VSYO BUDET KHOROSHO (EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE)

One day a millionaire Konstantin Smirnov, who is neither a slob nor a gangster but simply a good person, returns to a remote Russian provincial town together with his son Petya who is not a snob thinking too much of himself but simply the youngest in the world winner of Nobel prize. Why does he do it? To reunite with his friends and relatives, and instead of harassing people and destroying things — to build the magic Disneyland in his native town and find his long awaited love.

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  The film was awarded the Main Prize of the International Festival of Love Story Films in Varna, Bulgaria.
  

The film deals with problems of ecology and environmental protection. The lead character of the film is making documentary films and is obsessed with recording of certain marginal phenomena of life around him. Coming to the phenomena closer and closer with his camera lens he involuntary becomes their participant and victim.

From war diaries.

“Mozart, Messian, Beethoven, uninhabited North of Russia and bloody war in Tajikistan. Harmony and chaos, classics and modernism, death and a final revelation of the sense of life, beauty growing out of ugly clots of matter.

Faces and bodies of soldiers left at the end of the Universe, spiritual voices piercing the thickness of darkness — these are the dominant themes of the film shot in extreme circumstances of war” (“Seance” magazine No. 11)

The first non-feature motion picture made in circumstances of modern war, sometimes directly during the actions. Alexander Sokurov for the first time used video camera because the use of a film camera and film shooting equipment for shooting scenes from life of the 11th post of Moscow detachment of Russian Border service in Tajikistan was determined by the situation as well as by financial problems.

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  The film was awarded the “Sony” Prize at the International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland.
  

Two earlier made films “Winter Cherry-1” and “Winter Cherry-2” reedited, additional shooting made with the use of videocamera. Olga, heroine of “Winetr Cherry 1 and 2” comes from America to Russia. She is rich and beautiful as ever.

Loosely based on literary works by Daniil Khrams (1939)

“Concert for a rat” is a tragic and comic panorama of pre-war life, full of lyricism and black humour. The film is set in a totalitarian state which resembles Germany and the USSR of the 30-es. One of the aims of the film is to reveal the complicated connection between Kharms’ attitude to life and the time he lived in.

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  The film director Oleg Kovalov was awarded the Special Prize at the KINOSHOK-95 Film Festival.
  

The film tells about the tragic fate of Russian ballerina Olga Spesivtseva who emigrated from Russia in the 20-es. Story of brilliant career and dramatic life story of the great dancer are told in the film not as a biographical document but as a theme of love enchantment delirium which was the most important theme in Spesivtseva’s art. This theme is the leit-motif of the story revealing the close connection between gift and madness, art and obsession, will and fate.

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  The actress Galina Tyunina was awarded the Prize for the Best Actor’s Debut at the “Molodost” (“Youth”) International Film Festival in Kiev, the Ukraine.
  
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  The film was awarded the Main Prize of the III Russian Cinema Festival in Onfleur, France.
  

A Young Finn named Raive who is working on a book on peculiarities of national hunting in different countries comes to Russia. With a company comprising men of different standing he goes to a remote forestry officer’s post.

Hunting a large beast turns into a traditional Russian drinking party. Together with Russian hunters the Finn gets into all sorts of comic situations...

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  The film was awarded the Grand Prix in the main contest at KINOTAVR-95 (the Open Russian Film Festival); the Special Prize of the Jury at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary; the Prize of the Russian Cinema Critics’ Guild at the International Film Festival in Sochi; the Grand Prix of the “Okno v Yevropu” (“The Window to Europe”) International Film Festival in Vyborg.
  

An ordinary Russian story. A husband jealous of his brother, killed him with an axe and escaped to St. Petersburg where he was later arrested in a brothel.

A film is being shot. The crew is waiting for the right weather. Some people are drinking coffee, some are trying to rehearse, some are sorting out personal problems. And they are watched by an impassive camera, forgotten to be turned off.

During vacation a curator of Berlin Museum of Transport comes with his son Peter to St. Petersburg planning to make a videofilm about the local museum of transport. Having learned that there exists a rare copy of an old locomotive heroes of the film start looking for it and come to a small town where local dealers are ready to sell the relic abroad as scrap metal. Peter and his friends start their struggle for the locomotive.

The film is devoted to the 100th anniversary of Russian cinema and marks the centenary of Sergei Eisenstein. All events shown on the screen reflect the tragic period in Russia’s life in period between the two revolutions and Stalinist terror. The events and their participants are chosen to stress the special place Eisensten’s art occupies in the 20th century culture.

Loosely based on Oleg Danilov’s play of the same title.

Having landed at an unknown planet astronauts find themselves in their past. The science fiction story loosely based on Ray Bradbury’s and Stanislav Lem’s motives is used by the authors of the film as a backdrop for human behaviour study in a non-typical situation.

