Even the "oldies" are impressed by Cristian Mungius's triumph in Cannes! For years there has been bitter rivalry in the Romanian film scene between a new generation of filmmakers who, like Mungiu, deal with the legacy of communism and an older generation that produces government-funded historical films that bear a marked resemblance with the propaganda films of the past. Cristian Teodorescu was therefore understandably surprised to see the old guard applauding their younger colleague at Cannes. "'This is a great success for the Romanian film industry' comment persons who only a few hours before the award-giving ceremony didn't think Cristian Mungiu had a chance of even winning the award for best director - because he's Romanian... I have no idea what's got into the old director Sergiu Nicolaescu, who all of a sudden is heaping praise on his young colleague. Only recently he said not one of the directors of the new generation was worth a bean. ... The filmmaker Mungiu is of little consequence in the alchemy of our patriotic arrogance. For the older generation only yesterday's opinions count. As far as they're concerned it was the Romanian film industry - or in other words them, the old luminaries - that won at Cannes." (29/05/2007)

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"By awarding the biggest prize to Cristian Mungiu, the Cannes Film Festival's jury has demonstrated good taste and audacious intuition, while also officially divulging a secret that is well-known among film buffs: in just a few years, Romania, coming from a political context where images were regulated by the ruling power, will have become the haven of cinema", writes Philippe Azoury. "Not only because production companies from the world over, especially in France and Hollywood, are fighting over its studios which are among the best on the world's market, but mostly because for half a decade Bucharest's film schools have been producing a group of very young film makers, all of whom are very keen to bare witness to the painful transformations that Romanian society has been going through since the fall of Ceausescu." (28/05/2007)

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According to Nikolaj Nikitin, a film expert specialised in Eastern European cinema, talk of a Romanian "Nouvelle vague" is not exaggerated. In an interview with Ekkehard Knörer he explains what the new films of the "Bucharest School" - to which not only Cannes winner Cristian Mungiu but also Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu and Cristian Nemescu belong - have in common from the point of view of their aesthetics. "This is of course far removed from the US commercial films and closer to the films of John Casavetes, the early Godard films and the documentary Cinema Vérité. The actors play a vital role because the camera always follows them very closely. In fact the camera work is generally crucial for the aesthetic quality of these films. Oleg Mutu, who was also the cameraman for [Cristi Puiu's] 'Death of Mr. Lazarescu', filmed virtually everything in '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' by hand. The result is very direct images that stay with you for a long time." (29/05/2007)

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Barbara Hollender heartily approves of the jury's decision to award the Palme d'Or to Cristian Mungiu. She writes that the Cannes Film Festival reflects the world's moods and that this year's films exuded the kind of fear and sense of ominous threat that was prevalent after September 11th... "The true hero of this festival was the unassuming 39-year-old Romanian Cristian Mungiu. His film '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 days' captivated critics and jury members alike. We are witnessing the revival of the cinematography of the post-communist countries. ... Artists from these countries are confronting the past, warning of the dangers of all forms of totalitarianism and promoting political and social tolerance. They are making important films. It's a pity Polish filmmakers haven't been able to follow this trend." (28/05/2007)

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Thierry Jobin considers that this 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival will be remembered for "an exemplary prize list and above all a 7th art in search of a new role: having observed the world for so long, it now knows and feels that it is capable of playing a role in it. The victories of the Romanian Cristian Mungiu (Golden Palm) and the Turkish Fatih Akin (Best Screenplay), the sudden globalisation of their 'minor films', are indeed able to break their countries' silences and draw artistic, economic and political attention to them. ... The idea is to weave new social ties and give every community on the planet the opportunity to better understand its history by examining its cinematic past, avoiding the forgetting that leads to wars. Never before has the world of cinema dreamt up a more beautiful utopia." (29/05/2007)

