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2010
Aleksei Popogrebskii: How I Ended the Summer (Kak ia provel etim letom). This "existentialist drama" explores the characters of two men working on an Arctic Station. Won two awards at the Berlin IFF for Best Actors (Puskepalis and Dobrygin)
Pavel Sanaev: Gamers (Na igre). Released in 2010. REVIEW
Elena Renard and Nikolai Renard: Mama. The Renards, new and promising voices in Russian cinema, made fiction out of the real life story of a complex relationship between an overbearing mother and her obese, forty-year-old son who still lives at home. The filmmakers use a very realistic style in which shots are sometimes turned into tableaux vivants. Shown in Rotterdam.
Egor Konchalovskii: Our Masha (Nasha Masha i volshebnyi oreshek). A 3-D animation project for Christmas 2009. REVIEW
Aleksandr Voitinskii: Black Lightning (Chernaia molniia). Produced by Bazelevs, this kino-komiks stars Grigorii Dobrygin. REVIEW
Anna Fenchenko: Missing Man (Propavshyi bez vesti). Premiered in the Berlin Forum.
Fedor Mikhalov: Convivial Fellows (Vesel'chaki) also screened at th Berlin IFF, out of competition. REVIEW
2009
Nikolai Lebedev: Phonogram of Passion (Fonogramma strasti). The film is based on a script by Leonid Porokhnia, about the supervisor of a bugging operation who falls in love with the voice of her "client". CPS. REVIEW
Nikolai Dreiden: Angle's Aisle (Pridel Angela). The film is set in 1924 and dealing with the story of a Soviet commissar, the son of a priest, who is assigned to the task of liquidating a Finnish General. REVIEW
Pavel Lungin: Tsar. Filmed near Suzdal, the film portrays the cruel rule of Ivan the Terrible. Oleg Iankovskii plays his last role here as the monk Filipp. The film was screened in the Certain Regard section at Cannes in May 2009. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Pavel Ruminov: Circumstances. REVIEW
Karen Shakhnazarov: Ward No. 6 (Palata No. 6), a new film version of Chekhov's story, screened in competition at the 31st MIFF. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Nikolai Dostal: Petia on the Way to Heaven (Petya po dorogoe v tsarstvie nebesnoe), screened and won the St George award at MIFF 2009. REVIEW
Alexander Proshkin: The Miracle (Chudo), screened and won a special award at MIFF 2009. It is the story of a girl who ossifies when she derises God. REVIEW
Kira Muratova: Melody for a Barrel-Organ (Melodiia dlia sharmanki) is a stunning tale of two children in search of their father, told with Muratova's langour for social criticism. REVIEW
Andrei Proshkin: Minnesota. Two brothers play in the local hockey team. One day a representative of the NHL comes to their town and offers the younger brother a contract... REVIEW
Sergei Snezhkin: Bury me behind the Baseboard (Pokhoroni menia za plintusom). About Sasha Saveliev, an eight-year old little boy who was brought up by a loving grandmother, but who did not want to grow up... REVIEW
Alexei Mizgirev: Buben, Baraban. 1998, a mining town. The 45-year-old Katia, who runs the regional library, lives on a pitiful salary in the small room of a hostel that she shares with another girl. One day, a visiting sailor arrives in the town and Katia falls in love with him. REVIEW
Larisa Sadilova: Sonny (Synok). A small provincial town in the middle of Russia, and not quite an ordinary family: a father and a teenage son. REVIEW
Vera Storozheva: Spring will soon be here (Skoro vesna). Some vagabonds live and help the nuns on a farmstead away from the city: they build a church. The nunnery is run by mother Katerina and her assistant, the 18-year-old lay sister Olya. One day the businessman Pasha arrives at the monastic farmstead, and with his appearance comes also anxiety. REVIEW
Ivan Vyrypaev: Oxygen (Kislorod). Based on the play and performance by Vyrypaev - in the form of a music album. REVIEW
Igor Voloshin: Me (Ia). Set in the 1990s, about a young man who skips army service and finds himself in a psychiatric clinic. REVIEW
Vasili Sigarev: Wolfy (Volchok - The Top). Based on the play and script of the same title. The story of a little girl who is surrounded by violence and seeks the love of her mother. REVIEW
Boris Khlebnikov: Help Gone Mad (Sumassshedshaia pomoshch). The experinces of a migrant worker from Belarus in Moscow. Victimised, Evgeni is doomed to become yet another Moscow vagabond, but the homeless man is taken in by a Muscovite pensioner. Shown at the Forum in Berlin 2009. REVIEW
