For a few days last summer I was fortunate enough to find myself in the spa-resort town of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. My sojourn there coincided with the opening of the city's annual international film festival. Unlike the more prestigious international film festivals at Toronto, Berlin, Venice or Cannes, the screenings were easily accessible to the general audience and moderately priced. In three days I saw eight different movies representing a diverse range of genres and languages. The experience gave me a totally different perspective of the medium of film.

I was very lucky to get the premier festival viewing of an unusual Czech film called Rok Dabla (Year of the Devil). The movie went on to win the Grand Prix there, and subsequently a number of other international prizes. It mixes fact and fiction––documentary footage is subtly integrated with staged scenes, and most of the characters are musicians who play themselves. The darkly comic plot roughly follows the true story of Czech underground singer-songwriter and recovering alcoholic Jaromir Nohavica who begins to tour with a Czech folk band Cechomor. The interaction between these characters, a religious Dutch documentarian and an eccentric Australian punk-rocker-turned-symphony-conductor is the driving force behind the movie. However, there are also elements of magical-realism and the plot is non-linear. Mock interviews with all the characters are interspersed throughout the story. What on the surface seems like a local variant of Spinal Tap is in reality far from it. Despite its popularity in the Czech domestic market and among international film festival circles, the movie is virtually unheard of in the United States.

Rok Dabla is only one of a host of global films that have made their way to the Twin Cities as part of the Minneapolis and St. Paul International Film Festival. Centered primarily around the University of Minnesota campus, the festival––now in its twenty-first year––is a perfect opportunity to see many off-the-beat international films which will probably never be given wide commercial releases.

Films from 55 countries are being presented, and there seems to be a particular emphasis on the rich cinematic traditions of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Sinisa Dragin's modern-day epic Everyday God Kisses is on the Mouth, is shot in sepia. It portrays the despair and chaos of post-communist Romania through the eyes of Dumitru, a released convict. The movie was generously received in Europe, winning the Tiger Award in Rotterdam.

Revenge, directed by Andrej Wajda who is famous for his profound politically-motivated films of the last half-century, stars director Roman Polanski, and is based on a popular Polish play by the same name.

Icelandic director Agust Gudmundsson's The Seagull's Laughter, which takes place shortly after the Second World War features Ugla Egilsdotir as Feyja, a beautiful widow who causes controversy in the small town she arrives in; Egilsdotir won the Best Actress Award at Karlovy Vary.

Iran is another hotspot for innovative contemporary filmmaking that will be featured. Last weekend saw the Midwest premiere of Abbas Kiarostami's latest, Ten, which sold out at the Riverview Theater on a Sunday afternoon. The film was a major event in more ways than one: Kiarostami claimed that the film was made "without a director" (the entire film was shot by a video camera placed on the dashboard of car; Kiarostami only called the shots in the editing room). If you're still curious to see what the Iranian New Wave is all about, the following week presents a few more opportunities: Iranian Spread, which was also shown at Karlovy Vary, documents the tale of an obviously counterfeit 1,000 toman note (a lot of money for the working poor of the nation). Everyone is therefore keen on palming it off as quickly as possible. The film explores the themes of morality in modern Iran.

Women's Prison, which has clashed with censors in Iran, discusses the position of women in Iranian society. Both are being given two screenings over the following week.

International art films dealing with complex social issues are not the only pull though. There are numerous documentaries and a number of more mainstream offerings (God is Great, I'm Not starring Amelie's Audrey Tautou for example). So instead of sitting on your derriere take the bus to Minneapolis and widen your cinematic horizons.