Russian

With his wife Olya, Vadim wants to buy a German tow truck. But this plan comes to nothing when he falls for a faraway girl he meets online. And so he embarks on an impossible attempt to start afresh a new place with the love of his life.Read More »

Drawing on his own archive, lauded filmmaker Vitaly Mansky gives a close account of a turning point in Russia’s recent history. In a surprise move on December 31, 1999, the first president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin handed over the reins to his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin. Putin’s Witnesses covers his first year in power. Putin led the country back to Soviet-style nationalism, and has employed tyrannical methods to remain in power ever since. That knowledge casts an eerie shadow over the filmed material.Read More »

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David Bek (died: 1728) was one of the most prominent figures of the Armenian liberation movement against the Safavid and Ottoman occupying forces. In 1722-25 with direct support from Mkhitar Sparapet, he headed the armed struggle of Syunik (particularly from Kapan) and Artsakh Armenians against Safavids, which led to the slaughter and expulsion of Muslims from the Turkic villages of the Kapan and Meghri districts of Eastern Armenia, that were destroyed by him. In 1726-28 Armenians under the leadership of David Bek fought with Ottoman forces, that were attempting to conquer Transcaucasia.Read More »

Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
The first sound film by Boris Barnet, one of the least seen and appreciated masters of the Russian cinema, this 1933 feature follows the impact of World War I on a village. Barnet takes nothing for granted, using sound as no one else had before or since and in the process reinventing the way we experience silence as well as sound. His view of war is expressed in uncanny emotional registers: scenes that begin tragically end comically and vice versa, and one of the more touching story lines involves a woman who falls in love with a German prisoner. Adapted by Barnet and Konstantin Finn from Finn’s novel, this is strong and indelible.Read More »

Set in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, Summer journeys nostalgically through the warm middle-Ural summer with eight-year-old Vadim and his half-sister Christina. They enjoy evening festivities with their older teenage friends by the fire, go on mellow skateboard rides, and have a quiet daytime nap in the garden house. Caressed by the sun and the warmth of his relatives, hidden in the quiet tranquillity of the garden and far away from the cruelty of the outside world, Vadim enjoys his childhood days. Acting as a serene lullaby that mimics the movements of a gentle breeze, Summer provides warmth, joy and solace, offering hope and strength for the future.Read More »

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A new chief of a “Culture House” is planning to hold a terribly boring New Year concert. A group of young amateur actors are doing their best to liven up the concert.Read More »

Synopsis:
Yelena (Mariya Strelkova), a well-off would-be singer who can’t carry a tune, mistakes shepherd Kostya Potekhin (Leonid Utyosov) for a famous Italian conductor of a jazz orchestra and invites him to an elegant party held in her house. He plays his pan flute, which attracts the herd of animals from his kolkhoz to the dining tables. Yelena’s servant Anyuta (Lyubov Orlova) falls for Kostya. But Kostya is attracted to Yelena, and when she turns him down following the discovery of his real identity, he is very upset. He leaves for the city to try himself as a professional musician and finds himself in many comical situations. Eventually he joins a jazz band consisting of young “jolly fellows”. Read More »

Synopsis:
Contempory Moscow, Russia. Young Galya (Yuliya Vysotskaya) comes to Moscow from the coal-mining town of Shakhty in the Rostov Oblast near the Black Sea, a journey of over 500 miles. She is pretty and bright, if a bit naive and disorganized. Her dream is to become an elite high-fashion model — a supermodel — and to see her image on the glossy cover of the fashion magazine Beauty. When she meets the editor-in-chief of Beauty Magazine, however, he tells Galya that she lacks the necessary natural beauty and sense of style to be a model, and she will never appear on their cover. She then goes to work as a seamstress for a famous fashion designer. During one of their shows, quite by accident, she ends up walking the runway as a model. They fire her on the spot. Then, seemingly by chance, she becomes the assistant of the owner of an elite, highly exclusive, personal matchmaking agency, which — for a considerable price — arranges marriages for rich men with the most beautiful models in Moscow. Soon, she, too, will learn how to be an “elitnaya nevesta (elite bride)”.Read More »

Paulina lives and works in a small hotel in the northern town near the border. She and her friend Nadia dream of a different, paradise and exotic world. One day a stranger arrives at the hotel. Torn between a man and a friend, Paulina is trying to understand who she really is and what she wants most in her life.Read More »