Alla Demidova

A film-portrait of Alla Demidova against the background of several eras and the sunken Atlantis of Soviet cinema. The icon of style, the incomprehensible heroine of Larisa Shepitko and Kira Muratova, the star of the Taganka Theater, Alla Demidova became the face of an era, even several eras: from the 60s to the "noughties" - she is a mystery, she is a medium of other dimensions. But this is, rather, a film not about her, or rather, not only about her. It is about time and the struggle with it, about the titans with whom fate confronted her - Vladimir Vysotsky and Andrei Tarkovsky, Yuri Lyubimov and Anatoly Efros, it is about the lessons that life gave her. The new documentary work of Lyubov Arkus is a study and an essay, a poem about the split world of the past.

Based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa's In a Grove, story takes place during the times of Tsar Alexander II. A lady-in-waiting tells the Emperor in his bedroom a metaphysical story about a 13th century prince who is killed in the woods under mysterious circumstances. Fairy tale characters who have witnessed the terrible death, all share their version of the events, gradually shedding light on what really happened.

6.3/10

In the spring of 2017, the Investigation Committee conducted the first searches in the criminal case, which everyone now knows as the “Serebrennikov case”, “the Seventh Studio case” or “The Platform case”. Six people, among whom is a world-famous director, are accused of having stolen more than one hundred million rubles allocated for staging performances from the state. And for this they can go to jail for 10 years. Journalists Katerina Gordeeva and Roman Super tried to figure out the essence of this matter. We talked to people who know what theater is, including in terms of money. Studied financial documents. Communicated with those with whom no one had ever succeeded. They understood why the applause of the audience and the compliments of the Ministry of Culture turned into arrests. And of course, went to all court sessions.

7.2/10

From Alla Demidova's book "Akhmatova Mirrors": "When I began to decipher the "Poem without a hero", the more I found doubles in it, which, in turn, bifurcated and so on — to infinity (the same thing happens if you approach the wall of the mirror hall with a mirror and see in it an infinite a series of reflections), the more clearly I understood that it was probably not necessary to literally decipher it. Specific persons are not so important in the "Poem", the fragrance of time is important, because, among other things, a huge layer of culture of an entire epoch has entered into the "Poem", which for many young people today has become a long-past history."

A woman is paid a surprise visit by her long-forgotten classmate, who needs her advice: should he choose a wife or a lover? An outrageously burlesque mise-en-scène is repeated many times but each time in a different place and performed by new actors. Why?

6.7/10

Хозяйка большого, но расстроенного поместья Меропия Мурзавецкая держит всю свою вотчину в железном кулаке: не спускает лести, подхалимства и слывет на всю округу святой строгой благодетельницей. Но и у нее есть своя слабость — племянник Апполоша, пропойца и неудавшийся хохмач, выгнанный с военной службы за мелкие пакости. Чтобы поправить своё положение и наконец-то пристроить племянника, Меропия решает женить его на богатой соседке, хорошенькой вдовушке Евлампии Купавиной, и ради этого идет на череду подлогов и лжи. Несмотря на то, что Апполон вместо решительного предложения руки и сердца лишь занимает у Купавиной пять рублей на «табачок-с», задумка Мурзавецкой близка к завершению, и наивная овечка Евлампия со всем своим капиталом и необъятными лесами почти оказывается в пасти деспотичной помещицы. Но когда Мурзавецкая уже не сомневается в успехе своей аферы, появляется Василий Беркутов, давний ухажёр Купавиной, прирожденный предприниматель и делец…

The Tuner (Russian: Настройщик, Nastroyshchik) is a 2004 mix film of art house grotesque and a sting comedy. At the heart of Kira Muratova’s film is her characteristic and enduring love of predation—predation for its own sake. The film offers a complex assessment of the human subject, civilization, and the creative act. The stars of the film include famous Russian actors such as Alla Demidova, Renata Litvinova, Nina Ruslanova, and Georgi Deliyev. Directed by Kira Muratova, author of sixteen films over forty-two years, best known in the West for her political rehabilitation during the perestroika period and the un-shelving of her so-called provincial melodramas, Brief Encounters (Korotkie vstrechi, 1967/1987) and Long Farewells (Dolgie provody, 1971/1987).

