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Лісова пісня. Мавка [Lisova pisnya. Mavka / A Story of the Forest: Mavka] (Yuri Ilyenko, 1981)
Jun
7
National Trails Day
Mavka (Lyudmila Efimenko) and the Spirit of the Forest (Boris Khmelnitskiy). DP: Yuri Ilyenko.
Mavka, a forest nymph, falls in love with mortal Lukash, who in his turn is punished by the Spirit of the Forest for marrying another mortal instead. Curse upon curse, Lukash is turned into a wolf, and Mavka into a weeping willow.
The colours, mood and impact of the four seasons on mortal and sprite alike is there, not only made visible by Ilyenko's ethereal, spiralling camera, but somewhere blooming deep inside us, observing.
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Red & Rosy (Frank Grow, 1989)
Jun
3
Big Red (Rico Martinez) in his hotrod. DPs: Frank Grow, Ralph Hawkins & Rico Martinez.
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ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け [Birī za kiddo no atarashii yoake / The New Morning of Billy the Kid] (Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)
May
31
National Utah Day
Billy the Kid steps out of a huge poster of Monument Valley right into a Tokyo bar and becomes its bar keeper. Together with a samurai, a WW2 G.I, Marx-Engels (not a typo), the Japanese weather service number 177 and others, he keeps the tavern safe from various thugs roaming the streets.
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Angst [Fear] (Gerald Kargl, 1983)
May
23
National Title Track Day
1: K. Out. Out. DP: Zbigniew Rybczynski.
“The fear in her eyes and the knife in the chest. That's my last memory of my mother. That's why I had to go to prison for four years, even though she survived.”
– opening lines
What stabs you harder in the chest than Klaus Schulze's synth-driven killing spree?
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Anayurt Oteli [Motherland Hotel] (Ömer Kavur, 1987)
May
14
Receptionist Day
Receptionist Zebercet. DP: Orhan Oğuz.
The proprietor and receptionist of a small hotel welcomes a new guest. The woman, her name she doesn't tell, stays for only one night with the promise to return the following week. The receptionist waits.
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The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1982)
May
14
Tue
A schoolgirl with long brown hair seen from the back. She's taking the popular shortcut through the fields. DP: Brian West.
“Subject, Sandy Fremont. The last positive sighting of the child was on her way home from a school orchestra rehearsal. This was on Tuesday May 14th at approximately 6:30 in the evening.”
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Παραγγελιά! [Parangelia! / Request for a Song] (Pavlos Tasios, 1980)
May
13
Top Gun Day
A man dances the Zeibekiko, with another close to him. DPs: Sakis Maniatis & Kostas Papagiannakis.
The Ζεϊμπέκικο (Zeibekiko) is a Greek dance, improvised by one man, alone. It's a dance that shows the performer's manliness, both his pride and his sorrows. Out of respect for the dancer, the others sit down, watch, and relate to him.
When the police enters the establishment – and this is 1973, the colonels ruled the naton – and interrupt the dancer, his older brother steps in.
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アントニー・ガウディー [Antonio Gaudí] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1984)
May
12
National Anthony Day
A woman in shorts and T-shirt lounges on the serpentine mosaic bench in Parc Güell, which blues compliment her outfit. Planned as a housing development project, the park is a welcome break from the busy city for all Catalans, regardless of class. DPs: Junichi Segawa, Ryu Segawa & Yoshikazu Yanagida.
An actor, director or character named Anthony for National Anthony Day (USA).
“Everything comes from the Great Book of Nature. Human attainments are an already printed book.”
– Antoni Gaudí
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Зеркало для героя [Zerkalo dlya geroya / Mirror for a Hero] (Vladimir Khotinenko, 1987)
May
8
1949
Sergey Pshenichnyy (Sergey Koltakov) speaking to one of the 1940s farmers. DP: Evgeniy Grebnev.
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Katar [Cold] (Hieronim Neumann, 1984)
May
6
Childhood Depression Awareness Day
One little girl sneeze even bursts the camera! A – psik (achoo)! DP: Zbigniew Kotecki.
“Spotkał katar Katarzynę –
A – psik!
Katarzyna pod pierzynę –
A – psik!”
A little girl has the sniffles, sees the doctor, and so happily spreads the bug all over town. A quirky animated short based on a poem by Jan Brzechwa.