Konstantin Lavronenko

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The Russian film “The Return” is a stunning contemporary fable about a divided family in the wilderness – a simple, riveting film that almost achieves greatness.

In this hypnotic, stark movie, which won the Golden Lion (grand prize) of the last Venice Film Festival, we see a family strangely reunited: a father and his two sons traveling by car through the countryside after a 12-year separation. One of the boys, Andrei (the late Vladimir Garin), is obedient. The other younger son, Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov), is surly and rebellious.Read More »

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Soon after extracting a bullet from his brother’s arm, Alex (Konstantin Lavroneko) relocates his family from the city to his father’s old house in the countryside. As the family settles into their rustic existence, Alex’s wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) reveals that she is pregnant by another man. Enraged by his wife’s announcement, Alex consults with his brother and demands that Vera terminate the pregnancy. When the forced abortion goes horribly awry and Alex’s brother suffers a severe heart attack, a confrontation with the man Alex believes to have seduced his wife send events quickly spiraling out of control.Read More »

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Two 17-year-old Moscow girls, Olya and Sasha, are going to the Crimea to meet Olya’s father Sergey. Sergey has lived in a small seaside village his whole life and has never seen his daughter. At the threshold of her father’s house, Olya gets scared of meeting him. She asks Sasha “to trade places with her”. So Sasha introduces herself as Olya and pretends to be Sergey’s daughter while Olya claims to be her best friend. Little did they know that this innocent joke will turn into great drama and change their lives forever.Read More »