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Timur Bekmambetov: Irony of Fate 2 (Ironiia sud'by 2) has been the first film released in 2008 with a box office grossing of over 50 million USD.
Igor Voloshin: Nirvana screened in the forum of the Berlin Film Festival 2008.
Vladimir Toropchin: Il'ia Muromets and Solovei the Nightningale is the latest animation of the Russian byliny.
Kirill Kuzin: The Best Film (Samyi luchshii film) is a blockbuster that made over 30 million at the box office. It tells the story of Vadik, who looks back on his life as he is admitted to heaven's gates...
Karen Shakhnazarov: The Vanishing Empire (Ischeznuvshaya imperiia) is set in the 1970s and recreates life of a group of students.
Aleksandr Atanasian: Montana is a film set in the US where a released convict is sent to carry out a killing, and falls himself victim to a conspiracy.
Anton Sivers: The Swings (Kacheli) ...
Valerii Ugarov: Babka Ezhka is a charming animation involving all the heroes of classic fairy tales.
Aleksandr Cherniaev: The Kings are Omnipotent (Vse mogut koroli) is a remake of the Roman Holiday.
Sergei Bodrov: The Mongol (Mongol) is a Kazakh-Russian and German production about Chingis Khan, which has received an OSCAR nomination for Kazakhstan. REVIEW
Marina Liubakova: Cruelty (Zhestokost') is a film about a teenager in Moscow.... REVIEW
Andrei Eshpai:The Event (Sobytie) is based on Nabokov.
Pavel Lungin: Lilacs (Vetka Sireni) is a bio-pic screened as special event at the Moscow IFF about the life of Rakhmaninov.
Pavel Sanaev: Kilometer Zero (Nulevoi kilometr) is about two men from the provinces who come to Moscow to find their fortunes.
Nikita Mikhalkov: 12. This remake of Sidney Lumet's Twelve Angry Men premered at the Venice Film Festival in 2007 and is won an Oscar nomination.... The film is based on a script by Moiseenko and Novototskii, who scripted The Return. REVIEW
Aleksei Muradov: Night Sisters (Nochnye sestry) based on a script by Valentin Chernykh
Alexander Petrov: My Love (Moia Liubov' ), is an animation by the Oscar winner, based on Ivan Shmelev's story.
Larisa Sadilova: Nothing Personal (Nichego lichnogo) about a private detective observing the lives of two women. The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival and received the FIPRESCI award. REVIEW
Vera Storozheva: Traveling with Pets (Puteshestvie s domashnimi zivotnymi) won the Main Prize att he Moscow IFF with a tale of an orphan girl who buries her 'master' and begins to lead an independent life. REVIEW
Valeri Ogorodnikov: Fishing Season (Putina) is the director's last film, partly edited before his premature death in July 2006. The film explores the lives of a fishermen's community on a remote island, and their complex relationships doomed by violence and love. REVIEW
Aleksei Balabanov: Cargo 200 (Gruz 200). Balabanov's eleventh feature film is based on his own script and deals with the return of soldiers' corpses from the Afghan war (code-named cargo 200). A powerful film set in the late perestroika years with gritty realism that led to the film being initially rejected by major Russian distributors and causing a stir among Russian film critics. REVIEW
Andrei Zvyagintsev: The Banishment (Izgnanie) was shown in the Cannes IFF competition, where Lavronenko received the Best Actor award. The film is based on Saroyan's "The Laughing Matter", but is in fact a continuation, both visually and narratively, of The Return. REVIEW
Aleksei Popogrebskii: Simple Things (Prostye veshchi) swept the board of awards at Kinotavr 2007. The film was in competition in Karlovy Vary, where it won the main award. It tells a tale of a doctor, Sergei Maslov, who lives in a communal apartment in Petersburg, and is asked to render a service to an old patient (played masterfully by Leonid Bronevoi) that contradicts his ethics. REVIEW
Alexander Sokurov: Aleksandra with Galina Vishnevskaya in the role of a grandmother who visits her grandson serving in the Russian Army in Chechnya. A powerful statement about peace and understanding. REVIEW
Andrei Konchalovsky: Gloss (Glianets) opened the Kinotavr Festival in Sochi and is due to be released in August 2007. The film tells the story of a young woman from Rostov who tries to make her dream come true: a career as a model in Moscow. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Alexander Mindadze: Soaring (Otryv) is the debut film of the well-known scriptwriter. A story of loss after the protagonist's family dies in a plane crash. REVIEW and INTERVIEW
Aleksei Mizgiryov: Hard-Hearted [Flint] (Kremen'). The film based on a script co-written with playwirght Yuri Klavdiev presents potentially a new hero of Russian cinema: cold and unemotional, learning from the lie he observes in the capital. The film recently won an award at Taormina/Italy. REVIEW
Alexander Khvan: The Guidedog (Povodyr'), about the killer Pavel Shnyrev whose mother is taken into hospital and who goes to find his old father, blind but guided by a dog.
