A blood feud takes on a tragic dimension in this thriller of ritualised killing and vendettas between two families in the suburbs Set aside the Ennio Morricone-homaging soundtrack and Eastern isn’t as much “western” as it is Greek. The detached wide shots framing bizarrely inexpressive characters call to mind the award-winning films of director Yorgos Lanthimos, while the story of doomed youth unable to escape their family’s bloody fate is pure Sophocles. First-time director Piotr Adamski was a conceptual artist before he took up film-making and it shows in Eastern’s precise _mise en scène_ and the success with which it transposes a violent, medieval honour code to a modern Polish suburb. Maja Pankiewicz stars as Ewa Nowak, a young woman called on to defend the family honour when her brother is killed as part of a heavily ritualised vendetta with the neighbouring Kowalskis. Continue reading...
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