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SUMMARY:Eastern European Film Weeks 2026 Leuven
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/brussels/en/2026/09/25/eastern-european-film-weeks-2026-leuven/
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DTSTAMP:20261008
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DESCRIPTION:A journey through the history and imagination of Eastern Europe on the big
screen8-30 October 2026, Cinema ZED and Erasmushuis, KU Leuven
The Eastern European Film Weeks invites audiences to encounter the region
through cinema. Across fourteen films - documentaries and fiction, classics
and contemporary works - the programme offers glimpses into lives, places,
and stories that illuminate the unfamiliar and challenge familiar
perspectives. Each screening is accompanied by a conversation with
filmmakers and scholars, providing context and insight into what unfolds on
screen.
Festival highlights include Traces, a documentary about Ukrainian women who
survived conflict-related sexual violence during Russia’s invasion;
Courage, on the aftermath of the mass protests in Belarus; and Franz (in
avant-première), in which Polish director Agnieszka Holland reimagines the
life of Franz Kafka.
Discover the full program below:
Franz8 October 2026, 19:45 - Opening night, ZED -VesaliusAgnieszka Holland.
Czech Republic / Poland / Germany / France, 2025. 127 min. Fiction
(biographical drama).
A kaleidoscopic, genre-blurring biopic of Franz Kafka, following the writer
from his childhood in Habsburg-era Prague to his final illness, weaving
fact and fantasy to show how his life shaped his fiction.
Introduced by Huub van Baar, Professor of Politics at KU Leuven (LINES),
specialising in European migration and minority politics.Tickets are
available on the website of Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
 
Tree of Violence9 October 2026, 17:30, ZED - VesaliusAnna Moiseenko.
Belgium / Luxembourg, 2024. 81 min. Documentary (live-action and
animation).
Combining live-action footage and animation, the film follows Russian
graphic journalist Victoria Lomasko as she documents the connections
between domestic and state-sponsored violence in Putin's Russia — a
portrait of an artist bearing witness up to the moment she has to leave the
country after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
After the screening, Pieter Boulogne, Assistant Professor of Russian
Literature at KU Leuven, will talk to artist Victoria Lomasko and film
director Anna Moiseenko.
Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.Fancy trying your hand
at drawing with Victoria Lomasko? Join her workshops The Power of Symbols
and Talking Images, which will take place on the 9th and 10th October in
Leuven.
 
Last Letters from my Grandma14 October 2026, 18:30 - Justus Lupsiuszaal,
Erasmushuis (118-04) , Blijde-Inkomststraat 21 , 3000 LeuvenOlga
Lucovnicova. Belgium / Romania / Moldova / Netherlands, 2025. 94 min.
Documentary.
Filmmaker Olga Lucovnicova travels with her father to a remote town in
Russia's Ural Mountains to uncover a long-buried family secret tied to her
late grandmother — a journey suddenly overshadowed when Russia launches
its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Introduced by Leen Engelen, film and media historian at LUCA school of
arts. This screening is free. Register here.
 
 
 
 
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World18 October 2026, 19:30, ZED
- VesaliusRadu Jude. Romania / Luxembourg / France / Croatia, 2023. 163
min. Fiction (satire).
An overworked production assistant drives around Bucharest filming casting
interviews with workers injured on the job for a corporate safety video,
while by night she runs a foul-mouthed alter-ego on social media — a
freewheeling, darkly comic diagnosis of contemporary Romania and the limits
of the image itself.
Introduced by Jonas Vanderschueren, postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at
the Faculty of Arts at KU Leuven. Tickets are available on the website of
Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
 
Polish Short Films Programme19 October 2026, 17:30, ZED - VesaliusA
selection curated by Iwona Pom (Fumi Studio).
Rain (Deszcz) — dir. Piotr Milczarek, 5', 2019.There Will Be No Other End
(Innego końca nie będzie) — dir. Piotr Milczarek, 8', 2024.Horse
Portrait (Portret konia) — dir. Witold Giersz, 6', 2023.Dear Leo
Sokolosky (Drogi Leo Sokolosky) — dir. Weronika Szyma, 8',
2024.Nutcracker Girl (Dziewczynka do orzechów) — dir. Michalina
Musialik, 14', 2023.
Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
 
Traces20 October 2026, 17:00, ZED - VesaliusAlisa Kovalenko & Marysia
Nikitiuk. Ukraine / Poland, 2026. 85 min. Documentary.
Six Ukrainian women who survived conflict-related sexual violence during
Russia's invasion come together to break the silence, transforming their
testimonies into a collective act of resistance, solidarity, and healing.
Introduced by Ria Laenen, professor in Eastern European politics at KU
Leuven.Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
 
Antidote22 October 2026, 15:00, ZED -Vesalius26 October 2026, 17:00, ZED
-VesaliusJames Jones. United States / United Kingdom, 2024. 89 min.
Documentary.
Following investigative journalist Christo Grozev (Bellingcat), activist
Vladimir Kara-Murza, and an anonymous whistleblower from inside Russia's
poison programme, the film reveals the human cost of exposing the Kremlin's
covert operations against dissidents — including the poisoning of Alexei
Navalny.
Introduced by Peter Vermeersch, Professor of Political Science at KU
Leuven.Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
Kanal25 October 2026, 17:00, ZED -VesaliusAndrzej Wajda. Poland, 1957. 95
min. Fiction.
During the final days of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, a company of Home Army
fighters retreats through the city's sewers, fleeing Nazi encirclement.
Trapped in the dark, suffocating tunnels, the group slowly unravels under
exhaustion, fear, and lost hope. Drawing on screenwriter Jerzy Stefan
Stawiński's own experience surviving the sewers, Kanal was the first film
made about the Uprising. It won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1957.
Introduced by Kris Van Heuckelom, professor of Polish and Cultural studies
at KUL.Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.
 
 
 
 
Courage30 October 2026, 19:30 — Closing night, ZED -VesaliusAliaksei
Paluyan. Germany / Belarus, 2021. 90 min. Documentary.
Three actors from Minsk's underground Belarus Free Theatre are swept into
the 2020 mass protests against Alexander Lukashenko's regime, risking
arrest and violence in their fight for freedom of speech and democracy.
Shot on the ground during the protests, the film offers a close, personal
portrait of ordinary people's courage under an authoritarian crackdown.
Introduced by Peter Vermeersch, Professor of Political Science at KU
Leuven.Tickets are available on the website of Cinema ZED.
The festival is organized by the KU Leuven Forum on Central and Eastern
Europe in collaboration with Cinema ZED and with the support of the Polish
Institute in Brussels and the Romanian Cultural Institute in Brussels.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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