Maria Razbezhkina: The Hollow (Yar). Razbezhkina's second feature film is based on Esenin's story. REVIEW
Kira Muratova: Two in One (Dva v odnom), her first film to be produced in Ukraine, accompanied by the short entitled The Dummy (Kukla). Two in One premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Mikhail Khleborodov: Paragraph 78, in two parts, is the latest action movie. The European version is in one part only.
Andrei I. (aka Ippolit A.): SOS- My Dears (Dorogie moi), about the adventures of a 13- and a 15-year old motorcyclist in Moscow.
Ivan Solovov: The Father (Otets) is based on Platonov's story 'Return'. REVIEW
Tamara Vladimirtsova and Andrei Panin: Gagarin's Grandson (Vnuk Gagarina), about a black orphan boy adopted by an artist. REVIEW
Uliana Shilkina: Equator. Set on a Russian war base in Africa.
Pavel Ruminov: Dead Daughters (Mertvye docheri) is a thriller ... fast editing and some special effects.
Nikolai Lebedev: Wolfhound (Volkodav) based on Maria Semenova's novel. It deals with the last survivor of the tribe 'Grey Hounds' who takes revenge on the cannibals that destroyed his tribe. REVIEW
Egor Konchalovsky. Tins (Konservy). In many ways this could be seen as a sequel to The Escape... a film about a journalist who possesses information on uranium sales an is set up by his enemies and sent to prison.
Rezo Gigineishvili: The Heat (Zhara, 2007). A lyrical comedy starring Aleksei Chadov, a blockbuster in cinemas... REVIEW
Filipp Iankovskii: The Sword-Bearer (Mechenosets, 2006). A fantastic thriller, and an allegory about a society that turns man into a monster. REVIEW
Ramil Salakhutdinov: Spinning inside the Ring Road (Kruzhenie v predelakh kol'tsevoi, 2006) has won awards at the Window on Europe Festival in Vyborg. REVIEW
Andrei Eshpai: Ellipsis (Mnogotochie, 2006). Participant of Window on Europe and Locarno, this film is a fascinating adaptation of Viktor Nekrasov's 'Kira Georgievna'. REVIEW
Eldar Riazanov: Andersen (2006). A film about Hans Christian Andersen. REVIEW
Georgii Shengeliia: flesh.ka (2006) deals with valuable information contained on a flash stick. REVIEW
Vsevolod Plotnikov: The Lift (Elevator) (Lift, 2006). A horror movie set in an elevator... REVIEW
Avdotia Smirnova: Relations (Sviaz', 2006). Screened at the Kinotavr Film Festival, the film has a fine performance by Anna Mikhalkova and Mikhail Porechenkov. REVIEW
Igor Apasian: Graffiti (2006) was screened at the Window on Europe Festival and explores the secrets of the Russia people. REVIEW
Aleksei Muradov: The Worm (Cherv', 2006), the Russian film entered into the Moscow IFF. Discussed in the REPORT on the Moscow film festival. REVIEW
Sergei Karandashov: The Wanderer (Strannik, 2006), a film in the tradition of Aleksei German by his assistant director. REVIEW
Pavel Lungin: The Island (Ostrov, 2006), a powerful film about the concept of guilt, set in a northern Rusisan monastry. The film was screened for the closing ceremony of the Venice IFF and has sold to a number of territories worldwide. REVIEW
Iurii Moroz: The Spot (Tochka, 2006), a new trend in Russian cinema: a film about prositutes in Moscow and the impossibility of escaping from the circle of exploitation. REVIEW
Petr Tochilin: Khottabych (2006). Starring Viktor Sukhorukov, this film transposed the genie of the bottle into contemporary Moscow with internet and chatrooms. REVIEW
Iulii Gusman: Park of the Soviet Period (Park sovetskogo perioda, 2006), set in a holiday resort on the Black sea, where a TV presenter experiences the strictures and joys of life Soviet style. REVIEW
Ivan Dykhovichny: Inhale-Exhale (Vdokh-Vydokh, 2006). A film about a relationship that has fallen apart years ago, and a chance meeting of the two people involved. REVIEW
Aleksandr Rogozhkin:Transit (Peregon, 2006), set in WWII at a Russian airbase dispatching American fighter planes. REVIEW
Boris Khlebnikov: Free Floating (working title Road Works, Svobodnoe plavanie, 2006), scripted with Alexander Rodionov and filmed by DoP Sandor Berkeshi. Best Director Award at Kinotavr 2006. REVIEW
Konstantin Lopushanskii: Ugly Swans (Gadkie lebedi, 2006) based on the Strugatskii Brothers. Co -produced with France, the film stars Grigorii Hlady in the main part. REVIEW
Aleksandr Veledinskii: Alive (Zhivoi, 2006) which had the working title Kakimi my ne budem was released by Pygmalion Production Film Studio. A soldier returning from Chechnia having lost all his friends on the battlefield, and having lost a leg. He is plagued by guilt. REVIEW
Kakha Kikabidze: Seventh Day (Sed'moi den', 2006) working title Inspiration (Vdokhnovenie) about a gambler who escapes from his debtors to his dying uncle, who tells him of a treasure of the White Army. Starring Anatoli Belyi.
