Russian

A remarkable rarity, Dovzhenko’s unfinished final film was a response to the atmosphere of intrigues and espionage – real or imagined – that dominated the early Cold War era. In protest of the intensifying postwar anti-communist witch hunt, American journalist Annabelle Bucard emigrated to Russia and became a Soviet citizen; her book, The Truth About American Diplomats, was published in English and Russian in 1949. That book, and aspects of Ms. Bucard’s life, formed the basis for FAREWELL, AMERICA. Shortly after the Allied victory, an idealistic “Anna Bedford” gets a job in Moscow at the U.S. Embassy, which she promptly discovers is crawling with spies.Read More »

The second short film by Alexei Balabanov, shot at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio in 1989. He tells about the formation of the legends of Sverdlovsk rock – guitarist Yegor Belkin and singer Nastya Poleva.
In essence, “Nastya and Egor” is a logical continuation of the film “Before, it was a different time.”Read More »

An unexpected romance occurs for a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer.Read More »

A young schoolboy tries to help the girl he likes to pass a math test.
Elem Klimov’s student work.Read More »

Synopsis:
Fantasmagoria mingles seamlessly into reality in this comic film. Oleg is being two-timed by his wife. Fortunately he is advised by well-known poisoners from history, from Caligula to Lucretia Borgia.Read More »

Quote:
A good portion of the film depicts the last days of the Russian Imperial Family in Yekaterinburg, largely narrated by Timofyev’s voice-over from the perspective of Yakov Yurovsky, the chief guard and ultimately executioner of the family. In the scenes, Yurovsky is impersonated by Timofyev (McDowell) and Tsar Nicholas II by Dr. Smirnov (Yankovsky). Other members of the family function merely as background, with few or no lines.Read More »

Quote:
Russia, 1917. The young doctor Polyakov arrives to work at a hospital in a remote village. After an allergic reaction to a vaccine, he starts to take morphine but becomes progressively addicted. Soon, he finds himself trying to undertake more ambitious operations whilst under the drug’s influence.Read More »

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.Read More »

Quote:
In the heady days just prior to the collapse of the Soviet system in Russia, a satirical, anarchistic comedy such as this was just the sort of film to attract huge audiences. Told with the rapid-fire imagery and insistent soundtrack of a music video, it tells the story of Aleksandra (Tatyana Drubich), a self-centered 20-year old girl who escapes from her tiny apartment after she has been locked into by her father it to make her study for her exams. Instead, she parties with her boyfriend Vladimir (Alexander Abdulov) who is perfectly happy to make love to her until he discovers she is pregnant. Nearby, Mitya (Mikhail Rozanov), a suddenly rich fifteen year old boy, shares a flat with his crazed roommate, an Abyssinian given to brewing his own alcoholic beverages. Somehow, Mitya hears of Allesandra’s predicament and offers to marry her – which pleases her parents a great deal (after all, he’s rich). Most of the fun in this movie comes from in-jokes at the expense of the government’s sacred cows, and jokes at the expense of the movie itself and its characters. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »