USSR

Atamanov’s sublime and terrifyingly beautiful masterpiece, based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, follows a resourceful young girl, Gerda (voiced by Yanina Zheymo), as she embarks on an epic journey to save her friend Kay (Anna Komolova) from the frozen embraces of the magnificent Snow Queen (Mariya Babanova.) “Had I not one day seen ‘The Snow Queen’ during a film screening hosted by the company labor union, I honestly doubt that I would have continued working as an animator.” – Hayao MiyazakiRead More »

An almost impossibly lovely, bejeweled fantasy adventure, a mixture of Ptushko’s THE STONE FLOWER and SADKO with Cocteau’s BEAUTY & THE BEAST. A ship’s captain promises his youngest daughter Nastenka (voiced by Nina Krachkovskaya) a scarlet flower as a gift. But when he plucks it, the enraged beast who owns it demands a sacrifice – and Nastenka offers herself up as the monster’s prisoner on an enchanted isle.Read More »

Pilot Mimino works at small local airlines in Telavi, Georgia, flying helicopters between small villages. He dreams of piloting large planes for major international airlines, so he goes to Moscow for refresher courses. There in a hotel he meets truck driver Rubik from Dilijan, Armenia who is given a place in that hotel by mistake. Together they have many adventures in Moscow. However, both are homesick and long for their family, friends, and hometowns in the Caucasus.Read More »

Based upon the famous novel by H.G.Wells. A poor scientist named Griffin discovers a way to make things invisible. Since he has no money to continue his research, he decides to perform his only experiment on himself. After becoming invisible, Griffin has a lot of trouble trying to conceal this from other people.Read More »

The final film from Russian fantasy master Aleksandr Ptushko (ILYA MUROMETS, SAMPO), RUSLAN AND LUDMILA was a glorious and magical summation of his career: a 2-1/2 hour greatest hits package filled with the sweeping lyricism, bejeweled visual F/X and mythic storytelling that put him on par with Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Mario Bava. Based on an epic fairy tale written in 1820 by Alexander Pushkin (Ptushko had previously adapted Pushkin’s THE TALE OF TSAR SALTAN, and half-jokingly said they were related), the film opens with the seemingly-joyous marriage of bogatyr (warrior) Ruslan (Valeri Kozinets) to Ludmila (Natalya Petrova), the daughter of Prince Vladimir. (Like his earlier ILYA MUROMETS, the action of the film is set during the legendary era of the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated both modern Ukraine and Russia.)Read More »

“Film-collage” made from what was saved from the destruction of the negatives by the Soviet authorities of what was to be a feature film. There is no story as such: on a single stage, different people in different attitudes follow one another without any explicit link between them or any form of logical coherence in what they do; the whole thing is presided over by a markedly surrealist air with certain dreamlike resonances.Read More »

Synopsis:
Two Moscow students are mostly concerned with scoring with women but their lives change radically when one of them falls for a Jewish girl whose family is being persecuted by anonymous anti-Semites and is preparing to emigrate to Israel.Read More »

Quote:
The film is set in the Russian city of Stalingrad on the river Volga in 1942-1943. The Nazi Armies are over one million strong, when they reach Volga at Stalingrad, where the WWII pivotal battle is unfolding. The battle becomes the biggest military event in the history of WWII. Despite the immeasurable human losses on both sides, the battle is going on for many months, fueled by the draft and military propaganda from the leaders. After having the big city totally destroyed, the invading Nazi Armies are defeated and reduced to one hundred thousand POWs. The battle is shown through the eyes of the soldiers and officers on both German and Russian sides of the war. ( Written by Steve Shelokhonov)Read More »

Quote:
Stalingrad has inspired many movies, but none so sweeping and monumental as this 1949 Soviet production. More than a movie, this is a spectacular military re-enactment of the Battle of Stalingrad – supervised by the Red Army, deploying thousands of veteran troops, as well as the actual tanks, planes and ships (including captured German materiel) from the Eastern Front. In its meticulous recreation of Stalingrad’s key campaigns, the film ranges freely across fronts and capitals, bringing to life the military and political players who shaped this epochal battle. Read More »