Nikolai Khomeriki:977 (2006) presented his debut film in the "Un Certain Regard" section at Cannes 2006. It is a visually powerful film with a strange narrative about a scientist and his discoveries. REVIEW
Ivan Vyrypaev: Euphoria (Eiforiia, 2006) is the playwright and performer's debut as filmmaker. A film about the power of passion set in the Don region. The film screened in the Venice IFF competition, where it won the debut prize. REVIEW
ANIMATION... Iurii Kulakov: Prince Vladimir a new cartoon, devoted to Russian history. REVIEW
ANIMATION... the stdio Pilot continues its series Gora samotsvetov (Mountain of Gems); Metronom Films are editing the Lullabies of the World (Kolybel'nye mira). Melnitsa Studio is continuing itsseries of the Russian epics with the sequel to the animation of Alesha Popovich and Tugarin Zmei - I. Maksimov: Dobrynia Nikitich and Tugarin the Snake. REVIEW
SERIAL... Uliana Shilkina: The Golden Calf (Zolotoi telenok, 2006) for CPS, starring Oleg Menshikov. REVIEW
SERIAL... Gleb Panfilov's The First Circle (V kruge pervom) based on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's epic novel, has been shown on RTR in February 2006. REVIEW
SERIAL...Aleksandr Proshkin: Zhivago (12 series), has been released on DVD prior to its television screening. REVIEW
Oksana Bychkova: Piter FM, (Piter FM, 2006) is a film about a telephone romance that features Evgeni Tsyganov in the main part. The "second" film of the year, according to its advertisers. REVIEW
Petr Buslov: Bimmer-2 (Bumer-2, 2006) the sequel to the blockbuster, released in February 2006. REVIEW
Aleksandr Atanesian: Bastards (Svolochi, 2006). A film set in 1943 about schoolchildren preparing for the war. REVIEW
Nurbek Egen: The Ancestors' Chest (Sunduk predkov). A tale about a Kyrgyz-French marriage. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Timur Bekmambetov: Day Watch (Dnevnoi dozor, 2006). The first film of the year 2006, premiered during New Year's Eve 2005/6, and sequel to Night Watch. ARTICLE REVIEW
SERIAL... Pavel Lungin: The Affair of the Dead Souls (Delo o mertvykh dushakh, 2005). Lungin's seriaqlisation of Gogol's novel, based on a script by Iurii Arabov, was shown on television in autumn 2005.
SERIAL... Vladimir Bortko: The Master and Margarita (2005/6). Bortko's serialisation of Bulgakov's novel was televised in early 2006. REVIEW
Pavel Sanaev: The Last Weekend (Poslednii uik-end, 2005). Sanaev's debut, dealing with the owner of a security firm who decides to send his younger brother to the US to study, together with his best friend. During the farewell party a tragic accident happens... REVIEW
Aleksei German Jr.: Garpastum ( 2005). Russia's film in the Venice FF competition, about the dream of football on the eve of WWI, and in the Petersburg society of the Silver Age. REVIEW
Nikolai Dostal: Kolya Rolling in the Fields (Kolia-perekati-pole, 2005). The sequel of Dostal's film Cloud Paradise about a retarded and isolated boy who left his hometown. Now, ten years later, he returns.... REVIEW
Stanislav Govorukhin: Not by Bread Alone (Ne khlebom edinym, 2005). A film based on the novel by Dudintsev. In the immediate post-war years (1947) a man and a woman meet in a school: she teaches English, he teaches physics. She is the wife of a factory director; he is ready to give his life for an idea - the advancement of the factory lines. Starring Aleksei Petrenko, Evgeni Grishkovets, Aleksandr Rozenbaum. REVIEW
Anton Artemov: Polumgla, 2005. A film about the war, set in 1944 in Arkhangelsk where the Germans build radio transmitters. REVIEW
Andrei Proshkin: The Soldiers' Decameron (Soldatskii dekameron, 2005). A detective story in the military, scripted by Gennadi Ostrovskii. REVIEW.
