The Klassiki Podcast

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: [email protected].

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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: [email protected].

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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: [email protected].

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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: [email protected].

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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: [email protected].

Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.