Semi-autobiographical story by Oskar Luts about friendship, love and life in a small Estonian country boarding school in the late 1800s.Read More »
USSR
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Arvo Kruusement – Kevade AKA Spring [+ Extras] (1969)
1961-1970Arvo KruusementDramaUSSR -
Nikolai Gubenko – Podranki aka The Orphans (1977)
Drama1971-1980Nikolai GubenkoUSSRThe original Russian title Podranki can be translated as War Orphans. The protagonist is an adult writer who undergoes a flashback at the drop of a hat. He recalls how he was orphaned when his father was killed in World War II and his mother committed suicide. He remembers the appalling treatment afforded him by a sadistic orphanage official. And he muses over his losing contact with his brothers and sisters. This is why the grown-up writer is currently involved in lobbying for better treatment of Russian orphans. Orphans caused a minor stir in 1977 when it became the first Russian film in nearly two decades to be chosen for the Cannes Film Festival by the festival judges, rather than being submitted by the Soviets. The film did not see the light of a carbon arc in America until 1980.Read More »
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Mikhail Kalik & Inna Tumanyan – Lyubit… AKA To Love (director’s cut) (1968)
1961-1970DramaInna TumanyanMikhail KalikUSSRSeveral short films about love.
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Kira Muratova – Astenicheskiy sindrom AKA Asthenic Syndrome (1990)
1981-1990ArthouseKira MuratovaUSSRQuote:
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it’s termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher has got it, and it’s not much fun.Read More » -
Vladimir Motyl – Beloe solntse pustyni AKA White Sun of the Desert (1970) (HD)
1961-1970ActionComedyUSSRVladimir MotylOne of classics of the Soviet cinema and the most popular film of the Soviet era.
A soldier of the Red Army named Sukhov has been fighting in the Russian Civil War in Russian Asia for many years. Just as he is about to return home to his wife, Sukhov is chosen to guard and protect the harem of a guerilla leader (Abdulla). Abdulla is wanted by the Red Army and left his harem behind because the women hindered him. Sukhov’s task proves to be more difficult than he imagined…
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Boris Barnet & Fyodor Otsep – Miss Mend [+Extras] (1926)
1921-1930AdventureBoris BarnetFyodor OtsepSilentUSSRQuote:
Three reporters and an office girl are trying to stop a bacteriological strike by some powerful western business leaders against the USSR.Read More »
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Sergei M. Eisenstein – Bronenosets Potyomkin aka Battleship Potemkin (1925) (HD)
1921-1930ClassicsSergei M. EisensteinSilentUSSRMarie Seton wrote:
When he made Potemkin in 1925, Sergei Eisenstein was not only a man with his total personality dedicated to creative work — albeit a creative work aimed at destroying all orthodox concepts of ‘art’ — but he was also a revolutionary fighter, a propagandist for the Russian Revolution. Thus, his work had a utilitarian purpose as well as an artistic one. He was educator and artist. At its most obvious level, Potemkin was regarded as propaganda for the Revolution; at a deeper level it was a highly complex work of art which Eisenstein thought would affect every man who beheld it, from the humblest to the most learned.Read More » -
Yuriy Norshteyn – Skazka skazok aka Tale of Tales (1979)
1971-1980AnimationUSSRYuriy NorshteynQuote:
The name Tale of Tales came from a poem of the same name by Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet that Norshteyn loved since 1962.Read More » -
Aleksandr Medvedkin – Kinopoezd – Cinetrain (1933-35)
1931-1940Aleksandr MedvedkinDocumentarySilentUSSRAs Chris Marker’s fans already know, Kinopoezd was a project by Alexandr Medvedkin, Soviet filmmaker and though he isn’t mentioned in the titles, he was a main locomotive in this crazy journey.
Train was full of with film prints, editing tables, actors and it traveled through Soviet Union, films were made in one day, edited at night and very next day shown to the people, who participated in it, as Marker says.Read More »