Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2476 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

THIS IS BRILLIANT
Everyone seems to have missed the point in reviewing this programme!
It is not meant as an advert to make you want to travel to certain countries. It is meant to educate you about the history of what it was like and what it's like now, and that isn't always good. I like the way Palin looks at the world in a sarcastic and alternative perspective. If you wanted to watch trashy holiday advertising BS, look elsewhere

Milyen lószar..........
I have lived in Hungary now for 16 years and worked in all of the countries that Michael Palin visited. Having enjoyed all his other series I looked forward keenly to seeing how he would interpret the different cultures that he visited and what conclusions he would draw as to how the New Europe would evolve.

I was stunned therefore to see that he had made not the slightest attempt to understand any aspect of what makes these different countries tick: what he gave wasn't even a half decent travelogue. I hardly recognised the countries from the appalling pastiche that the BBC cobbled together.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the series is effectively the Michael Palin show: does it really give us any insight into a country to see him in clearly organised "spontaneous" events which are nothing to do with normal life in the country.

I found that as I watched the series I became increasingly annoyed and depressed that this fascinating part of the world was being portrayed in this slipshod and patronising manner. I simply couldn't see any aspect of the reality of these countries - either good or bad - portrayed in this series.

I am writing this review in Albania - but the real one not the Disneyland version that Michale Palin seemed to have visited.

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.