Russian Cinema
Early films from the then Soviet Union had a shaky start due to the First World War and the October Revolution in 1917, but Lenin himself and later Stalin recognised the propaganda uses of the medium. At first, with the infrastructure in tatters and virtually no cinemas in which to screen films, shorts expounding communism were carried from place to place often accompanying live speakers. Once Moscow's first cinema was opened at the end of 1921, newsreels became common. But in 1924 Sergei Eisenstein's 'Strike' became the first true Soviet feature. The following year his 'Battleship Potemkin' was launched to great acclaim, highly propagandistic and towing the party line.
Tight restrictions on content continued up until Stalin's death in 1953 and it wasn't until the '60s and '70s that seminal Russian film makers like Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergo Paradjanov and Nikita Mikhalkov began to find their own voice.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the largely state-funded film industry all but disappeared and is only now beginning to find its feet once more. A few gems found their way to Alice's shelves from this period, such as 'Burnt By The Sun' (1994), 'Prisoner of the Mountains' (1996), and our one and only Estonian film is to be found in this section, for want of a better home, the darkly humourous 'Darkness in Tallinn' (1993). 2002 saw the release of 'Russian Ark' (pictured), shot in one take, it is the longest unedited film ever made.
The Ascent (1976)
8.3/10
Director: Larissa Shepitko
Starring: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin
The winter of 1942 in Belorussia seems a grim game of cat and mouse between Soviet Partisans and Russians working for German invaders.Two captured Par... Read more
Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
8.1/10
Director: Grigori Chukhrai
Starring: Vladimir Ivashov, Zhanna Prokhorenko, Antonina Maksimova
Aloysha is a frightened young soldier fighting the Germans when, more by good luck than good management, he disables two enemy tanks. As a reward he... Read more
Solaris ( Blu-ray ) (1972)
8.1/10
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Juri Jarvet
A mind-bending, metaphysical film about an investigation into why astronauts on a space station situated above the planet Solaris have suffered mental... Read more
Polina ( Polina, danser sa vie ) (2016)
6.8/10
Director: Angelin Preljocaj, Valerie Muller
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Anastasia Shevtsova, Alexsey Guskov
A young girl studies classical ballet. As a young woman she turns to modern dance and choreography. A modern dance piece like Fred Astaire and Gene Ke... Read more
Tulpan (2008)
7.1/10
Director: Sergey Dvortsevoy
Starring: Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Ondasyn Besikbasov, Samal Yeslyamova
Acclaimed Kazakh documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy's first narrative feature is a gorgeous melange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife ext... Read more
The Mark of Cain (2000)
6.5/10
Director: Alix Lambert
Alix Lambert's ground-breaking documentary overtly examines the dying art of Russian prison tattooing, while at the same time, more covertly, showing... Read more
The Admiral (2008)
7.2/10
Director: Andrey Kravchuk
Starring: Richard Bohringer, Sergei Bezrukov, Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Konstantin Khabensky,...
A lavish romantic drama and historical fiction centered on Admiral Kolchak (Konstantin Khabensky), a WWI war hero and naval commander who played an im... Read more
Silent Souls (2010)
6.7/10
Director: Aleksei Fedorchenko
Starring: Viktor Sukhorukov, Yuriy Tsurilo
A man and a companion go on a journey to cremate his beloved wife on a riverbank. Read more
Hardcore Henry (2015)
6.7/10
Director: Ilya Naishuller
Starring: Tim Roth, Haley Bennett, Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Andrei Dementiev
A man wakes up in a Moscow laboratory to learn that he's been brought back from the dead as a half-human, half-robotic hybrid. With no memory of his f... Read more
9th Company (2005)
7.1/10
Director: Fyodor Bondarchuck
Starring: Arhur Smolyaninov, Aleksei Chadov
What were the members of 9th Company expecting after surviving grueling basic training and deploying into Afghanistan? Surely not the brutality and th... Read more