THE MAGIC BROTHERS Eastern European Cinema

This wacky Zelig-esque parodic documentary offers the bizarre account of the muchpublicized 1954 birth and upbringing of quadruplets in Poland and their pursuit by a bored communist-controlled media. The boys have a penchant for the pop culture of the forbidden West, creating paranoia throughout the Polish intelligence community (the film posits that martial law was established in 1982 to control the siblings). When the ‘Magic Brothers’ finally make it to the promised land, New York (using one passport), they establish their own political party, whose sole purpose is to obtain good salaries for themselves and those who supported them. Witty and often strange, The Magic Brothers revels in its own absurdities while commenting slyly on media and governmental machinations.