Katia Shagalova: Pavlov's Dog (Sobaka Pavlova, 2005). A film produced by Aleksei Uchitel about a relationship between Maksim and Ksiusha, two inmates of a psychiatric clinic. REVIEW
Aleksei Sidorov: Shadowboxing (Boi s ten'iu, 2005). A blockbuster about a boxer who tries to free himself from the grip of the mafia. Grossed £8 million at the Russian box office. REVIEW
Oleg Stepchenko: Velvet Revolution (Muzhskoi sezon, 2005). Another self-declared Russian blockbuster about the work of the special forces in the fight against gobal terrorism and arms trade. REVIEW
Fedor Bondarchuk: The Ninth Regiment (Deviataia rota, 2005). A film the Afghan war. The latest Russian blockbuster, which grossed over $25 million (release 29 September). REVIEW
Andrei Kravchuk: The Italian (Ital'ianets, 2005). Vania, aged 7, runs from an orphanage in search of his mother. This film was Russia'a nomination to the Academy Awards, but it did not reveive an OSCAR nomination. REVIEW
Aleksei Karelin: Time to Collect the Stones (Vremia sobirat' kamni, 2005). A fine film made for the 60th anniversary of the end of the war about a German soldier who defuses mines in post-war Soviet Russia. REVIEW
Maxim Pezhemskii: Mum, Don't Worry (Mama ne goryui, 2005) . Sequel to his first film, to be released in cinemas in autumn 2005.
Aleksei Balabanov: Dead Man's Bluff, (Zhmurki, 2005)* . Released on 2 June 2005, starring Nikita Mikhalkov, Aleksei Panin and a host of film stars. A comics on the Russian gangster scene of the 1990s. REVIEW
Aleksei Uchitel': Dreaming of Space (Kosmos kak predchuvstvie, 2005). His film set in a village in 1957 and involves the young Gagarin before his famous mission. The script is by A. Mindadze. Starring Evgeni Mironov, Irina Pegova, Evgeni Tsyganov, this film won the main award at the Moscow International Film Festival 2005. REVIEWEvgenii Iufit: Bipedalism (Priamokhozhdenie, 2005). His film is about a scientist who finds an archive of visual materials. REVIEW
Rustam Khamdamov: Vocal Parallels (Vokal'nye parallely, 2005) is completed after the assistance of Irakli Kvirikadze with still the editing. The film is based on a story by Renata Litvinova, who also stars in the film, which is produced in Kazakhstan. REVIEW
Vera Storozheva: Greek Holidays (Grecheskie kanikuly, 2005). This film was gala-premiered at the Moscow Film Festival and tells the love story of a young couple who travel to Greece and have to, somehow, earn their money for the stay and the return journey. REVIEW
Aleksei Fedorchenko: First on the Moon (Pervye na lune, 2005). The documentalist from Ekaterinburg has created a stunning collage of pseudo-documentary images mixed with archival footage to create the history of the Soviet conquest of space - as early as the 1930s! REVIEW and REVIEW2
Tania Detkina: The Rascal (Pakostnik, 2005). A film in black and white that captures the state of a young man on the abyss. REVIEW
Larisa Sadilova: Babysitter required (Trebuetsia niania, 2005). Casting again Marina Zubanova, Sadilova here tells the story of a nanny who subverts the life of a well-off family and their offspring. REVIEW
Sergei Loban: Dust (Pyl', 2005). Premiered at the Moscow Film Festival in the Perspective sections, Dust has been hailed as a new landmark in Russian film. REVIEW
Pavel Ruminov: Silent Man (Chelovek, kotoryi molchal, 2005). About a web designer who receives an anonymous letter with a threat to his life should he not fall silent. REVIEW
Pavel Lungin: Roots (Familles a vendre / Bednye rodstvenniki, 2005). This film swept the board at the awards ceremony of Kinotavr. REVIEW
Djanik Faiziev: Turkish Gambit (Turetskii gambit, 2005)*. Based on Boris Akunin's novel, this film became a blockbuster, grossing $19 million. REVIEW
Aleksandr Sokurov: The Sun (Solntse, 2005).* First shown at the Berlin IFF, this film is the thrid in the tetralogy on dictators of the 20th century with a view on the life of Hirohito. REVIEW
Egor Konchalovskii: Flight (Pobeg, 2005)*. This film is starring Evgeni Mironov, Alexei Serebriakov and Viktoria Tolstoganova and deals with the life of the surgeon Vetrov, who is happily married and successful in his job. Suddenly his wife is found murdered: he is arrested and sentenced to prison camp in Siberia, from whence he flees in order to return to Moscow and prove his innocence. REVIEW
Kirill Serebrennikov: Ragin (2004).* The star director of Moscow's theatres, Kirill Serebrennikov, with his second feature film, based on Chekhov's "Ward No. 6".
Dmitrii Astrakhan: Dark Night (Temnaia noch', 2004). * A film about the son of a millionaire who falls in love with a girl from the lower echelons of society. Starring the world champion in fighting, Andrei Semenov.