Nikolai Khomeriki: Tale in the Darkness (Skazka pro temnotu) . Presented in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, this film is set in Vladivostok and explores the life of Angelina, a policewoman who works with difficult children. She tries to escape from her loneliness, but this proves not so easy. REVIEW
Vladimir Bortko: Taras Bullba. Based on the story by Nikolai Gogol. REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Igor Voloshin: Olympius Inferno. A documentary on the events in Southern Ossetia. REVIEW
Ivan Dykhovichny: Europa-Asia. A comedy film based on the play by the Presnyakov Brothers. REVIEW
Sergei Soloviev: 2-ASSA-2 is the sequel to ASSA, reviewing the fate of underground culture of the 1980s after twenty years. REVIEW
Sergei Soloviev: Anna Karenina has been completed as a feature film. REVIEW
Sergei Govorukhin: Nobody but us (Nikto krome nas), about the cameraman Levashov who travels to the war zone Tajikistan. REVIEW
Pavel Bardin: Russia 88 has screened at the forum in Berlin, and at the festival in Khanty Manissisk. The film mixes documentary footage and fiction film, analyzing the behaviour of a group of skinheads in Moscow. REVIEW
Fedor Bondarchuk: The Inhabited Island (Obitaemyi ostrov) is a mega-blockbuster based on the Strugatskii Brothers; the first part opened on 1 January 2009 with a record 1150 copies; the second part has been released on 21 April. REVIEW
Oleg Fomin: The Best Film 2 (Samyi luchshii fil'm 2) is the sequel to Kuzin's 2008 blockbuster.
Valerii Todorovskii: Stilyagi (Hipsters) opened in the last week of 2008. A musical. REVIEW
Aleksei Gherman Jr.: Paper Soldier (Bumazhnyi soldat) screened in the Venice competition programme 2008 and was awarded a Silver Lion for best director. The film is set in the 1960s and explores the life of a doctor who looks after the first cosmonauts. REVIEW
Filipp Iankovskii: Rock Head (Kamennaia bashka). "The film's hero is the famous boxer Egor Golovin with the nickname "Stonehead". After a car accident he loses his memory and can no longer fight in the ring. But there are some people who want to make money by arranging one last fight for him. He has to fight for himself and the woman who will not betray him." REVIEW
Mikhail Porechekov: D Day (Den' D). Ivan, a retired major of the Air Force, lives in a remote forest with his small daughter Zhenia. One day an air-strike hits his house and Zhenia is kidnapped. Ivan is required to kill the Estonian president in exchange for his daughter's life. The hero agrees, but on the road to Tallinn he flees. On the way he meets a beautiful stewardess. Together they seize a hydroplane and go to an island near Vladivostok where the villains hold Zhenia. REVIEW
Adel' Al'-Khadad: Rusichi. "The young prince Vlastimir has to free his father Iziaslav from captivity of the mysterious Black Sorcerer. He is seriously injured but the healer with the name White Sorcerer heals his body while the sorcerer's daughter Nastenka heals his soul through her love. The young people have to overcome a numberof obstacles before they can return home triumphantly". REVIEW
Tigran Keosaian: Mirage (Mirazh). "Three Russian girls, tempted by the advantageous work offers in the East, fall into a trap. The girls manage to run away with the help of two Russia tourists who have lost their way. They discover the headquarters of drug dealers and the men who trade with humans, a dead city in the sea, where they manage to hide, although their fate seems sealed. However, one of the girls is head-hunted by a "hunter" who should return her to Russia. REVIEW
Andres Puustumaa: The Red Pearl of Love (Krasnyi zhemchug liubvi). Maria is young and beautiful. Her life is like a fairy tale in which dreams come true at the turn of a magic wand. She has a loving husband and everything money can buy. Maria wants a child, but does not get pregnant. She lives without sensing life and is very unhappy. In her despair Maria turns to a shaman who tells her fortune with stones: She chooses the red pearl of love. The next day Maria meets Grigorii, a race driver, stuntman and Lovelace, and falls in love with him. The red pearl of love is a talisman even if it is the gift of a non-existent shaman. REVIEW
Andrei Kravchuk: Admiral. The new "national blockbuster", starring Konstantin Khabenskii as Admiral Alexander Kolchak. REVIEW1 and REVIEW2