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"If you liked 'The Lives of Others', you are going to love the winner of the Cannes 2007 Golden Palm", enthuses the daily. "From out of the blue, the Romanian Cristian Mungiu has reached the summit ! This is rightful justice being done to the renaissance of cinema. ... He may be from a small country that has only just entered the EU, but Mungiu managed to dethrone Tarantino, Kusturica, James Gray, the Coen brothers and dozens of other famous directors speeding in their Ferraris to try and catch up with the old banger from Bucharest. The 60 years of the Festival have only been worthwhile for this type of race that occurs once every ten years. Thank you Mr. Stephen Frears [President of the Jury] ! And thanks too to those crafty diplomats who threw Mungiu straight into the arena on day one, setting a high standard for the rest of the festival" (29/05/2007)

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The predominantly negative image of Islam that prevails in Western media leads to aggressive behaviour on both sides, writes political editor Niklas Ekdal. "Stereotypes of Islam that frighten Muslims and become self-fulfilling prophecies are rampant in the West. Their injured feelings are less the product of a hostile attitude and more the result of their impression that the West rejects them. ... Education and freedom are attractive to all, but not if you're being caricatured or bombarded in their name. The spread of Islamism is more an effect than a cause, the result of a lack of freedom, of stagnation and discrimination. ... Secular Europe has a historical mission here. Let Turkey join the EU. Prove that Christians, Muslims and atheists can coexist." (27/05/2007)

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The journalist Johann Hari considers how the religious faith of poilticians can affect the way they govern. "Most Europeans associate religion-in-politics with the foaming televangelists of the Bible Belt, who believe Jesus Christ is always on the ballot paper next to the box marked 'Republican'. Theirs is a Jesus who blesses the rich and bitch-slaps gays with his crown of thorns. ... But there is another political tradition within Christianity - and it is the one Brown [Gordon Brown, future UK Prime Minister] belongs to. In the 19th century, English-speaking world, Christianity was seen largely as a force of the left, bolstering pro-poor, emancipationist movements. ... Brown grew up in the British version of this tradition. ... Brown's God is cantankerous and ambiguous. At His best, He likes to help the poor and hates hereditary privilege. At His worst, He likes dividing His flock into schools where He will be worshiped fulsomely in His many different guises. This God is alternately encouraging and disturbing - but we cannot understand our next Prime Minister without Him." (29/05/2007)

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Against the odds, Bertie Ahern, Ireland's taoiseach (Prime minister) led his centrist party Fianna Fáil to a clear victory in the general elections on May 24th, just three seats short of an overall majority. On June 14th, he is expected to be re-elected as taoiseach. "The Irish weekly responds. "Voters wanted stability - political and economic - and many felt that a vote for Fianna Fáil was a way to underpin this. The opposition simply did not convince enough voters of its credentials in this area and in the end this outweighed the perceived failures of the outgoing government in many areas of public service provision.... If he succeeds in putting together a stable and durable government, Ahern will have a chance to shape his own political legacy. If his next government is not to spend much of its time on the defensive, then it must push ahead rapidly with reforms that ensure better value for the taxpayer's money it is spending." (27/05/2007)

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Pablo Sebastián analyses the results of the municipal and local elections that took place on Sunday, May 27th, in Spain. The right-wing Popular Party (PP) won them by a whisker. "This result might incite the head of the government to bring the elections scheduled for March 2008 forward to this coming autumn. There is no shortage of arguments in favour of such a decision. Firstly, the PP, despite leading a very virulent opposition did not manage to clearly swing votes in its favour. Secondly, with these results and the coming elections, the head of the government [José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero] will be hard put to get the 2008 budget approved by Parliament. Thirdly, the government and the Socialist Party consider that this vote represents a plebiscite of ETA [Basque separatist Organisation] negotiation policy and they do not not wish to run the risk of another terrorist bomb attack that would force Zapatero into new concessions." (28/05/2007)