Valerii Naumov, Aleksandr Chernykh: Nameday (Imeniny, 2004). Based on Stepan Lobozerov's play "Family Portrait with Outsiders".
Vladimir Khotinenko: Expectation (Ozhidanie, aka Vechernii zvon, 2004).* The film deals with recollections of of the post-war period (formerly entitled Third Rome ).
Natal'ia Naumova: The Year of the Horse (God loshadi - sozvezdie skorpiona, 2004) . A film about a circus artist, whose favourite horse is about to be taken away from her - but she abducts the horse.
Fedor Popov: Four Taxi-drivers and a Dog (Chetyre taksista i sobaka, 2004) .* A comedy about the adventures of a puppy. Cast: Andrei Panin, Viktor Bychkov
Svetlana Stasenko: Shantytown Blues (Angel na obochine, 2004)*. Stasenko's debut feature film. REVIEW
Anna Melikian: Mars (2004). * A film about a boxer who leaves without any reason for an unknown destination, and alights at a railway station of a village called 'Mars', known only for its toy factory. REVIEW
Il'ia Khrzhanovskii: Four (Chetyre, 2004). The film was shown in a the Giornate degli autori in Venice 2004. Based on a script by Vladimir Sorokin. REVIEW and REVIEW2
Evgenii Lavrent'ev: Countdown (Lichnyi nomer, 2004).* Another film classed as a 'blockbuster', dealing with a terrorist attack and the FSB hero who prevents the worse from happening. REVIEW
Timur Bekmambetov: Night Watch (Nochnoi dozor, 2004). * The BLOCKBUSTER of 2004, grossing over $16 million at the Russian box office alone. The sequel Day Watch is to follow in 2006. REVIEW & INFO SITE
Svetlana Proskurina: Remote Access (Udalennyi dostup, 2004). The only Russian film selected for the 2004 Venice International Film Festival. Proskurina explores the nature of human love in an extraordinary feature, starring Elena Rufanova. REVIEW
Marina Razbezhkina: Harvest Time (Vremia zhatvy, 2004).* This film, made by a documentalist film-maker, screened at the Moscow International Film Festival 2004. REVIEW
Artem Antonov: Capital Express (Stolichnyi skoryi, 2004). This short film was shown in Cannes 2004, and has received several awards at short film festivals. It is a lyrical story about teenagers in the provinces.
Kira Muratova: The Tuner (Nastroishchik , 2004)*. Muratova's film stars Demidova, Ruslanova and Litvinova. The film is a criminal melodrama. (Awaiting festival premiere). REVIEW
Vladimir Mashkov: Papa! (2004). * The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival 2004; it is based on Alexander Galich's play Matrosskaya Tishina . REVIEW
Pavel Chukhrai: A Driver for Vera (Voditel' dlia Very, 2004). * The film is set in Sevastopol in 1962, where an army general, Serov, returns with his driver. The general has a crippled daughter, Vera. REVIEW
Dmitrii Meskhiev: SVOI - Svyashennaya voina. Obychnaya istoriya (Sacred War. Usual Story, aka Ours , aka Our Own , 2004). * The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival and was awarded the main prize. The film deals with events in August 1941, when a sniper of the Red Army, a political instructor and Cheka officer run from captivity and hide in a village. REVIEW
Renata Litvinova: The Goddess (Boginia , 2004). * Litvinova's debut as filmmaker is about a female police investigator specialising on mysterious crime cases. REVIEW
Valerii Ogorodnikov: Red Sky. Black Snow (Krasnoe nebo. Chernyi sneg, 2004)*. The film is set in the Urals in 1943. REVIEW
Roman Balaian: Bright is the Night (Noch' svetla, 2004). * The film is about a couple, both teachers at a school for the deaf and the blind, conducting an experiment with the feeling of love. The script is co-written by Rustam Ibragimbekov. REVIEW
Karen Shakhnazarov: The Horseman called Death (Vsadnik po imeni smerti, 2004). * The film is about terror in Russia in the early 20th-century, based on V. Ropshin's tale The Pale Horse ( Kon' blednaia ). REVIEW
Valerii Todorovskii: My Stepbrother Frankenstein (Moi svodnyi brat Frankenstein, 2004). * After having fought in the Chechen war, a 'forgotten' son returns to his father, who now has his own family in Moscow. The film stars Leonid Yarmolnik. It received the FIPRESCI award at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary in July 2004. REVIEW
Aleksandr Tsatsuev: The Huntsman (Yeger', 2004) . * Tsatsuyev's debut film creates a Russian superman who brings justice to the taiga.
Rano Kubaeva: Wonderful Valley (Chudnaya dolina, 2004). The film is about three happy couples and how they are helped by sheep. A Slovo/CTB production.
