During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest...
See full summary »
Ivan is old Russia: thick, dour, hard-working, often brutish; he misses Communism. He drives a taxi and one night meets Alexi, a new Russian, a musician, an alcoholic, irresponsible. Alexi ... See full summary »
Director:
Pavel Lungin
Stars:
Pyotr Mamonov,
Pyotr Zaychenko,
Vladimir Kashpur
In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last ... See full summary »
The conductor goes with the orchestra to Jerusalem to execute the oratorio "Passion according to St.Matthew". But tours are wrapped in the tragedy. The black sun of Jerusalem unmasks with ... See full summary »
Director:
Pavel Lungin
Stars:
Vladas Bagdonas,
Inga Strelkova-Oboldina,
Karen Badalov
The film, set in the mid 1990s outside of St. Petersburg, tells the story of an ethnic Yakut, Major Skryabin, a shell-shocked veteran of the Afghan-Soviet War, who works as a stoker.
Director:
Aleksey Balabanov
Stars:
Mikhail Skryabin,
Yuriy Matveev,
Aleksandr Mosin
Victor Sluzhkin signs on as a teacher of geography in a secondary school in his native Perm (in the Urals) and gets lost in a haze of hard vodka, desperate love for a nymphet-like student ... See full summary »
Director:
Aleksandr Veledinskiy
Stars:
Konstantin Khabenskiy,
Elena Lyadova,
Aleksandr Robak
Corrupted cops, street gangs, "bratki" on "bummers" and "merins", angry truck drivers, beautiful women and death are what four friends on a black bummer who set up on mission from one ... See full summary »
Director:
Petr Buslov
Stars:
Vladimir Vdovichenkov,
Andrey Merzlikin,
Maksim Konovalov
During the bloody war in Chechnya, a British couple and two Russian soldiers are taken hostage by Chechen rebels. Two of the hostages are then released to bring the money for the British woman who is forced to wait for the ransom.
Director:
Aleksey Balabanov
Stars:
Aleksey Chadov,
Ian Kelly,
Ingeborga Dapkunaite
The year is 1946. World War II is over, but it doesn't mean that there is no one to fight with. The post-war city of Odessa is ruled by serial killer prison-escapees and former Nazi ... See full summary »
Stars:
Vladimir Mashkov,
Mikhail Porechenkov,
Vladimir Menshov
During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.Written by
Sujit R. Varma
This movie is very Russian. It's not intended for foreigners and will never work as an international film. You have to have lived there, to have feared to go out of the house after nightfall because of street shootings and grenades blowing up offices in a market sharing war of various mafia groups. You have to understand what a "thief in law" (вор в законе)means as a concept (a concept rather vague even to most Russians - and no, this concept is not what it sounds like literally, don't be misled that the term speaks for itself), you have to be able to relate to a bright person who found himself in a dog-eat-dog reality where intelligence alone isn't enough to sustain basic survival. This movie is GREATLY about being able to read the Russian reality between the lines. If you weren't there, you most likely won't get it and will join the thong of those who give this movie anything below 8/10 with comments about underdeveloped characters. Trust me, they are very well developed, you just don't get it, can't read between the lines. It's sort of like saying that Joyce's "Ulysses" is boring and conceded: most just don't get it.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
This movie is very Russian. It's not intended for foreigners and will never work as an international film. You have to have lived there, to have feared to go out of the house after nightfall because of street shootings and grenades blowing up offices in a market sharing war of various mafia groups. You have to understand what a "thief in law" (вор в законе)means as a concept (a concept rather vague even to most Russians - and no, this concept is not what it sounds like literally, don't be misled that the term speaks for itself), you have to be able to relate to a bright person who found himself in a dog-eat-dog reality where intelligence alone isn't enough to sustain basic survival. This movie is GREATLY about being able to read the Russian reality between the lines. If you weren't there, you most likely won't get it and will join the thong of those who give this movie anything below 8/10 with comments about underdeveloped characters. Trust me, they are very well developed, you just don't get it, can't read between the lines. It's sort of like saying that Joyce's "Ulysses" is boring and conceded: most just don't get it.