To many casual viewers, socialist cinema from Central Europe and the Soviet Union rarely evokes images of beauty parlors, leisurely shopping, or browsing exotic groceries—let alone consumer abundance and hired domestic help. Yet throughout the relatively “liberal” 1960s, the murky 1970s, and the tentative promise of the 1980s, nationalized film and television studios in the Polish People’s Republic, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR frequently returned to shopping as pastime, leisure, and aspiration, constructing surprisingly layered images of consumption under socialism.

Program

5th december 2025

Session 1 | Screenings with discussion 

18:00, Free entrance

Address: Kino Ponrepo, Bartolomějská 11, Prague 1, in person only

Language: English (films in the Czech/Polish original with English subtitles)

Participants: Anastasia MAMAEVA, film scholar (Paris/Prague), Anna BERNAL, multimedia artist (Helsinki), Dimitri FILIMONOV, Soviet media historian (Paris).

• 18:00—Murdering the Devil (Ester Krumbachová, Czechoslovakia, 1970). This recently rediscovered gem explores gender roles and folklore—from old-time witches to modern mansplaining tropes. It is the only directorial work of Ester Krumbachová, the original and prolific polymath behind many beloved Czechoslovak films.

The screening will be introduced and followed by commentary and a Q&A with Anastasia Mamaeva and Anna Bernal.

• 20:30—Man/Woman Wanted (Stanisław Bareja, Poland, 1973) What if one day your art historian’s desk gave way to the chaotic world of housekeeping, institutional corruption, black-market dealings—and casual drag? Discover all this and more in this cult Polish comedy.

The screening will be introduced and followed by commentary and a Q&A with Anastasia Mamaeva and Dimitri Filimonov.

Attending in partial or full drag—or showing your allyship in other ways—is warmly encouraged.

12th December

Session 2 | Roundtable discussion : Consumer cultures and screen imaginaries under state Socialism in Polish, Czechoslovak, and Soviet cinema of the 1960-80s

Address: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 (and online), 15:00

Language: English

• Participants
• Lucie ČESÁLKOVÁ (PhD, Department of Film Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University; Editor-in-Chief, Iluminace): Fragmenting the Female Body in Czechoslovak Socialist Advertising
• Justyna JAWORSKA (PhD, Associate Professor, Section of Film and Visual Culture, Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw): How to eat spaghetti? Consumerism in Polish cinema of early 1970s
• Jonathan OWEN (PhD, author: Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties): Ecce Homo Consumens: from New Wave to Normalisation with Jaroslav Papoušek’s Homolka Trilogy
• Dimitri FILIMONOV (PhD, Associate Researcher, UMR CIRICE): Between Ideology and Desire: Consumer Imaginaries in Soviet Cinema of the Long 1970s
• Anastasia MAMAEVA (Associate Researcher, UMIFRE CEFRES; PhD candidate, Sorbonne University): The Mirage of Developed Socialism: Architecture and Urban Luxury in Late-1970s Onscreen Prague

This discussion invites film and media scholars to explore how Socialist screens negotiated consumer culture and scarcity.

Each speaker will have 20 minutes to deliver their paper, followed by a discussion and Q&A session.