East European Film Bulletin

Here is a typical scene from Laila Pakalniņa’s 2024 documentary Termini, a poetic meditation on end stations and bus terminals: the camera tracks a bus as it arrives at its final destination. Once the bus comes to a stop, the camera departs, panning left to contemplate a forest landscape with a construction-site toilet nestled amongst the trees. We hear the rumble of...

In the heart of Budapest’s Chinatown, brother and sister Lang (Chade Li) and Shanshan (Sissy Cui) have opposite temperaments but are united by the same desire to break away from their father’s clothing shop. Wild and reckless Lang disappears into drink and drugs with no real plan except running away to live in Serbia with his best friend Matyi (Csaba Polgár), who is due to go...

Ever since Judith Butler introduced the concept of “performativity” in Gender Trouble,1 the idea that identities are not natural but constructed through everyday actions, gestures, and signs remains at the heart of LGBTQ+ poli...