Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5555 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-22
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 450 minutes

DVD Description
Michael Palin undertakes a new journey through Eastern Europe in this fascinating BBC series, breathing in its rich history, filming its exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples.

Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, traveling behind the iron curtain was never easy and now Palin fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many of his own generation.

As in all his series, Palin's New Europe takes the form of a journey through countries which have rich and complex cultures. Few have survived intact, as the ebb and flow of warring armies has continually changed the map of Europe.

Starting in the mountains of Slovenia he travels down through Croatia and the former Yugoslavia to Albania before turning northwards to embrace Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, The Ukraine, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former East Germany, Poland, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (as Konigsberg originally home to the Teutonic Knights), Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, opening up a new and undiscovered world to millions of viewers.

Synopsis
Intrepid television explorer Michael Palin takes us on a fascinating journey behind the former Iron Curtain. Palin embarks upon a trip that starts in the mountains of Slovenia and takes through Croatia, Albania, The Ukraine, former East Germany and Latvia, showcasing an undiscovered part of our continent that's as beautiful as it is mysterious.

Customer Reviews

SADLY NOT ONE OF PALIN'S INSPIRING TRAVEL DOCUMENTARIES...
Having been greatly entertained and inspired by Palin's previous travel documentaries, I eagerly awaited his latest European adventure... yet what a disappointment.

For once Palin fails to capture the magic of the countries he visits, no fascinating cultural insights, no interesting characters along the way... just a collage of unrepresentative, uninteresting, uninspiring content.

Perhaps the comparatively familiar culture and customs of Europe could never inspire as much as those experienced on one of Palin's more remote and exotic journeys?

...certainly Palin's latest series failed to inspire.

Sadly, even the pleasurable thought of meeting Michael at a local book signing couldn't lure me along to purchase this documentary.

Palin past his sell-by date. One for fans, only
Previous great adventures by Michael Palin have been interesting because of the insights we've gained into the places and people. But in New Europe the show seems to be mostly about Michael Palin himself, and what he thinks of everything, and precious little about the countries he visits.

Just when you get to something interesting -- like, for example, the woman in a thoroughly modern clinic who was treating patients with leeches in all seriousness -- the programme dissolves into nudge-nudge humour. There's no proper translator so we don't know what the nurse (doctor?) was using the leeches for. Instead it's a good excuse for Palin to wiggle his eyebrows and make some jokes.
Similarly, when something interesting hoves into view -- a fascinating historical ship on which Palin stays for a night -- you don't get to hear its full story. Or even very much about it. This is really frustrating.

In the final epsiode, Slovakia was dismissed with a short segment about rural folks slaughtering a pig and making sausages. Then the Czech Republic was represented by Palin going to another health spa, meeting the current Miss World, and bathing in mud baths and being given a hot-stone massage. You can see this at your local spa; there must have been something more revealing to film in Czech, surely?
To be fair, that light-hearted segment was balanced with a more in-depth and serious review of the Stasi and their activities in East Germany. But this was a small proportion of the programme; if only all of it had been so relevant and interesting. And if only it had focussed on the people and places, and not Palin's reactions to them...

At the end of each programme it feels as if you've been sent a scrawled postcard from lots of locations. You've seen some pretty pictures and been told that the traveller met Bert, Bill and Benny, but you have not learned a great deal about the people, places or their culture.

I suspect that people who have loved Palin's earlier travels will still enjoy this. But if you want to learn more about the ex-Soviet bloc nations then you'll have to wait for a more considered and in-depth series to come along.

The reason why this is not his best
The reason we liked Plain's travels in the other series was that we enjoyed watching the journey and people he met along the way. In this series the journey is ignored and the chance to see places we may never get the chance to see forgotten and we are left with interviews with people we are not particulary interested in, in foreign capitals. Quite dull.