles, the Central Asian states remain something of a blind spot. A case in point is Uzbekistan, whose film industry stretches back to the silent era, but which rarely comes on our radar in the Anglophone world. To provide some insight into what it’s like to do the work in this part of the world, this week host Sam Goff speaks with Julia Shaginurova. Julia, together with her partner Michael Borodin, is at the heart of efforts to build an independent film culture in Uzbekistan. She’s a producer, writer, and advocate and a co-founder of the Tashkent Film School. She also helps to run Women Watch Uzbekistan, a programme to encourage female filmmakers in the country. Julia tells us about the challenges and opportunities for independent filmmakers and audiences in Uzbekistan, from funding to censorship and more, as well as the situation in Central Asia more broadly. Find out more about the Tashkent Film School here. Watch Michael Borodin’s film Convenience Store on Klassiki now and read our interview with the director here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
March 2 · 46 min
100 years of Andrzej Wajda
This week sees the one hundredth birthday of Andrzej Wajda, the grand old man of Polish cinema. Until 26 March, Klassiki subscribers can watch Wajda’s epochal double header Man of Marble and Man of Iron, about the history of worker resistance in communist Poland, alongside two of his great literary adaptations: Siberian Lady Macbeth and The Promised Land. With a career running from the 1950s until the 2010s, it can be hard to know where to start with Wajda – but one thread running throughout his filmography is an exploration of Poland’s troubled modern history: from the 19th century through the trauma of the war and the communist era that followed. To dig a little deeper into Andrzej Wajda’s history lessons, host Sam Goff is joined once again by Owen Hatherley – Eastern European architecture expert and Polish film and history aficionado – to discuss some of Wajda’s recurring themes and the highs (and lows) of his national history on film. Watch our two-part Wajda tribute: Men of History and Literature on Film. Read our essay on Wajda’s career and check out a watchlist of his films on the Klassiki Journal. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
February 23 · 16 min
Roman Bondarchuk’s Ukrainian badlands
For this episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal for a profile of the Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk, whose deadpan, absurdist comedies cut through the myth-making around his country by investigating the “no man’s land” of his native Kherson region. Bondarchuk’s recent feature The Editorial Office was completed during the full-scale invasion by Russia and speaks with particular clarity to the challenges that Ukraine was facing before the war and will face after it. Read the original piece here and watch Bondarchuk’s 2018 comedy Volcano on Klassiki now. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
February 16 · 40 min
Sergei Parajanov in love and war
Welcome to season six of the Klassiki Podcast! We’re kicking things off by celebrating one of our favourites: Sergei Parajanov. Our new collection Perspectives on Parajanov, available now for subscribers, features the great man’s final two features, The Legend of Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib. We’re presenting the films alongside Zara Jian’s revelatory documentary, I Will Revenge this World with Love – S. Paradjanov (2024). Against the backdrop of the war on Ukraine and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, Zara’s film explores the example of artistic and political courage that Parajanov set for the modern world. To kick off the season, Zara Jian joins host Sam Goff to discuss the eternal appeal of Parajanov, where his cosmopolitan work sits in a nationalist world, and her personal response to his late-career masterpieces. Watch I Will Revenge this World with Love - S. Paradjanov on Klassiki until 12 March as part of our collection Perspectives on Parajanov. Listen to our episode on Parajanov’s centenary here. Read Daniel Bird’s take on Parajanov’s groundbreaking short Hakob Hovnatanyan here. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.
Dec 15, 2025 · 16 min
Rewriting history in Aleksandr Askoldov’s Commissar
We’ve reached the end of season 5! Thank you to everyone for listening along. We’ll be back in 2026, but for now, happy holidays and speak to you soon. To close out the season, we’re returning to the ever-expanding archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal and an essay on one of the great lost talents of the Soviet studio system. Aleksandr Askoldov only completed one feature film in his career, 1967’s excoriating anti-war drama Commissar, before falling foul of the censors and disappearing into obscurity. But the film remains a landmark for its deconstruction of Soviet mythology and its treatment of the USSR’s Jewish population. Klassiki favourite, writer and researcher Alisa Goruleva explores how Askoldov ended up on the wrong side of the censors but the right side of history. Read the original piece here and watch Commissar on Klassiki now. Get in touch: podcast@klassiki.online Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.