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Partial local elections were held in Italy on Sunday, May 27th and Monday, May 28th. The centre left registered a defeat in the North of the country where it lost several towns. While the opposition is demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the government is minimising the results. According to Massimo Giannini, "the combination of left-wing resistance and right-wing aggression is causing stagnation, a paralysis that is most harmful for the left which does indeed risk loosing some very important things in this Italian bog. The first is the government, this inertia being a preamble for future defeat. The second is the Democratic Party [the future single centre-left party]: the incapacity of the left to dialogue, especially in the north, risks killing the only innovative political project of the last decade." (29/05/2007)

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As of next Friday, June 1st, a smoking ban will enter force in Finland's restaurants and pubs. According to recent surveys, around 80 %of Finns welcome the move and even 39 % of Finland's smokers are in favour. Stig Nygard notes that with the new ban Finland is following a European trend. "Around half of all EU households are non-smoking and in Finland that figure is particularly high at 83 %. In Sweden it's 69 %. The great challenge lies in the former Eastern European states, where in some cases only 20 % of households are non-smoking. But because restaurants, pubs and bars are the tobacco industry's best recruitment locales, a smoking ban is highly likely to have a preventive effect and lead to fewer young people taking up smoking." (29/05/2007)

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After weeks of tension in Ukraine, the two political rivals President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovitch have agreed to call new elections for 30 September. Endre Aczél writes that the absurd shortcomings of the country's constitution and the resulting power struggles prove that Ukraine is not yet ready for European integration. "The events of the past few weeks, which almost had the character of a children's fairytale, took a turn that could no longer be described as amusing: the mobilisation of the police for political purposes contravenes all EU and NATO regulations. Ukraine's leading politicians are prepared to take such a dangerous step, and this demonstrates that Ukraine is by no means ready to be integrated into either European or transatlantic organisations." (29/05/2007)

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On May 28th the renowned German painter Jörg Immendorff died aged 61 of ALS, a disease of the nervous system. Niklas Maak portrays the painter. "He didn't give a hoot about good taste. The elements of voluptuous semi-decay, fear-inspiring magenta, naïve contortion and crooked greasiness that hurt the eye also save some of his pictures from the monotonous, mild conformity and the weakly humming pathos of contemporary German painting. His portrait of Gerhard Schröder presents the Gazprom employee in gold and accompanied by monkeys - an allegorical painting by the artist... Notwithstanding his chummy leather-jacketed public appearances and all the cocaine and bordello scandals, he was the one who in the late 1960s ruthlessly dismantled his image as a heroic artist, all the work on his own artist's myth, and tried to create a different kind of art and change the way it was perceived. This is what made him important and earned him our respect." (29/05/2007)

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Bulgaria is currently discussing the possibility of criminalising pornography. Boyko Lambovsky points out that during the times of Socialism, sexually arousing images reflected much of the West's appeal and also played a role in the battle against communist ideology. He adds that during the lean years of the transitional period, when there were shortages of food and medicines, pornography became a profitable industry. "It's not the rashness with which our society has gone from one extreme - that of censured piety - to the other - that of arrogant licentiousness - that's surprising. It's the mixture of timidity and active consumerism that has led to a lack of clear views regarding potential regulations." According to Lambovsky, the introduction of legal restrictions on pornographic products will have a similar effect as that on drugs. They will have a restrictive effect on production and distribution, but will be mild on the consumer. And that will be good for Bulgarian society from a moral point of view." (29/05/2007)

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As the tourist season opens in Cyprus, the Cypriot daily is worried by the sight of a certain type of tourist: "They are mainly Scandinavian and have one intention: to drink till they drop and destroy everything on their way. Welcome to Agia Napa, a little corner of Cypriot paradise that we forget to protect and Cypriots prefer to avoid. Cyprus may well be an attractive island with its archaeological excavations, the rock of Aphrodite, its monasteries and its beautiful beaches, but these Agia Napa tourists couldn't care less. The only god they worship is the god of beer. It is impossible to relax. The music booms through the night and past a certain hour they take to throwing their underwear around in an ultimate act of decadence. The authorities have decided to take matters into hand and control alcohol sales. This summer will thus be a test for them." (29/05/2007)

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