A film in homage to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. It concentrates on his absence from the Soviet Union and what he left behind. There are episodes of his funeral and places he lived in Moscow.
Read More »
Tag Archives: Soviet Union
Apachen (1973) Gottfried Kolditz, Gojko Mitic, Milan Beli, Colea Rautu, Western
In Northern Mexico, the Apache tribe have negotiated an agreement, granting passage over their land to the Mexicans in exchange for food. Read More »
The Idiot (1958) Ivan Pyrev, Yuriy Yakovlev, Yuliya Borisova, Nikita Podgorny, Drama
Upon Prince Myshkin’s return to St. Petersburg from an asylum in Switzerland, he becomes beguiled by the lovely young Aglaya, daughter of a wealthy father. Read More »
The Insulted and the Injured / Unizhennye i oskorblyonnye (1991) Andrey Eshpay, Nastassja Kinski, Nikita Mikhalkov, Anastasiya Vyazemskaya, Drama, Romance
Based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel about a young woman who leaves her family to live with her lover whose father dead set on keeping them apart. Read More »
The Mirror (1975) Andrei Tarkovsky, Margarita Terekhova, Filipp Yankovskiy, Ignat Daniltsev, Biography, Drama
Tarkovsky mixes flash-backs, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II Read More »
Dersu Uzala (1975) Akira Kurosawa, Maksim Munzuk, Yuriy Solomin, Mikhail Bychkov, Adventure, Biography, Drama
A few months after his notorious suicide attempt, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was regenerated by the notion of helming the first Russian/Japanese co-production. Read More »
Pirosmani (1969) Giorgi Shengelaia, Avtandil Varazi, Dodo Abashidze, Givi Aleksandria, Biography
This film is about the great Georgian painter – primitivist Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918). An unknown, self-taught painter roams the streets of a city, painting his pictures. Read More »
Skazka o tsare Saltane / The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1967) Aleksandr Ptushko, Vladimir Andreyev, Larisa Golubkina, Oleg Vidov, Family, Fantasy
Due to the genius of the great Russian poet Pushkin, this tale has become known to children in many countries of the world. It is about the amazing adventures of the brave Tsarevich Guidon, the thirty three knights led by their elder, Chernomor, the beautiful Tsarevna Swan, bewitched by an evil sorcerer, and, of course, Tsar Saltan himself who had first ruined his happy family life, but later miraculously restored it.
Read More »
Skazka o poteryannom vremeni / A Tale of Lost Times (1964) Aleksandr Ptushko, Oleg Anofriev, Grisha Plotkin, Sergei Martinson, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Kind and instructive tale of four evil wizards who decided to regain youth. But for this it was necessary to find people aimlessly waste their time. Luck smiled on them! They met four disorderly students. Wizards bewitched students and turned them into old people and themselves become children.
Read More »
Viy / Viy or Spirit of Evil (1967) Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov, Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksey Glazyrin, Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Getting lost, wandering home whilst on leave from his seminary, novice monk Khoma stays in the barn of an old woman. A scuffle breaks out. Later, he is summoned to stand and pray over a young dead woman, in the local church, for three nights. It is here that, while in the long, dark nights of the locked doors, the dead regain life, the souls of Hell taunt the young monk to near terrifying insanity, and the test of Faith will be as powerful as the witches, monsters and the mighty demon Viy who haunt his every step and bay for his very soul.
Read More »
Monanieba / Repentance (1984) Tengiz Abuladze, Avtandil Makharadze, Ia Ninidze, Zeinab Botsvadze, Comedy, Drama
The villainous mayor of a small town in Georgia, Varlam (Avtandil Makharadze), responsible for Stalin-like terror in his megalomania, dies and is given a pompous burial. Problem arises when the attractive Guliko (Iya Ninidze), someone whose two daughters were persecuted by the mayor, keeps digging up his grave and placing it somewhere else. She is arrested after telling authorities Varlam has no business being buried with such honor. During her trial, the story of the evil mayor is told in flashback, using the power of symbols and surreal dream images to bring back the recollections of that nightmarish regime.
Read More »
Neokonchennaya povest / Unfinished Story (1956) Fridrikh Ermler, Elina Bystritskaya, Sergey Bondarchuk, Sofiya Giatsintova, Drama, Romance
The local doctor Yelizaveta Maximovna sees and restores to health lots and lots of patients. The talented shipbuilder Yershov afflicted by the misfortune of leg paralysis proves to be the most “difficult” one yet. Consistently trying out various treatment courses she strives to help Yershov, who falls in love with his physician. Yershov’s mother and Doctor Aganin, who is in love with Yelizaveta Maximovna, put obstacles in the path of their happiness…
Read More »
The Sword and the Dragon / Ilya Muromets (1956) Aleksandr Ptushko, Boris Andreyev, Shukur Burkhanov, Andrei Abrikosov, Fantasy
Ilya is a cripple without the use of his legs. When he aids some weary travellers, they surprise him by giving him a potion that restores his legs. He immediately becomes powerful and sets off to prove himself to his King. Doing so, he fights the evil Tugars, a wind demon that looks like a cross between a goblin and The Noid, a zeppelin-like ambassador, and the evil Tugars. Ilya gets framed for a crime he didn’t commit, then is freed, then finally dispatches the Tugars and their dragon.
Read More »
The Inner Circle (1991) Andrey Konchalovskiy, Tom Hulce, Lolita Davidovich, Bob Hoskins, Drama
The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin’s private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator’s death. Told from Sanchin’s view, the sympathetic but tragically flawed hero maintains unwavering faith in his “Master” despite the arrest of his neighbors and his involvement with their daughter, his wife’s affair with the chilling State Security chief Lavrentii Beria and her tragic decline, and the deadly political machinations within the Kremlin he witnesses firsthand.
Read More »
Tsirk / Circus (1936) Grigori Aleksandrov, Isidor Simkov, Lyubov Orlova, Evgeniya Melnikova, Vladimir Volodin, Comedy, Musical
Circus tells the story of an American named Marion who is banished from the US because a black man impregnates her. Marion escapes to Russia to start a new life in the circus and joins up with lustful, anti-Russian ringmaster who happens to be in love with her. The ringmaster knows her secret about the black baby and threatens to reveal it unless she marries him. The problem is that Marion has fallen in love with a Russian acrobat and later out of sheer jealousy, the ringmaster reveals the identity of the woman’s child in front of the circus audience.
Read More »