Tickets are now sale for the Samizdat: Eastern European Film Festival. This showcase of radical and incendiary works of cinema runs from 1-5 October at various venues in Glasgow, with a pop-up screening at Summerhall in Edinburgh on 19 October. Virtual screenings and intros will be available through online streaming partner Klassiki.

This year’s event features a variety of features and shorts from over 90 years of film across numerous genres, with a special emphasis on female filmmakers, unearthed surrealist, and horror cinema.

Highlights include a programme of Animations of the late Eastern Bloc (1980-1997) on the opening night; a special screening of The Hourglass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod klepsydrą ,1973), a surreal Alice-in-Wonderland tale by renowned Polish director Wojciech Jerzy Has; Grigori Kromanov’s sci-fi noir Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (Hukkunud Alpinisti hotell,1979); and Juraj Herz’s quietly horrific Czech New Wave classic, The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol, 1969), one of the finest examples of the banality of evil ever put to film.

Elsewhere there are screenings of Nutsa Gogoberidze‘s Cheerless (Uzhmuri, 1934), and Tonya Noyabrova’s Do You Love Me? (Ти мене любиш? 2023), and Oksana Karpovych’s documentary Intercepted (Мирнi Люди, 2024), both part of the now yearly strand of Ukranian films. These are just some of the features that will be running across the festival’s duration.

Samizdat Film Festival Horror Strand Curator and Festival Director Harriet Idle has said: ‘I think that this year’s programme is truly special and offers something for everyone — whether you’re a devout horror fan, have a love for animation, or want to discover some of the artistic richness produced from this part of the world. It’s such a joy for us to showcase some really absorbing, visually stunning films that don’t always receive the visibility they deserve in Scotland.’

Dylan Beck, Samizdat’s new Guest Curator, says: ‘I’ve previously enjoyed the festival as an audience member, and it’s been a pleasure to join Samizdat as a guest curator for its third iteration! I’m excited to be introducing a couple of Baltic cinema classics and look forward to watching other curators’ picks. It’s great to see the interest in films from the region growing — and with it the event, too!’

Festival Manager Ilia Ryzhenko adds: ‘Now that the festival has entered its third year, we are less restricted by the need to prove that there is a real demand for cinema from the ‘Wider Eastern Europe’, including other post-socialist spaces. This allows us to really play to our strengths, experimenting with different formats, events, genres, and bringing our screenings to venues outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh.’

Several virtual screenings of films from the in-person programme and recorded events are accessible on the website of Samizdat’s partner Klassiki, the world’s only curated streaming platform for films from Eastern/Central Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. All virtual screenings and events are accessible to attendees who join Klassiki’s membership.

For those attending in person, most film screenings are priced on a sliding scale, where the attendees are invited to pay based on their preference and ability. Special events are sometimes priced differently.

The 2024 edition of Samizdat is supported by Screen Scotland’s National Lottery Film Festival and Screening Fund and Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funds from Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI. Samizdat’s event co-organised with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain is jointly funded by Awards for All Scotland.

Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival runs from Tue 1 to Sat 5 Oct 2024. Tickets are now on sale.