Michael Palin's New Europe 6b6a1

2007

Michael Palin's New Europe 6b6a1

7.5 | TV-PG | en | Documentary

Michael Palin explores European countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain.

EP1 War and Peace

Sep. 16,2007

In Medjugoree Michael encounters a visionary who first started having visitations from the Virgin Mary 25 years ago. In Dubrovnik he meets with lute maestro Edin Karamazov who made the recent 'Songs from the Labyrinth' album with Sting. Michael ends this visit with a sheep sacrifice which heralds an afternoon of music and hospitality typically Balkan.

EP2 Eastern Delight

Sep. 23,2007

Michael makes a remarkable visit to Göreme, where the rocks have been carved to form homes and some of the most remarkable churches of the early Christian era. Leaving the Cappodocia region by balloon, he sails east towards the borders of the New Europe, which if Turkey were to the European Union would include Iran, Iraq and Syria.

EP3 Wild East

Sep. 30,2007

Michael travels from Transdniester, a breakaway state from the Republic of Moldova, to the Vaser Valley in Romania, where he s 80 lumberjacks as they board a wood-fired steam train. He finally ends up at Bran Castle in Transylvania, the ancestral home of Vlad the Impaler and alleged home of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

EP4 Danube to Dnieper

Oct. 07,2007

Michael travels by road, rail and river through Hungary and the Ukraine, ending in the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Along the way he visits Budapest's 'House of Terror', a National Park in Hortobagy, an area which Attila the Hunwas reputed to have rampaged across, and ends up meeting a Leeds market trader who married the Ukranian prime minister's daughter.

EP5 Baltic Summer

Oct. 14,2007

Michael travels from Tallinn in the north, through Latvia, to Lithuania in the south, sailing into the Baltic from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia. In Estonia he visits a pyramid house and samples the medicinal properties of leeches. In Latvia he visits one of the most secretive places of the Communist-era, the astronomical telescope.

EP6 From Pole to Pole

Oct. 21,2007

Arriving in Gdansk via canal, Michael meets former electrician Lech Walesa who formed 'Solidarity', Poland's first independent trade union, which led to the demise of communism in that country. Heading to Warsaw he visits the Palace of Culture, Stalin's controversial gift to Varsovians. Michael then makes his own personal pilgrimage to Auschwitz.

EP7 Journey's End

Oct. 28,2007

High in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia, Michael skins a pig, and learns how to make sausages. He then departs to Brno to visit Tibor Turba's famous mime school, where he is asked to mime a cockerel. Travelling in a DC3, used during the Berlin airlift, he visits the island of Rugen, built by Hitler for his KDF ('Strength through Joy') programme.

7.5 | TV-PG | en | Documentary | More Info

Released: 2007-09-16 | Released Producted By: Prominent Television , Country: United Kingdom Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008048q

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Michael Palin explores European countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain.

Genre

Documentary

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Cast

Michael Palin

Director

Roger Mills

Producted By

Prominent Television ,

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Crew

Michael Palin

as Himself

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Roger Mills

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John-Paul Davidson

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Michael Palin's New Europe Audience Reviews c2w17

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

tomroysettles New Europe (and Brazil) are Palin's worst travel documentaries by far. There is really no rhyme or reason for his travels thru each European country and instead of focusing on politics, tourist attractions and the economy, Palin instead visits restaurants, massage parlors or local yokels making alcoholic drinks. The only highlight is that Palin keeps company with attractive young ladies posing as guides in each city. Palin explains almost nothing of interest in each country. I was really shocked and disappointed after seeing Pole to Pole, Around the World in 80 Days, etc. Poland is the only country which gets any coherent coverage of things that matter.

dromasca Seeing 'New Europe' now, 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain gives a 40000 feet image about what is happening on the other side of the continent for the British and Western viewers who are the principal target audiences if I am not mistaken. The series try to position themselves on the middle of the road between the TV travel series and the investigative documentary, but they just succeed to scratch the surface of the two genres. It is not that screen time is missing - seven series of one hour each could have been enough for saying many interesting and important things about the complex fate and the sinuous development of the countries that Palin visited. It is preparation time that seems to have been missing and what the authors have chosen to do was to pick a little bit of everything for each country some political comments, interviews with important figures in the life and history of the latest 20 years and with Brits traveling or settled in the visited areas, exotic landscapes, folklore, esoteric health treatments. The combination has an air of superficiality. It is not that the serious political comment is completely missing - actually many observations are quite sharp, but they lack deepness, and the trivia wrapping they are delivered in gives a sensation of entertainment show which may actually have been the principal intent, but which cannot win my enthusiasm.

adam-1009 So far I really enjoyed Michael Palin's travels, but since some point they begun to look rather like postcards from the world than real documentaries. "Around World in 80 days" was spectacular, "Pole to pole" was just amazing, but when I started to watch "Full Circle" and then "Sahara" one question kept popping into my mind - "what's the hurry???". I mean in "80 days" and "Pole to pole" it was obvious - travel arrangements were pressing on the hurry, but on Sahara?? Come on...Later "Himalaya" was step in right direction - a lot of great views, a lot of people stories, different views on the world. Since I live in Poland I was exciting when I first heard that Palin is gonna make documentary about Poland, although it was rather strange when I heard he is gonna spend only 2 weeks in our country... Then I became more and more disappointed when I found out that first informations weren't exactly correct - he is gonna make trip through few other countries from Eastern Europe, f.e. Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria... Still this looked like a good idea, but when I found out that he is gonna spend 2-3 weeks in ALL THE COUNTRIES not in a single one strangely comedy title "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" popped into my mind...Palin have done what many people failed to do - show the world of today not like travel brochure, but simply as it is - with common people, not so spectacular hotels, etc. But "New Europe" is I think just too much, I mean in Poland there are about 40 million people, Poland is larger than Great Britain (Romania is as large as UK) and you really want to tell me that you can show Poland in 2 days? And Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria have even more complicated cultures than we do...Let's see - it was just like making documentary about UK and show that they eat haggis, breed sheep, wear vests and have queen. Perhaps they do something else or even have some history, but that's all we had time for..."New Europe" was a big disappointment for me.

iulyanah I have seen yet the first three episodes...which included my country, Romania.First impression was not so good, Michael Palin presented too much the country side in Romania and very little of big cities.But, finally, it is OK.(still i have mixed felling about hiding our treasures or present them to the world) To present so many countries of east Europe, with all their long and complicated history and strong traditions...it is really very difficult. This is only a start..."a push up" for any other TV producers to try and discover any of these countries mentioned...in as many details possible. I hope this 7 episodes will start the curiosity and taste for these places, this series is just a glimpse...frustrating little. I thank Michael Palin and his BBC team for this series, because their work was very difficult.