7.7/10

Charming young Olga marries a successful businessman. It is surrounded by luxury and well-being. A wealthy husband is ready to fulfill any whim of a beautiful wife. Olga is an airy woman who is fond of doing herbariums, sewing dolls, reciting poems to servants and loves her oligarch husband very much.

8/10

At the heart of the picture is a common legend about the last days of Emperor Alexander the First Blessed.

6.6/10

The film is set in 1890s London. Sarah lived happily in India with her father, but when he was drafted into military service he placed Sarah in a boarding school in London. Sarah was lonely, but she made some good friends at school. Suddenly her father was announced dead in a mine accident and Sarah became an orphan. Now she goes on a long and dangerous journey to find her father, who loved her and called her a "little princess".

7.1/10

An animated film in two parts, about the tragic fate of Estonian artist Ülo Sooster and about his work.

The second part of the film "School of fine arts". Continuation of the film "Landscape with juniper", which tells the story of the famous Estonian artist Julo Sooster. At the same time, the film tells about a whole galaxy of wonderful artists whose work created true spiritual values.

Героиня фильма - молодая привлекательная женщина, девиз которой "нужно стать развратной, чтобы почувствовать себя святой". Она убеждена, что любящие ее мужчины должны с легкостью принимать ее такой, какая она есть. Но им это доставляет лишь мучения...

6.2/10

About the tragic fate of the Estonian artist Julo Sooster and his work.

5.4/10

A revelatory discussion on a train. Based on Leo Tolstoy's novel of the same name.

7.2/10

A story from the life in the beginning of XX century based on the theater play by Maxim Gorky.

7/10

A drama from the life of two generations of a big family from Leningrad. Loosely based on a novel by Yuriy Nagibin.

7.1/10

Hermann is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army. He constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at cards, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of St. Germain. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.

7.1/10

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1981 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was the third installment in the TV series about adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. A potent streak of humour ran through the film as concerns references to traditional British customs and stereotypes, ensuring the film's popularity with several generations of Russophone viewers. Other features of this best entry in the series include excellent exterior shots which closely match the novel's setting in the Dartmoor marshland, as well as an all-star cast: in addition to the famous Livanov -Solomin duo as Holmes and Watson, the film stars the internationally acclaimed actor/director Nikita Mikhalkov as Sir Henry Baskerville and the Russian movie legend Oleg Yankovsky as the villain Stapleton.

8.7/10

Falling Star is based on three stories by the contemporary Russian writer Viktor Astafyev and centers on a young soldier on the front lines who is wounded and taken to the hospital. Once there, he muses about his childhood and a little girl he had loved - someone who could easily have grown up to be the nurse that is attending to him now. As he recuperates, he and the nurse fall in love and he very much wants to marry her. At this point, the nurse's mother comes for a visit and advises him against such an action because if they were to marry and he were subsequently killed or maimed in action - the fighting is still close to the hospital - the nurse would suffer much more than if he just left her alone. Now it is up to the soldier to make a decision one way or the other.

6.8/10

A merchant is living in a fairytale Russia of hundreds of years ago. When he is making a journey to market, his three daughters each ask for a present to be brought back...

6.8/10

A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. The main character of the film is Prince Stepan Kasatsky, an officer, an ardent, proud young man — a big fan of the tsar. Kasatsky is going to marry, but at the last moment he learns from the bride that she was the mistress of the emperor. The prince is deeply disappointed in social life, he takes a monastic vow and leaves the capital. Faith in God was to save the soul, but passions and worldly temptations don't leave Kasatsky.

6.3/10

Based on the novel by Charles de Coster "The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak, and their Adventures Heroical, Joyous and Glorious in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere." First part: "The Ashes of Claes". XVI century. The freedom-loving and cheerful people of the Netherlands under the rule of the Spanish king: persecution, torture, bonfires of the Inquisition, encouraging scammers. The fearless Thyl Uhlenshpiegel and his faithful girlfriend Nele have to go through many trials. Second part: "Viva Beggars!". The people of the Netherlands, tormented by cruel royal decrees, taxes, heresy, torture and executions, began a war of liberation against Spanish rule. Many feats will be performed by the national hero Tilbert (Thyl) Ulenspiegel and his friend Lamme Gudzak before peace returns to their homeland.