Gul'shad Omarova. Fifty-Fifty (Shiza , 2004). * Omarova's debut film was written and produced by Sergei Bodrov for CTB. The film was selected for the 'Certain Regard' programme in Cannes 2004. REVIEW
Leonid Rybakov: The Book Stealers (Pokhititeli knig, 2003/4). * Rybnikov's debut film was first shown in a long version at the Moscow Film Festival in June 2003 and has been released in Russia in March 2004 in a shorter re-edited version. REVIEW
Ruslan Bal'tser: Don't Even Think II: Shadow of Independence (Dazhe ne dumai II: Ten' nezavisimosti, 2004). * Baltser does not abandon his quirky camera moves and animated sequences in this sequel, which explores the adventures of Marat, Nick, and Bely (Alexei Alexeev, Sergei Mukhin, Artem Tkachenko) in a remote holiday destination as they escape the supervision of their boss Chernov (Andrei Panin).
Vladimir Khotinenko: 72 Meters (72 metra, 2004)*. Khotinenko's commercially-oriented film is clearly connected to the disaster of the Kursk submarine in August 2000, but fails to make it an action movie as the emotional baggage of the actual event turns the film into a melodrama. REVIEW
Sergei Solov'ev: About Love (O liubvi, 2004). * Soloviev's adaptation of three Chekhov stories, released in March 2004. REVIEW
Andrei Proshkin: Play of Butterflies (Igra motylkov, 2004). * A film about a group of young rock musicians, starring Oksana Akinshina, Maria Zvonareva, Alexei Chadov, released in April 2004. REVIEW
Petr Todorovskii: Under the Sign of Taurus (V sozvezdie byka, 2003)*. A film set in 1942.
Petr Todorovskii: Life is full of Wonders (Zhizn' zabavami polna, 2003). REVIEW
Aleksandr Proshkin: Trio (2003)*. Proshkin's film is a road movie, which explores the adventures of three inspectors who patrol the roads to ensure the safety of truck drivers. REVIEW
Aleksandr Khvan: Carmen (2003).* A modernised version of Merimee's classic novella. REVIEW
Egor Konchalovskii: Anti-killer 2 ( 2003)*. Konchalovsky's sequel to Antikiller, (REVIEW) based on D. Koretsky's novel, was released with a record number of 162 copies and grossed over a million US dollars in the first weekend after its release in December 2003. REVIEWS
Andrei Zviagintsev: The Return (Vozvrashchenie, 2003)*. Premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2003, where it received the Golden Lion and the Lion award for the best debut film. The film had caused an uproar even before the festival, when it appeared in the competition list for Locarno and Venice at the same time. REVIEW . UK release 25 June 2004 (UGC Films).
Stanislav Govorukhin: Cherish the Woman! (Blagoslovite zhenshchinu, 2003)*. Based in a story by I. Grekova ( Khoziaika gostinitsy ), the film features Govorukhin in the role of an officer in the Soviet Army, who is alone to realise the danger of the purges. Theatrical release in Russia: September 2003. REVIEW
Aleksei German jr: The Last Train (Poslednii poezd, 2003)*. Premiered at the Venice FF 2003 and awarded a Special Prize in the 'Controcorrente' competition. The film explores the last days of the war on the Western front, juxtaposing the experience of German and Russian soldiers and partisans. REVIEW
Natalia Piankova: Slav March (Marsh Slavianki, 2003)*. Piankova's film explores the journey of a mother to find her son who is fighting in the Chechen war.
Petr Buslov: Bimmer (Bumer, 2003)*. Buslov's debut film follows the style of CTB studio directors Balabanov and Bodrov Jr. Set in the criminal milieu, the film centres on four men and their car, a BMW, which plays a central role. REVIEW
Ruslan Bal'tser: Don't Even Think (Dazhe ne dumai, 2003)*. Baltser's debut film is a quirky snapshop of the life of three young lads and their adventures.
Aleksei Uchitel': The Stroll (Progulka, 2003)*. (Previous working title: Petersburg online ). Premiered at the Moscow Film Festival 2003, this film offers a walk through Saint Petersburg, during which a young girl befriends a young man... REVIEW
Aleksei Popogrebskii, Boris Khlebnikov: Koktebel (2003)*. Premiered at the Moscow Film Festival 2003, this stunning debut film about a father and his son was screened at Karlovy Vary. At both festivals the film won major jury awards. REVIEW
Aleksei Muradov: Truth about Shelps (Pravda o shchelpakh, 2003). The second film from the film-maker of The Kite , this time exploring the life of the generation of 40-year-olds. INFO & REVIEW
Gennadi Sidorov: Little Old Ladies (Starukhi, 2003)*. Premiered at the Sochi Film Festival 2003, where it won the award for best film, best debut and FIPRESCI award. REVIEW .
