King Lear

King Lear 1970

6.50

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

1970

The White Sun of the Desert

The White Sun of the Desert 1969

7.22

The setting is the east shore of the Caspian Sea (today's Turkmenistan) where the Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov has been fighting the Civil War in Russian Asia for a number of years. After being hospitalised and then demobbed, he sets off home to join his wife, only to be caught up in a desert fight between a Red Army cavalry unit and Basmachi guerrillas. The cavalry unit commander, Rahimov, "convinces" Sukhov to help, temporarily, with the protection of abandoned women of the Basmachi guerrilla leader Abdullah's harem. Leaving a young Red Army soldier, Petrukha, to assist Sukhov with the task, Rahimov and his cavalry unit set out to pursue fleeing Abdullah.Sukhov and women from Abdullah's harem return to a nearby shore town. Soon, looking for a seaway across the border, Abdullah and his gang come to the same town...

1969

Heart of a Dog

Heart of a Dog 1988

7.87

"Heart of a Dog" is a Soviet film adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s iconic novella. Set in 1920s Moscow, it tells the satirical and darkly humorous story of a stray dog named Sharik, who is transformed into a human by Professor Preobrazhensky through a daring medical experiment. The resulting man, Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, embodies the social and ideological tensions of early Soviet society. With its sharp critique of class struggle, human nature, and the perils of radical change, the film is celebrated for its faithful adaptation, brilliant performances, and rich allegorical depth.

1988

Dead Man's Letters

Dead Man's Letters 1986

6.77

In a world after the nuclear apocalypse a scholar helps a small group of children and adults survive, staying with them in the basement of the former museum of history. In his mind he writes letters to his son — though it is obvious that they will never be read.

1986

Amphibian Man

Amphibian Man 1961

6.76

People living at a seashore town are frightened by reports of an unknown creature called "the sea devil". Nobody knows what it is, but it's really the son of doctor Salvator. The doctor performed surgery on his son and now young Ichtiander can live under water. This gives him certain advantages, but also creates a lot of problems.

1961

The Blue Bird

The Blue Bird 1976

5.30

Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities.

1976

Lady with the Dog

Lady with the Dog 1960

5.50

On holiday in Yalta, Muscovite banker Dimitri Gurov contrives to meet a young woman who walks her dog. She’s Anna Sergeyevna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a lackey. He’s unhappy in an arranged marriage. With neither spouse at hand, Dimitri and Anna begin an affair. After a short time, she returns to Saratov, he to Moscow, believing it’s good-by forever. All winter he is miserable, enervated, distracted by tristesse. In desperation, he contrives to go to Saratov, surprising her at a concert. Fearing discovery in her home town, she promises to come to Moscow. Will they cast aside reputation to live together, or will theirs be an affair of infrequent encounters in hotel rooms?

1960

My Friend Ivan Lapshin

My Friend Ivan Lapshin 1985

6.78

Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.

1985

The Captivating Star of Happiness

The Captivating Star of Happiness 1975

5.65

In December 1825, distinguished members of the Russian military, most of whom were quite affluent and of noble lineage, took it upon themselves to stir revolution against the autocratic and tyrannical Czar Nikolai I in the wake of his not honoring the drafting of a constitution for the Russian people. The revolution failed miserably and the conspirators (known as the Decembrists) were weeded out by the czar himself. One by one, each of the conspirators confess and are systematically exiled to the harsh winters of Siberia, slated to work and wither in a prison/mine. The wives of the conspirators are faced with the prospect of leaving the bosom of wealth and family (including their own children) to be with their husbands in the brutal Siberian locale. If they agree to this, they face having their illustrious social stations stripped away and certain disdain from everyone around them...

1975

My Life

My Life 1972

4.50

Man is trying to find simple human happiness. He decides for himself the question of what this happiness consists of - wealth, high social status, or something else.

1972

Taxi Blues

Taxi Blues 1990

6.20

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 stiffs Ivan for the fare, so Ivan tracks him down and a love-hate relationship ensues. When Alexi lets the bath water run over in Ivan's flat and Ivan must pay 500 rubles for repairs, he tries to force Alexi into day labor to repay him. It's hopeless. Then, suddenly, Alexi is discovered, goes on a jazz tour of America, becomes a celebrity, and returns in triumph. Ivan longs to renew the friendship, and it looks as if he may get what he wants.

1990

Jack Vosmyorkin, American

Jack Vosmyorkin, American 1986

5.60

Jack Vosmyorkin, young American with Russian origins decides to return to Russia in order to watch October Revolution in action.

1986

No Path Through Fire

No Path Through Fire 1967

5.65

A talented girl is trying to find happiness amidst the Russian revolution of 1917 and the civil war that split the nation.

1967

The Second Circle

The Second Circle 1990

6.30

A man tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.

1990

The Elder Son

The Elder Son 1975

6.43

Two students are late for the last commuter train and have to spend a night in a strange town. They rack their brains about where to find shelter and quite by chance they overhear a talk between father and son. The son is an adolescent who is head over heels in love with a girl several years his senior. He is living through the first drama of his life though his love is just puppy love. Then, being resourceful fellows, they think of a plan to pass one of them for the elder son of this family. The reason they give for his unexpected arrival is that he is a child of the father's long-forsaken love. They presume this cock-and-bull story will come off, and right they are!

1975

Please Accuse Klava K. of My Death

Please Accuse Klava K. of My Death 1979

6.88

Klava and Seryozha (Sergey) have been together since preschool. He, one of the smartest kids in school, has always been in love with her but considered her more of just a pretty face rather than an intelligent person. He let her copy his homework and gave her his parents' things as gifts. When they are teens, Klava rejects his love because she knows that he doesn't value her for her, and instead is attracted to Lavrik, another intelligent boy from school. Klava likes him because for the first time she feels like someone is really interested in her as a person. Seryoszha, being very dramatic and wanting Klava's/everyone else's sympathy, writes a suicide note, "Please blame Klava K. for my death," but can he really commit suicide? Eventually he realizes that he is being too shallow and that while he makes such a drama out of such small problems, the people around him have real problems, but never said a thing.

1979

At War as at War

At War as at War 1969

6.09

The film tells about the fighting everyday life of the crew of self-propelled guns during the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine. Junior Lieutenant Maleshkin, an unshooted graduate of the school, commands the crew of the self-propelled gun SU-100. All the subordinates of Maleshkin are older than him and much more experienced. The authority of the young commander is tested at every step, he quarrels, then reconciles with his crew. In addition, Maleshkin is very dissatisfied with the battery commander, he now and then threatens to remove the sluggish young officer from the command. In the crew of Maleshkin, various troubles constantly occur: either the driver will catch the commandant’s eyes in an untidy, grimy look, then a combat grenade with a dropped check will be discovered in the car, or a breakdown will occur just at the moment the regiment enters the march. Ending in a sprawling battle against German forces.

1969

The Living Corpse

The Living Corpse 1969

4.70

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.

1969

Hamlet

Hamlet 1964

7.13

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.

1964

Wedding in Malinovka

Wedding in Malinovka 1967

7.10

The movie takes place during Russia's civil war between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (Mensheviks). Andrejka and Yarinka are a young betrothed couple in the village of Malinovka, caught between the battle lines. Gritsian is the leader of a Menshevik band who are planning to attack the village. Yarinka appeals to the local Bolshevik commander for his faction's help. The Bolsheviks quickly come up with a plan to save the village... but the plan requires Yarinka to enter into a pretend marriage with Gritsian.

1967