Russian

  • Mark Donskoy – Moi universitety AKA My Universities (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaMark DonskoyUSSR

    Quote:
    My Universities (Moi universiteti) is the last installment of Russian director Mark Donskoy’s “Maxim Gorky” trilogy. Having endured a painful youth in My Childhood (1938) and a torturous sojourn as a serf in My Apprenticeship (1939), future writer Gorky (Alexei Lyarsky) reaches maturity with an insatiable desire for personal and artistic freedom. The “university” of the title is actual the school of Hard Knocks, as Gorky goes to work in the shipyards and commisserates with the hard-drinking, philosophical dockworkers. Donskoy’s depiction of street life under the Czarist regime of the late 19th century as unrelentingly depressing, filled with disenfranchised derelicts. This, of course, was meant to be a contrast to the “perfection” of the Stalin years. We can forgive this propagandizing in the light of Donskoy’s indisputable cinematic brilliance. In 1941, a considerably edited version of My Universities was released in the US as University of Life. (Hal Erickson, Rovi)Read More »

  • Roman Zhigalov – Les (2018)

    2011-2020DramaRoman ZhigalovRussia

    IMDB:
    In a small village lost in the middle of a boundless forest a teenager is in love with an older woman. He does not know how to strike up a conversation with her, much less how to tell her about his feelings. The boy’s father is pursuing the same woman and is ready to leave his family for her. The personal conflict between father and son is swept up in the turmoil of outside events which turn neighbor against neighbor, dividing them into ‘us’ and ‘them’. Every day those who are stronger show more and more disregard and contempt for the values of the weak, pushing everyone’s life towards a disaster.Read More »

  • Vladimir Bortko – Sobache serdtse AKA Heart of a Dog (1988)

    1981-1990ComedySci-FiUSSRVladimir Bortko

    Professor Preobrazhensky and his colleague place some human parts into a dog named Sharik. Soon the dog transforms into a human.

    Quote:
    This movie (and yes, it’s a movie – it was shot as a two-parter, but the two parts together come down to slightly more than 2 hours) is one of the unsung masterpieces of world cinema. A very well-mannered, and yet at the same time absolutely savage denunciation of the Soviet regime and the type of person who flourished under it, the film is a faithful adaptation of the long-banned eponymous book by Mikhail Bulgakov. Read More »

  • Aleksandra Strelyanaya – Sukhodol AKA The Dry Valley (2011)

    2011-2020Aleksandra StrelyanayaArthouseDramaRussia

    Quote:
    The Dry Valley (Суходол) is the first full feature film by Alexandra Strelyanaya. The film is based on the famous novel written by Nobel Prize laureate Ivan Bunin.
    This story unites the destinies of the landowners and their servants, and is considered to be one of the most complete portraits of the Russian life in the late XIX century. It takes place in Dry Valley, a village owned by the noble family of Khrushevs. The story tells about Natalia, a young and naive girl who serves in their country house. We see and experience her love, dedication to her masters, mysticism, exile, betrayal and faith, while the Dry Valley is falling to pieces, slowly but inevitably, as well as the lives of its inhabitants.Read More »

  • Leonid Gaidai – Ivan Vasilevich menyaet professiyu AKA Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyLeonid GaidaiUSSR

    Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation
    An unconventional comedy based on M. Bulgakov’s play, “Ivan Vassilevich,” when inventor, Timofeev builds a time machine, things go awry. Tsar Ivan the Terrible comes into the year 1973, while Ivan Bunsha, an apartment complex manager, and George Miloslavsky, a petty burglar, are transferred to 16th century Moscow accidentally.Read More »

  • Sergei Loznitsa – Donbass (2018)

    2011-2020DramaSergei LoznitsaUkraine

    Quote:
    In eastern Ukraine, society begins to degrade as the effects of propaganda and manipulation begin to surface in this post-truth era.Read More »

  • Nazim Tulyakhodzayev – Veld (1987)

    1981-1990HorrorNazim TulyakhodzayevSci-FiUSSR

    Two children get a present from their parents, an electronic game. Via gigantic television screens, Peter and Wendy lose themselves for days in the African “veldt” and watch with excitement as lions devour antelopes.

    Meanwhile, strange things take place outside the house: An atmosphere of hostility forms in the city, and the citizens are unsettled by the materialization of ghosts and the memories of their loved ones…Read More »

  • Vera Storozheva – Puteshestvie s domashnimi zhivotnymi AKA Travelling with Pets (2007)

    2001-2010DramaRussiaVera Storozheva

    Quote:
    Natalie was 16, living in a foster home, when she was bought by a rough and unstable man. They lived at a remote station, and their loveless marriage lasted 19 years, until he died. Now free, Natalie is discovering her first love when she meets Sergei.Read More »

  • Mikhail Kalatozov – Neotpravlennoye pismo aka The Letter Never Sent (1959)

    1951-1960ArthouseDramaMikhail KalatozovUSSR
    Неотправленное письмо

    This film is based on the eponymous book by Valery Osipov. Four geologists are searching for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia. After a long and tiresome journey they manage to find their luck and put the diamond mine on the map. The map must be delivered back to Moscow. But on the day of their departure a terrible forest fire wreaks havoc, and the geologists get trapped in the woods.Read More »

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