Lidiia Bobrova: The Granny (Babusia, 2003). * Premiered at the Sochi Film Festival 2003, and in competition at Karlovy Vary. This film deals with the issue of old age in the Russian provinces, painting a rather bleak and desperate picture that stands in sharp contrast to Sidorov's Starukhi . REVIEW .
Vadim Abdrashitov: Magnetic Storms (Magnitnye buri, 2003)*. Premiered in May 2003, this is a film with very fast-moving frames about a situation that changes only little. REVIEW .
Bakhtior Khudoinazarov: Chic (Shik, 2003)*. Premiered in Locarno 2002, this film was released in 2003. In the style of Khudoinazarov's earlier films it explores the lives of three youth in a provincial town in southern Russia. Based on a script by the playwright Oleg Antonov. REVIEW
Aleksandr Sokurov: Father and Son (Otets i syn, 2003)*. Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2003, this is a rather disappointing film after the sensitive Mother and Son , which explores the intense relationship between an adolescent son and his father in a way that borders on homoeroticism. REVIEW
Vitalii Melnikov: Poor, Poor Paul ( Bednyi, bednyi Pavel, 2003)*. A new historical film based on the life of Paul I, with a stunning performance of Viktor Sukhorukov and Oleg Yankovsky. REVIEW and REVIEW2
Mikhail Brashinskii: Black Ice (Gololed, 2003)*. Premiered in February 2003, the film was the only Russian contribution to the Forum of the Berlin International FF. Brashinsky, a film critic, presents his debut as a film maker: a stunningly open portrayal of the absence of love in contemporary society, doomed by an inability to see. REVIEW
Larisa Sadilova: With Love, Lilly (S liubov'iu, Lilia, 2002)* is set in a chicken factory. It explores the loneliness of the heroine (a brilliant performance by Marina Zubanova) in a provincial town, wishing to get married and imagining that she is in love with a local pianist (Murad Ibragimbekov), but her destiny is waiting just round the corner... The film won the Tiger award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in January 2003. Larisa Sadilova's website offers information on this film, as well as her debut Happy Birthday!
Aleksei Balabanov: War (Voina, 2002)* . Balabanov's new film is based on his own script. The film follows with a British actor (played by Ian Kelly), whose theatre is on tour in the Caucasus when he is taken captive by the Chechens. In order to obtain the ransom for his girlfriend, an English teacher (Ingeborga Dapkunaite), he is released and allowed to travel to England. With the help of a Russian soldier who has been released by the Chechens he returns to Chechnya with the ransom to free his friend... REVIEW
Aleksandr Sokurov: The Russian Ark (Russkii kovcheg, 2002)* , the longest (96 minute) tracking shot in film history. The only Russian film in the 2002 Cannes competition programme. The film explores Russian cultural heritage as collected in the Hermitage, which is the 'ark' that harbours culture. The viewer is guided through Russian history from Peter the Great to the last ball of 1913 by the Marquis de Custine. To be released in the UK by Artificial Eye in April 2003. REVIEW
Sergei Bodrov: The Bear's Kiss (2002)*. This film was shown in the Venice Film Festival competition programme, with the last film role of Sergei Bodrov Junior. The story follows a touring circus, where a teenage girl, neglected by her artiste-mother, falls in love with her little bear, who turns into a young man... REVIEW
Ivan Dykhovichnyi: The Kopeck (Kopeika, 2002)* is based on a script by the conceptualist writer Vladimir Sorokin. It explores the life of the car 'kopeika', following its owners through late Soviet and new Russian history. Released in Russian cinemas in July 2002.
Pavel Lungin: The Tycoon (Oligarkh, 2002)* is based on Dubov's book Bol'shaia paika and deals with the fate of the media mogul Boris Berezovsky, played in the film by Vladimir Mashkov. Released in Russian cinemas in September 2002 after its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. REVIEW
Andrei Konchalovsky: House for Fools (Dom dlia durakov, 2002)* premiered at Venice IFF. It explores the Chechen war through the eyes of the inmates of a psychiatric clinic, in which the heroine is waiting for the American country singer Brian Adams to marry her, while the Chechens, and subsequently Russians besiege the clinic. REVIEW
Kira Muratova: Chekhovian Motifs (Chekhovskie motivy, 2002)* premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival, the film is based on Chekhov's stories. REVIEW
Roman Prygunov: The Solitude of Blood (Odinochestvo krovi, 2002)* is a thriller that captures by its cold and detaches images. A splendid performance by Ingeborga Dapkunaite.
