Russian

  • Elem Klimov – Proshchanie AKA Farewell (1983)

    1981-1990DramaElem KlimovUSSR

    Matyora is a small village on a beautiful island with the same name. The existence of the village is threatened with flooding by the construction of a dam. This is the story of the inhabitants of Matyora and their farewell to their homeland.Read More »

  • Sergei Solovyov – Dom pod zvyozdnym nebom AKA House Under the Starry Skies (1991)

    1991-2000ArthouseMysterySergei SolovyovUSSR

    Quote:
    It is the last film of the Solovyov trilogy and possibly the last “underground” soviet film. A great scientist returned from US, where he was given a PC (a very rare and expensive thing for Russia of that time) and some other awards for his outstanding research. The KGB and “Bratva” did the best to meet him at his motherland and get a piece of his prize. Besides, it is the film of the last years of “perestroika” which was, in itself, the mass hallucination. So that is the way Solovyov made his film.Read More »

  • Tchavdar Georgiev & Amanda Pope – The Desert of Forbidden Art (2010)

    2001-2010DocumentaryRussiaTchavdar Georgiev

    Trace the incredible story of defiant visionary Igor Savitsky, an artist and museum curator who cunningly acquired more than 40,000 banned Soviet Union paintings and hid the illegal collection from the KGB in Uzbekistan’s Nukus Museum. In addition to rare archival footage and interviews with the artists’ children, this absorbing documentary also features letters and diary entries read by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Edward AsnerRead More »

  • Svetlana Proskurina – Peremirie AKA Truce (2010)

    Drama2001-2010RussiaSvetlana Proskurina

    Quote:
    An unsettling portrayal of provincial Russia, laced with humour and lyricism
    .
    Egor Matveev, played by Ivan Dobronravov, is a young driver journeying to a small town in the middle of nowhere, reencountering old friends and looking for love. In director Svetlana Proskurina’s words, ‘The main theme of the movie is the search for one’s inner self. Some find it when they are 70 and some when they are 20. The main character is a naïve sincere boy, who is in process of finding his inner self but it’s a dramatic process.’ A shocking and profound film, but not without its light moments. Also starring the outragous Russian rock musician Sergei Shnurov.Read More »

  • Alix Lambert – The Mark of Cain (2000)

    1991-2000Alix LambertDocumentaryPoliticsRussia

    imdb:
    Sailing ships, stars, angels and executioners The Mark of Cain chronicles the vanishing practice and language of Russian Criminal Tattoos. Captured in some of Russias most notorious prisons, including the fabled White Swan, the film traces the animus of the flowers of this carnal art by way of the brutality of its origins- the penitentiary and the criminal environment. Incisive interviews with prisoners, guards, and criminologists reveal the secret language of The Zone and The Code of Thieves of the vory v zakone. As early as the 1920s, Russian prisons and Gulag began to attract the attention of researchers.Read More »

  • Adilkhan Yerzhanov – Shturm AKA The Assault (2022)

    2021-2030Adilkhan YerzhanovComedyKazakhstanThriller

    Masked figures with machine guns march into the secondary school in Karatas, take the pupils hostage. They make no demands. Silent terror is their modus operandi. Seeing as the army will take two days to arrive due to a snowstorm, maths teacher Tazshi decides to assemble his own assault team.Read More »

  • Sergey Solovyov – 2-ACCA-2 AKA 2-Assa-2 (2008)

    2011-2020CultDramaRussiaSergei Solovyov

    Alika Aldanova—the heroine of the cult film Assa, who twenty-two years ago killed her lover Andrei Krymov—is released from prison where she has given birth to a daughter. Her new life holds in store some complex twists of fate: a well-known director invites Alika to act in the film Anna Karenina.

    Quote:
    This Assa is about freedom that has been bought with money; it is a story that happens to all of us.
    — Sergey SolovyovRead More »

  • Valeriya Gay Germanika – Da i Da AKA Yes&Yes (2014)

    2011-2020DramaRussiaValeriya Gay Germanika

    Sasha is a young girl living in a block flat with her family in Moscow. Once she falls in love with Antonin, a bohemian artist and hard drinker. Their short love affair is pulling her down, to the bottom of her subconscious. Overwhelmed with beautiful and frightening visions, she starts to paint – violently, until she can stand on her feet.Read More »

  • Grigori Kozintsev – Gamlet AKA Hamlet (1964)

    Arthouse1961-1970DramaGrigori KozintsevUSSRWilliam Shakespeare

    When the King of Denmark suddenly dies. his son, Crown Prince Hamlet, returns home to find that his Uncle Claudius has usurped the throne and married his sister-in-law, Hamlet’s recently-widowed mother. One night Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost, who commands him to avenge his murder at Claudius’ hands.Read More »

Back to top button