7.2/10

The famous scientist, academician and art critic Andrei Ilyin, who survived with the Hermitage staff the harsh trials of the Leningrad blockade, returned to his hometown after many years. The whole life of Ilyin is connected with Leningrad. A life that in the distant years of World War II would have seemed to have no future, but which, despite the unbearable horror of hunger and devastation, continued only in the name of the future ...

5.3/10

The of an actor in a provincial theatre.

7.7/10

A story of the creation of the atomic bomb in America, Germany and the USSR.

6.6/10

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

8.1/10
10%

A man decides to escape into the future by the way of hibernation. When he wakes up, feeling lucky that the experiment worked out well, the staff of the hibernation company politely walks him to the outside were he finds a post atomic war desert… He wakes up! Thank God it was just a dream! Or was it?

6.5/10

Based on the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov. About the searches and doubts of the Russian intelligentsia at the end of the 19th century. Events unfold on the estate of Pyotr Sorin, which brought together representatives of secular society - actress Irina Arkadina, the host's sister and her lover, the famous writer Trigorin. Sorin’s nephew, Konstantin Treplev, in love with a neighbor girl Nina Zarechnaya, who dreams of becoming an actress, writes for her a play that she plays in the scenery of Sorin’s garden.

7.2/10

Two young talented neurosurgeons — Pyotr and Sasha — are enthusiastically working on a complex medical experiment. But in search of stability and a better life, Pyotr goes to work in Stockholm, Sasha becomes a major official. Pyotrr's overseas life does not add up, and he returns to Moscow. Realizing that his friend has a completely different life, Pyotr goes to Siberia, where he works on an ambulance. There he meets a girl with a brain disease, the study of which he had once been involved in, but did not finish the job. Feeling in vain of a lived, failed life, a sense of professional guilt in front of this sick girl, whom no one can help, torment him, and he again recalls his true destiny.

7.2/10

The main motive of the film - a tragic love of Lesya Ukrainka to Marxist revolutionary Sergei Merzhinskiy. The film is about the poetess' trip to her beloved, in the literal and metaphorical sense at the same time.

5.4/10

The film is dedicated to the great Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). It tells of the last twenty years of the great master’s life, of his friendship with Baroness von Meck, an outstanding woman of her time, who for many years was Tchaikovsky’s guardian angel. The film also includes retrospections of the composer’s childhood and adolescent years, with Tchaikovsky’s life poetically recounted against the background of fragments from his operas and ballets performed by the best Russian musicians.

6.6/10

Based on the play of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. According to Fyodor Protasov, the surrounding life is riddled with dirt and falsehood. He does not want to participate "in all this dirty trick", he does not have the courage to fight it, and he chooses the third way — to stage suicide.

5.5/10

Set during the last days of the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution. The Crimea Peninsula is the last stronghold of the White Guard, and the Red Army is planning the final assault. The first story line of the movie follows two Red Army soldiers: unlikely friends Nekrasov and Karyakin. The second story line is about a White Guard officer Brusentsov who is devoted to Russia and his cause but sees it being destroyed day by day.

8/10

In 1918, V.I. Lenin and Dzerzhinsky are destroying opponents and strengthening dictatorship using the Soviet secret police, predecessor of KGB.

7.5/10

The year is 1940 and Nazi Germany is at the height of its military prowess, having captured most of Europe and eyeing the Soviet Union to the East. The Russian military command suspects hostile intent from Germany and so arranges for its spies to infiltrate ranks of the German military and the SS. Alexander Belov is a Russian spy, who travels from Soviet-held Latvia to Nazi Germany under an alias of Johann Weiss. His mastery of the German language, steel nerves and an ability to manipulate others help him to use his connections in the SS to ascend the ladder of the German intelligence. He uses his position to identify sympathetic Germans, who help him to procure vital intelligence, and to help local resistance movements in their collective fight against Nazism.

7.7/10

A drama based on the daily life of the hospital and it's doctors.

7.6/10

Russia, 1787. On the eve of the treacherous attack of Turkey on the Crimea, Empress Catherine the Great is given an anonymous letter threatening violation of the southern borders and stability of the conquered Crimean lands!