Filipp Iankovskii: In Motion (V dvizhenii, 2002)*. Yankovsky's debut film is a stunningly subtle and deep portrayal of the state of the new generation, not just in Russia... The protagonist, always moving and never reflecting on his life, is splendidly portrayed by Konstantin Khabensky, who recently joined the Moscow Arts Theater. REVIEW
Valerii Todorovski: The Lover (Liubovnik, 2002)*. Todorovsky's film may be traditional in cinematic terms, but it offers an intense study of loneliness, of man's values in life and what happens if they are shattered. The acting performance of Oleg Yankovsky is outstanding. REVIEW
Aleksandr Rogozhkin: Cuckoo (Kukushka, 2002)* explores the relationship between a Finnish soldier, a Russian soldier, and a Saami woman after the end of the Second World War. REVIEW
Aleksei Balabanov: The River (Reka, 2002, unfinished)*. The River at the End of the World (Reka na kraiu zemli), is set in Yakutia at the end of the 19th century. The film had to be abandoned after the tragic death of the Yakutian actress playing in the film in a car accident in November 2000. The material that had been shot was assembled by the director. REVIEW
Konstantin Murzenko: April (Aprel', 2002)*. Murzenko has been known as a scriptwriter, and this is his debut as a filmmaker in the genre of a criminal drama.
Aleksandr Muradov: The Kite (Zmei, 2001). Muradov has studied under Alexei German at the Film Institute, and this shows from the first frames of the film. He tells the story (based on real facts) of an executioner in a prison settlement, whose son is an invalid.
Dmitrii Meskhiev: Mechanical Suite (Mekhanicheskaia suita, 2001)*. Two men are sent to a remote village to collect the body of their colleague who died there, and bring it back to the city so it can be buried properly. Since the proper transportation of a dead body would exceed the funds available, the two men have to find a way out: they dress the body and take it onto the train with them, pretending they are lagging with them a drunken friend - not too far-fetched a scenario in a Russian setting. While they leave the compartment, a fellow passenger enters: he causes the body to fall from the top bunk bed and, thinking he has killed the man, throws the body out of the window. From the track the body is taken back to the morgue, where the two men go in the company of their fellow-traveller and pseudo-murderer...
Sergei Soloviev: Tender Age (Nezhnii vozrast, 2001)* . This film, entirely in keeping with Soloviev's style of complicated montage, intertitles and witty narrative voice-overs, follows a young man through his adolescent years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, through to his involvement in the Chechen war. As such, the film portrays the generation that lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and its value system.
Roman Kachanov: Down House (2001). A modern parody of Dostoevsky's Idiot . REVIEW
Kira Muratova: Minor People (Vtorostepennye liudi, 2001) , a stylised thriller. The best film according to the FIPRESCI at the Sochi Film Festival. Pointed and funny scenes reveal the underlying indifference towards death. REVIEW
Garik Sukachev: The Holiday (Prazdnik, 2001)* . Sukachev's second feature film is based on Ivan Okhlobystin's script. The beautifully filmed sepia black-and-white film is about the sixth birthday of a little girl on the eve of her father's departure for the war.
Sergei Bodrov (Jr): Sisters (Sestry, 2001)* . Bodrov's debut as a filmmaker. The film explores the fate of two girls, daughters of a killer, trying to survive in the criminal world.
Karen Shakhnazarov: Poisons, or The World History of Poisoning (Iady, ili vsemirnaia istoriia otravleniia, 2000)* is a tragicomic phantasmagoria about a husband who feels betrayed by his wife, and who fantasises about poisoning her, his mother-in-law, and his neighbour.
Aleksandr Sokurov: Taurus (Telets, 2000)* . Sokurov's new feature film explores the lives of Lenin, Krupskaia, Ulyanova and Stalin.
Aleksei Balabanov: Brother 2 (Brat-2, 2000)* . Balabanov's sequel to Brother takes the killer Danila Bagrov to Chicago, where he bails out his friend's brother from the ice hockey mafia. The official site for Brat-2 offers more information on the film. In 74 days the film had made 26,7 million rubles at the box office (compare to 29,4 million for The Perfect Storm in 30 days).
Aleksei Uchitel: His Wife's Diary (Dnevnik ego zheny, 2000)* . A film about the Nobel-Prize winning writer Ivan Bunin, which won the Grand Prix at the Sochi Film Festival 2000.
Aleksandr Proshkin: The Captain's Daughter (Russkii bunt, 2000)* . This film opened at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2000, and has been released in Moscow in the autumn 2000. A historic film about the Pugachev uprising, starring Sergei Makovetski.
Bakhyt Khudoinazarov: Luna Papa (Lunnyi papa, 2000)* . A fairy story of a girl in search for the father of her unborn child. The film starts Chulpan Khamatova and Moritz Bleibtreu.
Gleb Panfilov: The Romanov Family (Romanovy, ventsenosnaia sem'ia, 2000)* . A film about the personal life of the tsar's family and their last weeks before abdication and execution. Stars Linda Bellingham and Alexander Galibin.
* indicates the film's release on video/DVD in Russia.