The political turn in 1989 in East-Central Europe had an important impact on public thinking and even nowadays determines the way people think about themselves and form their identity. My paper focuses on contemporary Hungarian and Romanian movies, trying to reveal how these movies represent the turn, the years after the fall of the communism and how they represent women, men and the younger generation in these changing times. Most of the movies analysed are the works of the new generation of filmmakers (for example “Iszka’s Journey”, “Bibliothéque Pascal”, “Dallas Pashamende”, “White Palms”, “If I Want to Whistle I Whistle”, “Police, Adjective”, “Weekend with My Mother”, “12:08 East of Bucharest”).
In the case of Hungary and Romania the political turn did not mean a complete and immediate change of film industry. The new generation of filmmakers made their first long features after 2000. Their first movies reflect the recent past by presenting the power structures of the socialism and the life of people under political oppression. This is usually presented with minimalist film techniques: uncomfortably realistic approach, documentary-like surround-sound, hand-held shooting, real time narration.
Movies about the recent socialist past represent Eastern and Central Europe as an uninhabitable region that cannot off er a future for the growing generations, where they punish the victims instead of the delinquents, where women are oppressed, sexually abused, where men live from one day to the other drinking alcohol, to sum up: a place where people should escape from. My goal is to point out that this image is seen through the lenses of a Western perspective.
Keywords: gender representations, new generation, East-Central Europe, Hungarian and Romanian movies
