Rusalka (2007)

Director:

Anna Melikyan

Writer:

Anna Melikyan (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 November 2007 (Russia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

In Moscow, a young woman disappears after falling in love with a new man.

Plot Keywords:

18th Birthday | Ship | Playing | Smoking | Ballet

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Mariya Shalayeva	...	Alisa (as Masha Shalayeva)
Yevgeni Tsyganov	...	Sasha
Mariya Sokova	...	Alisa's mother
Anastasiya Dontsova	...	Young Alisa (as Nastya Dontsova)
Veronika Skugina
Irina Skrinichenko	...	Rita
Albina Yevtushevskaya	...	Alisa's grandmother
Oksana Borisova
Ivan Nikolayev
Igor Savochkin
Igor Yatsko	...	Alisa's chief
Igor Uryvayev
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Natalya Rychkova

Also Known As:

Русалка (Russia)
Mermaid (USA)
The Mermaid (International: English title)

Runtime:

115 min | Russia:100 min (theatrical version)

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Anapa, Russia

Company:

Central Partnership

Trivia:

Russia's 2009 Academy Awards official submission to Foreign-Language Film category.

Movie Connections:

Features The Fifth Element (1997)

Soundtrack:

Nash kray

A fantastic modern fable

Mermaid is an awesomely bizarre tale of a strange girl called Alisa, who, as a little girl, lives by the beach with her comically grotesque mother and grandmother and pines for her father to come and rescue her . Later on in her life she is forced to confront reality when she travels to Moscow with her family, and as a teenager, finds out all about all the wonders of the world, including love, jobs and friendship, all seen through an impossibly optimistic and offbeat sensibility. Mermaid plays like the second coming of Amelie, and everything about it is utterly charming; the fantastically upbeat, jazzy score, the dreamy cinematography tinged with realism, the quirky scenarios, but mostly the utterly charismatic and awesome central performances from the two girls playing Alisa, who like Audrey Tatou before them, will make you fall in love. Alisa is such an endearingly odd character, charmingly offbeat and naive, while remaining startlingly independent and fierce. A last act stumble provoked by a tangle of superfluous characters dampens the charm of the film somewhat,and it meanders in parts, but on the whole Mermaid is an almost note-perfect film that will leave you with a dreamy smile on your face and a longing for days of lost innocence.