1287 YA IDU ISKAT (I AM GOING TO SEARCH)

1995, 13 min., color, ”Lenfilm”, ROSKOMKINO, VGIK

Ironic thriller

Director: Vasily Chiginsky (workshop of Vladimir Naumov), screenplay: Ramil Yamaleyev, camera: Anton Antonov, production designer: Fyodor Savelyev, misic: Mikhail Ekimyan, sound: Natalya Avanesova

Cast: Darya Muzychenko, Yuri Pavlov, Yelena Kucherenko, Vladimir Shevelov, Georgy Kervalishvili, Vera Tarasova, Igor Korniyenko, Igor Kozlov-Sakhalinsky, Vladimri Borisov, Alexei Zasetsky

1288 PRINTSIPIALNY I ZHALOSTLIVY VZGLYAD (PRINCIPAL AND COMPASSIONATE LOOK)

1996, 90 min., color, ”Lenfilm” with the input from ROSKOMKINO

Drama

Director: Alexander Sukhochev, screenplay: Renata Litvinova, camera: Alexander Korneyev, Artyom Melkumyan, production designers: Vladimir Yuzhakov, Yelena Zhukova, music, sound: Yelena Demidova, Larisa Maslova

Cast: Natalya Kolyakanova, Tatyana Okunevskaya, Milena Tontegode, Olga Samoshina, Valery Barinov, Sergei Russkin

Forty-year old Alya has been abandoned by her husband and son. Her mother does her best to distract the heroine from her loneliness. However, her clumsy efforts do not help — Alya prefers top escape into the world of her dreams, fantasies and childhood memories.

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  The film was awarded the Main Prize of the “Okno v Yevropu” (“The Window to Europe”) International Film Festival in Vyborg; the Third Premium of the “Molodost” (“Youth”) International Film Festival in Kiev (1996). The actress Natalya Kolyakanova was honored the Prize for the Best Actress’ Work at the Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi (1996).
  

The early 1970-s. Liosha Kolyadko, in his ninth year of school, lives in a provincial town with his elder brother and sister. His brother dies in a motorcycle crash... Liosha's personal tragedy is further complicated by his old and secret love for his dead brother's girlfriend Tanya. For her, his first love, he is willing to do anything — including the most crazy “feats”...

The story is set in the 1910-s. Accompanied by three charming girls, two underground revolutionaries conduct a complicated scientific experiment.

Dismissed from the Army, Danila Bagrov returns to a provincial town, from which he proceeds to Petersburg on a visit to the elder brother whom he hasn't seen for a long time. His brother, who became a hired killer, is trying to draw Danila into his business...

The film has three main characters representing the three main elements of the Russian personality: the worker team leader Chapurin (power on village level), the meek industrious Skuridin and Timofei Ivanovich, drowning his mental discord in wine...

Through their personalities we follow the course of life in a distant province with its joys, worries and grieves.

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  The film was awarded the Prize of Peace at the 47th International Film Festival in Berlin (1998); the Press Prize at the KINOSHOK International Film Festival in Anapa (1998); the Special Mention of the FIPRESSI Jury at the 47th International Film Festival in Berlin (1998).
  

The former professional theater director Dima Kamentsev discovers a fascinating pastime: he stages a play by William Shakespeare, using teenage club amateur actors...

He engaged the “difficult” teenager nicknamed “Milord” for the part of Richard III...

1294 SERGEY EIZENSHTEIN. MEKSIKANSKAYA FANTAZIYA (SERGEI EISENSTEIN. A MEXICAN FANTASY)

1997, 100 min., color, STV, “Gosfil’mofond”

Arrangement

Written and directed by: Oleg Kovalov, camera: Dmitry Pakhomov, production designer: Vyacheslav Gayvoronski, sound: Marina Polyanskaya

The sequel of a two-part picture about Sergei Eisenstein. The author offers his version of the Master's uncompleted picture titled “Da Zdravstvuyet Meksika” (“Long Live Mexico”).

Having received a report saying that his son Alexei is plotting against him, Tsar Pyotr orders Count Tolstoi to bring Tsarevich and Yefrosinya, his companion, to Petersburg.

Yezopka, dispatched by Tolstoi, cunningly lures Alexei back to his motherland. Pyotr interrogates his son, inducing him to inherit the power. But Alexei chooses the fate of a common person...

In a fit of rage, the Tsar orders to subject his son to the tortures which he doesn't survive...

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  The film was awarded the Grand Prix of the Russian Film Festival in Onfleur, France; the Main Prize of the “Okno v Yevropu” (“The Window to Europe”)International Film Festival in Vyborg. The actor Alexei Zuyev was honored the Prize for the Best Actor’s Work at the “Okno v Yevropu” International Film Festival in Vyborg (1997).
  

A fifty-year-old movie director, once famous and prosperous, nowadays altogether unwanted, is summarizing his life. Once upon a time he encountered Death...

A certain Russian politician of high standing orders the State Security bodies to kill the manager of a large financial corporation intending to run for President...