Georgii Gitis: The Adventures of Alenushka and Yerioma (Prikliucheniia Alenushki i Eremy). A 3D animation set in Rus, where Alenushka, on her way to her aunt and uncle - tsar Dormidont and his wife Efrosinia - receives three magic apples without realising their magic power. The tsarina Vseslavna is busy with her inventions and constructions, using Alenushka as test-pilot for a flying device that crashes into the hut of the bard Yerioma. They fall in love, but here the apples' magic plays its tricks. REVIEW
Nikolai Titov and Oktiabrina Potapova: New Adventures of Babka Ezhka (Novye prikliuchenkiia Babki Ezhki) is the continuation of the story about the little girl who grew up in the magic forest with fairy tale figures. Here she meets new characters, as she has to arrange Koshei's happiness, overcome Zmei Gorynych and find Father Frost who got lost. REVIEW
Aleksandr Melnik: Terra Nova (Novaia zemlia). The year 2013. The death penalty has been abolished all over the world. However, this noble act brings with it many complexities. International organizations decide to carry out a rather risky experiment: to create a small settlement on an uninhabited island in the Far North, where criminals have the opportunity to begin a new life. In this harsh environment the terrible law of the survival of the fittest kicks in. Fully aware of the perniciousness of such an existence, capable of bringing about not only the destruction of human personality but also the annihilation of the inhabitants in the settlement, the main hero begins his fight against those who adhere to the cult of brute force and who push people onto this terrible path. REVIEW
Vadim Shmelev: SSD (Strashilki sovetskogo detstva). A new reality show is launched on television with the title "Pioneers' Camp". After the casting five young men and five girls with the presenter Alisa Ten are sent to a derelict pioneers' camp of the Soviet era. According to the rules, every week one of the participants has to leave the camp and return home. The last to remain will receive the prize of a million roubles, but suddenly the rules of the game change, and the award will be not monetary, but the winner's life. A maniac, obsessed with his childhood horror stories, makes these come true.. REVIEW
Marat Sarulu: Song of the Southern Seas (Pesn' iuzhnikh morei) screened at Eurasia 2008 and tells of two friends and neighbours: a Russian and a Kazakh. The first has a dark-haired son, and the latter a redhead. Everyone suspects the other of a secret affair with the other's wife. A conflict arises, and the two former friends part for a while to undertake a journey - everyone in their own way - to discover the secrets of their family's origin, their roots, the secret of their "I" and the innermost source of existence. REVIEW
Roman Balaian: Birds of Paradise (Raiskie ptichki) is a film made in Ukraine that deals with the last Soviet dissidents. Starring Oksana Akinshina. REVIEW
Mikhail Kalatozishvili: Wild Field (Dikoe pole) is based on a script by Petr Lutsik and Aleksei Samoriadov - which makes this film an extraordinarily strong work, largely thanks to a fine script. REVIEW
Kirill Serebrennikov: Yuriev Day (Iuriev den') is based on a script by Iurii Arabov about a singer who returns to her native village (Iuriev) where her son goes missing. She stays there to devote herself to care for others.REVIEW 1 and REVIEW 2
Valeria Gai-Germanika: Everybody Dies but me (Vse umrust a ia ostanius') is a documentary style school drama about three girls. REVIEW
Bakur Bakuradze: Shultes won the main award at Kinotavr 2008. The film is about the traumatised Lyosha Shultes who fails to engage with people. Made in a documentary style with non-professional actors. REVIEW
Oksana Bychkova: Plus One (Plius Odin) is a romantic comedy, starring Jethro Skinner in the part of a puppetteer visiting Moscow and his relationship with his interpreter. REVIEW
Aleksandr Proshkin: Live to Remember (Zhivi i pomni) is based on Rasputin's tale. The winter of 1945. In a village on the Angara embankment the women await the return of their husbands from the front. The young soldier Andrei Guskov, who fled from the hospital, returns as a deserter. In his remote winter hut only his wife Nastena visits him: she is the only person whom he can trust with his life - the life of an eternal fugitive doomed to loneliness. Only she loves him. She lives in the present, remembers the past and does not believe in the future. She will have a child, and for the entire village she is an unfaithful wife who did not wait for her husband to return... REVIEW
