Osadne

Little village, big ambitions: that can often lead to some funny situations, and the Slovakian hamlet of Osadn\'e9 is no exception. Osadn\'e9 is on the easternmost border of the European Union, and it is dying out. The original Rusyn population is not growing in number, the cows are extinct, and the statue of Andy Warhol, whose parents came from this region, has also seen better days. Time for desperate measures: start stimulating tourism, right? The mayor, the priest, and a local journalist hatch the plan to travel to Brussels, where they hope former astronaut and current EU politician Vladimir Remek will help them get a foot in the door. These clearly inexperienced travelers are out of their league in the giant steel and glass EU headquarters. Their endearing awkwardness also becomes clear when the priest offers the communist and atheist Remek a religious present, and then proposes that an EU commissioner come hunt in their village -- painful, for the man is opposed to hunting. During these dryly comic scenes, the camera is always there at the right moment to capture the hope and disappointment, a duality that the residents of Osadn\'e9 clearly have had to learn to live with. \i Osadn\'e9\i0 won the award for Best Documentary at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. \par \par