Two decades after communism lost its grip on central Europe, Oak Street Cinema presents a weekend series of Czech and German films -- "When the Walls Came Tumbling Down" -- that will reawaken the memories of those who lived through the Cold War, and provide a startling contrast to contemporary Europe for those who didn't.
The 2003 Oscar-nominated German tragicomedy "Goodbye, Lenin" features dynamic actor Daniel Brühl (recently terrific in "Inglourious Basterds") as a young East Berliner who must help his mother adapt to society when she awakens from a coma in the first year of the country's reunification. (7 p.m. Fri., 9:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun.)
From the Czech Republic comes 1999's "Cozy Dens," a dark comedy about two neighboring families in the suburbs of Prague, loving and loathing each other in the days leading up to the Prague Spring of 1968. The two fathers remain stubborn political rivals while their teenage children try to reconcile raging hormones, Western influences and a culture in flux. (9:15 p.m. Fri., 7:15 p.m. Sat.-Sun.)
"Citizen Havel" (2008) presents a striking cinéma vérité account of playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel's rise from the stages and salons of Prague to the highest office in the Czech Republic. Shot over the course of 13 years, it provides a penetratingly intimate, fly-on-the-wall look at the former dissident's attempts to apply the ideals of the "Velvet Revolution" to the policies laid out in his country's infancy. More substantially, it humbly reminds us that even the most celebrated political figures are just as vulnerably human as we demanding citizens are. (3 p.m. Sat., 5:15 p.m. Sun.)
Thematically out of left field, but a curiosity nonetheless, is a rare restored print of the 1933 Czech film "Ecstasy," featuring Hedy Lamarr as a lustful young bride. It was originally censored for its implicit depiction of sexual intercourse and a skinny-dipping scene purported to be the first onscreen nudity in international cinema. (5:15 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun.)
