If last night's Oscars are any indication, Western audiences and critics are fascinated with eastern Europe: Three out of five movies nominated for best foreign-language film were from the region, and Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which competed for best film but only won in a couple of second-rate categories, was set in a fictional eastern European country called Zubrowka (a real word that means herb-infused vodka). One can only hope Westerners don't limit themselves to the movies and delve deeper into the region's tangled past and often tragic present.
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