Not existing

[lupercal]

I was just looking at the new entry for 'Satiemania' (it was produced by Zagreb Film, BTW), and got to thinking - well this would technically make its country of origin Yugoslavia. Except there isn't a Yugoslavia anymore, or at least not the same one. I find this whole business confusing, and don't know whether it would currently qualify as 'The Former Yugoslavia', Croatia, Serbia, Serbia-Montenegro, or what - or whether you should just stick with what the place was called when the film came out.

Which brings us to Russia. Virtually all the films in the database were made during the Soviet era, but we only have Russia in the database, and Russia isn't the same thing at all as the U.S.S.R. Luckily Soyuzmultfilm Studios were in Moscow, so we can probably safely call them Russian, but what if they'd been in Kiev? Would we have to change them all from 'Russia' to 'Ukraine'? At the very least we'd have to change it from 'Russia', since Kiev was never part of Russia, only of the U.S.S.R.

You see, these were the sorts of things that kept me awake at night. Or perhaps they were the sort of things I thought about when I couldn't get to sleep anyway. I think I annoyed Athena by picking some obscure country that made a short film, and hassling her to add it to the database. ("Yeah, look, The Maldives are bound to make another short film sooner or later, if global warming holds off long enough.")

Loop

[starlac]

This is a preplexing issue, the whole history of eastern Europe post-soviet is. Keeping check of what a Country's name is can be awkward to generations taught the older, but now defunct names.

To me the fact that a film's origin Country has disapeared is a little irreverent, the film was made in that Country and it's not its fault that the Country ceases to be.

Although in cases where the Country has simply changed it name to tear away its connections with U.S.S.R. and soviet-era Europe, but hasn't otherwise changed in its everyday running, then that might warrant stating that the film was made there, under the new name.

However then there are films like "The Hand" by Trnka, which was made in Czechoslovakia, another Country which no longer exists, as it split into two: the Czech republic and Slovakia. To which Country would "The Hand" now be assigned?

Personally... I would go with the original name of the country of origin, it's less confusing and in some cases, has some degree of historical importance (The Hand was banned in its native country because it had themes of repression and controlling, and so the communist rulers weren't overly keen on showing it).

[Toonboy]

I wonder what their take on Chromophobia would be. :D

I saw The Hand as well. I found it overly preachy.