D’Est

Shortly after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Chantal Akerman travels through the former East Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Without commentary, interviews, or explanatory intertitles, she observes the people there as they work, walk, and wait. Long tracking shots and static takes render landscapes and faces alike as testaments to a world in transition—imprinted upon postures, gazes, and routines. "D’EST" is an attentive, humanist documentary in which the history of the 20th century is as palpable as the memory of war and displacement that runs through Akerman’s own body of work. It is not, therefore, a film "about" Eastern Europe, but rather an approach to a region whose past and future appear equally open.
(Florian Widegger)