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...
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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 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
Sanja the Bandit after a particularly vicious shootout, stumbles into the musician Oleg at the local banya. Following a retelling of a semi-mythological story, the pair decide to make a pilgrimage to a "bell-tower of happiness".
Director:
Aleksey Balabanov
Stars:
Aleksandr Mosin,
Oleg Garkusha,
Yuriy Matveev
Based on A. Galych's play "Matrosskaya Tishina", "Papa" tells a story of a Jewish father who dreamed of seeing his son perform on a stage in front of huge audiences, he dreamed of seeing ... See full summary »
Director:
Vladimir Mashkov
Stars:
Vladimir Mashkov,
Egor Beroev,
Andrei Rozendent
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 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
I'm absolutely surprised that people in the West and especially in US watch this movie. Equally, I'm surprised they read War and Peace, Idiot, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons etc.
This is not to say the movie is of the same magnitude as the books in the list, rather that it's equally deep and ought to be equally strange for a westerner. And, as usual, the moral of the story is ( kind of ) based on a piece of ( Galich, "One more time about the devil" ) poetry, and poetry is never easy to translate.
From my point of view, the story is entertaining and educating - to me. It's a little scary - to me, meaning "thank god I was too young to be a part of it", but it certainly is not "herky-jerky", characters are definitely well-developed. I was actually quite surprised how convincing the acting and the dialogs were.
Someone said the movie "asks more questions than it answers", I'd say it's what a good movie should do! Art is actually about asking questions, not answering them. If you want answers, turn to religion.
I rate the movie 10 out of 10 ( though it would be about 96 out of 100, some minor technicalities ).
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I'm absolutely surprised that people in the West and especially in US watch this movie. Equally, I'm surprised they read War and Peace, Idiot, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons etc.
This is not to say the movie is of the same magnitude as the books in the list, rather that it's equally deep and ought to be equally strange for a westerner. And, as usual, the moral of the story is ( kind of ) based on a piece of ( Galich, "One more time about the devil" ) poetry, and poetry is never easy to translate.
From my point of view, the story is entertaining and educating - to me. It's a little scary - to me, meaning "thank god I was too young to be a part of it", but it certainly is not "herky-jerky", characters are definitely well-developed. I was actually quite surprised how convincing the acting and the dialogs were.
Someone said the movie "asks more questions than it answers", I'd say it's what a good movie should do! Art is actually about asking questions, not answering them. If you want answers, turn to religion.
I rate the movie 10 out of 10 ( though it would be about 96 out of 100, some minor technicalities ).