Sergei Ovcharov: The Garden (Sad) a film based on Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, in the style of silent films. REVIEW
Sergei Mokritskii: Four Ages of Love (4 vozrasta liubvi). Melodrama in four novellas about our contemporaries who, despite their young or old age, search and find love. Each short story is based on a classical myth. REVIEW
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. REVIEW
Igor Voloshin: Nirvana screened in the forum of the Berlin Film Festival 2008. A story about drug addiction involving a menage a trois. Amazing costume designs. REVIEW
Guka Omarova: Baksy (The Shaman), produced by CTB, is about a Kazakh woman who uses her power to heal others, but who is helpless to protect her family against the mafia. REVIEW
Aleksei Uchitel: The Captive (Plennyi) based on Makanin's novel, about the relationship between two Russian soldiers and their Chechen captive in the Caucasus mountains. The experienced sergeant Rubakhin and the light-hearted Vovka go to get help when their detachment is stuck in a mined valley. Rubakhin's captive is a very handsome Chechen youth who guides them and as they progress, they almost forget that they are enemies. REVIEW
Sergei Dvortsevoi: Tulpan (Tiul'pan), a Kazakh-Russian-German co-production, about the Kazakh Bolat who is demobbed and returns to his native Kazakhstan where he wishes to live as a shepherd in the steppe. In order to get a herd of his own he needs to marry, but there are no girls left in the steppe. Main Award of the UCR in Cannes. REVIEW
Katia Shagalova: Once in the Provinces (Odnazhdy v provintsii) was shown at the Moscow IFF and deals with the visit of an actress to her sister in a small provincial town. REVIEW
Roman Prygunov: Indigo deals with four Indigo children in Moscow.
Iurii Mamin:Don't Think about White Monkeys (Ne dumai pro belykh obezian) about the encounter of a businessman with the bohemian world. REVIEW
Vladimir Toropchin: Il'ia Muromets and Solovei the Nightningale is the latest animation of the Russian byliny. REVIEW
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 Vanished Empire (Ischeznuvshaia imperiia) is set in the 1970s and recreates life of a group of students. REVIEW
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. REVIEW
Valerii Ugarov: Babka Ezhka is a charming animation involving all the heroes of classic fairy tales. REVIEW
Aleksandr Cherniaev: The Kings are Omnipotent (Vse mogut koroli) is a remake of the Roman Holiday.
Arkadii Iakhnis: The Horror that is Always with you (Uzhas, kotoryi vsegda s toboi). Based on a script by Iurii Arabov, the film tells of a couple, who lead a dull life teaching art and language at college. One day their life is turned upside down, when they return home from work to discover four special agents in their apartment who expect to stay there for the surveillance and arrest of a neighbour. REVIEW
Valerii Nikolaev: The Bear Hunt (Medvezh'ia okhota). An action film linked to the share market. The Russian broker Oleg Grinev (nicknamed "Bear") sets up a deal that takes account of the financial interests of a range of political factions. His aim is to create the conditions for a revival of the economy of the new Russia whilst preserving political stability and supporting the authority of the president as the main guarantor of the country's development. But there also a personal motive: revenge for the death of his father. Oleg cannot even begin to suspect how significantly the "big deal" will change his life.
Pavel Lungin: The Lilac Branch (Vetka sireni). Biopic about Sergei Rakhmaninov. "The film tells of the last years of the Russian composer Sergei Rakhmaninov. Separated from his country after emigration he finds himself severed also from the roots that inspired his work. He is forced to give a large number of concerts that prevent him from composing." REVIEW
Peeter Simm: Georg (2007). A biopic about Georg Otts, the famous singer who inspired faith in the future after the war. REVIEW
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. REVIEW
Pavel Sanaev: Kilometer Zero (Nulevoi kilometr) is about two men from the provinces who come to Moscow to find their fortunes. REVIEW
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. REVIEW
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 Zviagintsev: 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 Mizgirev: 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. REVIEW
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
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.