In the midst of the Chechen War, a remote psychiatric institution is left without staff leaving the patients to fend for themselves. Based on a true story.
The film represents life in a godforsaken Russian village. The only way to reach the mainland is to cross the lake by boat and a postman became the only connection with the outside world. A... See full summary »
Director:
Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars:
Aleksey Tryapitsyn,
Irina Ermolova,
Timur Bondarenko
Follows three people whose paths cross during a terrible time of war: Olga, a Russian aristocratic emigrant and member of the French Resistance; Jules, a French collaborator; and Helmut, a high-ranking German SS officer.
Director:
Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars:
Peter Kurth,
Yuliya Vysotskaya,
Viktor Sukhorukov
A retired professor has returned to his estate to live with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. The estate originally belonged to his first wife, now deceased; her mother and brother still ... See full summary »
The story about a very small god-forgotten village in Siberia reflects the history of Russia from the beginning of the century till early 80s. Three generations try to find the land of ... See full summary »
The true story of Ivan Sanchin, the KGB officer who was Stalin's private film projectionist from 1939 until the dictator's death. Told from Sanchin's view, the sympathetic but tragically ... See full summary »
In the film Battle for Ukraine Andrei Konchalovsky, the famous Russian director, analyzes how Ukraine, a former part of the Soviet Empire and present big European country, struggles to ... See full summary »
Directors:
Andrey Konchalovskiy,
Evgeniy Grigorev, and 1 more credit »
Lavretsky returns to his estate after stay in Paris.Frustrated with life,in his wife's unfair, he falls in love with Lisa. Suddenly the arriving of Fëdors woman which before has been reported the death, completes the simple love.
Director:
Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars:
Irina Kupchenko,
Leonid Kulagin,
Beata Tyszkiewicz
Soviet Union, near the Chinese border, 1923. A stranger has just come in this little country village. He is a teacher, sent by the Communist Party to teach the ignorant masses. But the ... See full summary »
New York journalist visits her distant cousin for the first time to write an article about her hard life in the bayous of Louisiana. Journalist's wild drug addicted daughter just adds to tensions between two families' cultures.
Director:
Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars:
Jill Clayburgh,
Barbara Hershey,
Martha Plimpton
The war film that's not a war film. A film about the mental institution which backdrop is the Chechen war. A story about the patients living in an institution during the war on the border of Chechnia and Russia during the war. The patients have to continue living their day to day life after being invaded twice over, and they have to deal with their sicknesses.Written by
Roza Thompson
I love this movie. The third time I watched it, it made me laugh and it made me cry. I know that a lot of people are not going to like this movie. It's like a poem.... you get it or you don't. People complain about the Bryan Adams segments. I thought they were too few and not long enough. They were Zhanna's dreams.... her escape. And after you feel Janna's frustration, unhappiness, and pain you welcome the relief and warm colors of the Bryan Adams escape from reality. The movie has some very surreal scenes. One of them is the scene where Zhanna is looking at her wedding pictures in her room while the Chechen sniper is shooting out her window. Yuliya Vysotskaya is wonderful as Zhanna. Her face is so child-like and expressive. She doesn't even need to speak; I can read her mind in her face. She's a really great actor. I love the scene where she discovers Ahmed in front of her in the lunch line. She says nothing, but her face changes several times, showing some strong emotions that you cannot understand unless you've seen the entire movie up to that point. Zhanna has some funny little quirks, like the way she steps over every doorway threshold. But I thought it odd that I didn't laugh or cry until the third viewing. The first time, I was just in awe. I was just wide eyed with amazement.
But by the third time I loved and understood the characters, especially Zhanna, and so I could feel the movie.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.
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I love this movie. The third time I watched it, it made me laugh and it made me cry. I know that a lot of people are not going to like this movie. It's like a poem.... you get it or you don't. People complain about the Bryan Adams segments. I thought they were too few and not long enough. They were Zhanna's dreams.... her escape. And after you feel Janna's frustration, unhappiness, and pain you welcome the relief and warm colors of the Bryan Adams escape from reality. The movie has some very surreal scenes. One of them is the scene where Zhanna is looking at her wedding pictures in her room while the Chechen sniper is shooting out her window. Yuliya Vysotskaya is wonderful as Zhanna. Her face is so child-like and expressive. She doesn't even need to speak; I can read her mind in her face. She's a really great actor. I love the scene where she discovers Ahmed in front of her in the lunch line. She says nothing, but her face changes several times, showing some strong emotions that you cannot understand unless you've seen the entire movie up to that point. Zhanna has some funny little quirks, like the way she steps over every doorway threshold. But I thought it odd that I didn't laugh or cry until the third viewing. The first time, I was just in awe. I was just wide eyed with amazement.
But by the third time I loved and understood the characters, especially Zhanna, and so I could feel the movie.