A man and a woman, two casual acquaintances, learn that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. This discovery drives them to do things they didn’t dare to do before. What will prevail—the feeling of jealousy or passion? What to choose—revenge or forgiveness? The protagonists are looking for something to build a new life upon, but it is not easy: their every action is influenced by the fact of infidelity, and this infidelity has its own logic.Read More »
Leader of a traveling gypsy band from the steppes of Bessarabia (now Moldova), Toma Alistar is a skilled violinist whose fame takes him on tours around European capitals and royal courts. He remains obsessed with his first love, beautiful Leanca who was married elsewhere while Toma was traveling, and spends his life and fortune trying to find her. Written by Markku KuoppamäkiRead More »
Based on the novel of the same title by the Strugatsky brothers
“Konstantin Lopushansky was a student of classic Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky, and master’s influence is highly visible in “The Ugly Swans” — not just as a ghost in the background, but as full-fledged foreground presence. Which is not to deny Lopushansky his originality. More than anything, it’s a sign of a certain artistic style being handed down over the generations… The film is …aesthetically outstanding and emotionally moody in a way that’s very hard to gauge… Tarkovsky would have been proud.” (Tom Birchenough, “The Moscow Times”)
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The great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein, whose Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible stand as masterpieces of world cinema, is the subject of this eccentric and puzzling production. Though based on memoirs Eisenstein wrote before his death in 1948, most of this film is barely a documentary at all, but rather a composite of images, many of which are fascinating and arresting. Eisenstein himself was known for startling and memorable images (perhaps the most famous of which is the shot of the baby carriage rolling down the steps in Potemkin), so memorializing him with clips from his own films interspersed with readings from his memoirs seems somewhat appropriate. But the voice-over in Russian (with English subtitles) is quite sparse, and at times the images onscreen, which include clips from Buster Keaton films and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s, are utterly mystifying.. –Robert J. McNamaraRead More »
Dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the director. The film uses unique materials related to the years Tarkovsky spent in Italy: Florence, where he lived, and where his museum now exists, at a place called Banja Vignoni, where “Nostalgia” was filmed in the house of the Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra.
The film will include rare unique images: young Tarkovsky on the set, fragments of the documentary “Time of travel”, which was filmed in Italy by Andrei Tarkovsky with Tonino Guerra. For the first time viewers will see the location of filming of “Stalker” in Estonia…Read More »
Sergei works as a salesman in the department of unusual goods; his life differs in no way from that of a million other people — until night falls on to town.
FEST: Cannes, Moscow, Kinotavr, Molodist, …
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A man gets fired from his cooshie government job. He thinks its the end of the world but slowly finds things to live for. Nominated for Oscar in the foreign language movie category.Read More »
Description:The film is about friendship and incipient love between ten-form schoolchildren Ksenia and Boris. Rude and hypocritical interference of the people around, who saw platitide and even lechery in their feelings, spoilt their relationship, inflicted heavy spiritual trauma, destroyed their feeling, which could have grown into real big love.Read More »
A small village located on the shores of the White Sea, 2008. In Northern Russia.
While winter has shrouded everything in the glacial night of the North, a few hours of light per day seep in on the eve of Easter in the village of Soumskiy Pozad, around a thousand kilometers to the north of Saint-Petersburg, in the province of Karelia. Connected to the rest of the country by a vague muddy road and a piece of railroad, the village experiences a suspended and mysterious time. The film is about the Russia of unending forests and potato fields. A few robust and intransigent people live peacefully, in no hurry by pressing needs. Two small girls have just been adopted by a family. The woman is sweet and soft-spoken, whereas the man is hot-tempered. It is Chekov’s Russia: still happy, yet torn apart, and cold.
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