TSARSKAYA OKHOTA (THE TSAR'S HUNT)

The screenplay features the tragic fate of the impostor Princess Tarakanova, a pretender to the Russian throne. It is one of the most dazzling subjects presented to art by the Russian history. Leonid Zorin came up with his own view of the hunt put up by Tsarina Catherine II in pursuit of Princess Tarakanova.

In the eyes of many Count Orlov, the executor of the Empress's will, was an accomplished villain. The playwright renounced this simple description. Orlov was too much of an individual to turn into a common executioner. The extent of his suffering might have exceeded that of the victim herself; for he truly fell in love with Princess Yelizaveta Tarakanova, the one he betrayed.

• 
  The costume designer Larisa Koknikova was awarded NIKA – the highest annual professional Premium of the Cinematographers’ Union – for the Best Designer’s Work (1991).
  
• 
  The actress Svetlana Kryuchkova was awarded NIKA for the Best Minor Part (1991).
  

A gifted innovator, Sergei Nenashev, who is an underpaid engineer at a research institute, has the walls of his toilet covered with his useless diplomas and patents. He then decides to start his own business. Equipped with sophisticated electronic devices, Sergei blackmails dishonest rich men.

A young biologist and a young computer programmer create a super-robot Mania designed to fight the mafia. Like Pygmalion, the young researcher falls in love with his creation…

Film version of Tatyana Tolstaya’s short story “Sonya”

Lyrical drama about a young girl living in a large friendly family of Leningrad intellectuals. The story is mixed with the description of people surrounding her and of the atmosphere of Leningrad in the 30’s — beginning of the 40’s.

1158 MOLODAYA YEKATERINA (YOUNG CATHERINE)

1991, 188 min., color

Historical melodrama

Written and directed by: Michael Anderson, camera: Ernest Day, production designer: Harold Trasher, Natalya Vasilyeva, misic: Isaak Schwartz, sound: Galina Gorbonosova

Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Chistopher Plummer, Franko Nero, Martha Keller, Maximillian Shell, Julia Ormond, Katya Golitsyna

Prussian princess Sophia arrives in St. Petersburg. Sge is fated to become Catherina the Great, the most famous Russian empress.

• 
  ACE award, USA cable TV for best supporting role for Vanessa Regrave
  

Loosely based on novels by Sholom Aleichem, Alexander Kuprin, Isaak babel Motl Rabinovich started his own business — opened a dairy store. A womanizer, a drunkard and a hard worker he was nor worse and was not better then his neighbors, the only difference was in the shape of his nose and color of his curly hair. All the village came to Motl celebrate opening of his store. The villagers were having a great time and no one could suspect that there was trouble ahead.

• 
  Ecumenical Jury prize, XVII Moscow IFF, 1991
  
• 
  Best male role for Otar Megvinetukhutsesi (Tokyo IFF, 1991)
  

An experimental film made on the intersection of different types of films — documentary, feature and animation.

Based on Mikhail Popov’s novel “Let’s Talk!”.

Investigation of a murder committed in a communal apartment. Each of the tenants is a suspect.

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  Grand-Prix, “Kinoshock” IFF (1992)
  

Adaptation of Aleksander Kuprin’s short story “Junior Captain Rybnikov”

The film portrays a Japanese General Staff officer infiltrates the military circles of St. Petersburg.

1163 YEVREISKOYE SCHSATYE (JEWISH FORTUNE)

1991, 50 min., color, “First and Experimental Film”

Psychological drama

Director: Vitaly Mansky, screenplay: Georgy Ostrovsky, camera: Sergei Yurizditsky, production designer: Oleg Tagel, misic: Kharkovsky, sound:Boris Andreyev

Cast: Yevgeny Steblov, Anna Matyuhina, Lyudmila Narovchatskaya

The lead character of the film, Mark, is going to emigrate to Israel. Before leaving for the homeland of his ancestors, Mark pays a visit to his native town where he spent his childhood. Here he meets his death — in what seems to be an absurd accident.

The mother of the 7-year old Platon sends him to his grandmother's and goes away with her lover on the Christmas vacation. However, the boy's grandmother does not recognize her grandson and on New Year's eve Platon is left on his own. At first he enjoys himself immensely getting together with his friends and riding for long hours on a tram. But then he finds himself in a police station among homeless children. The tram driver Viktor helps Platon get out of the police station…

During the last days of the war in Afghanistan, one battalion, which is providing cover to withdrawing Soviet troops, is ambushed. All the men, including their brave commander major Bandura, lay down their lives to save their comrades.

Fiodor Dostoyevsky's novel of the same title takes place in modern

times. One summer night, Mitya, a bread vagon driver, meets a girl and gives her a ride home. They make a date. During their next meeting, the girl tells Mitya how boring her life was until a new tenant appeared in their flat.

1167 MIF O LEONIDE (THE MYTH OF LEONID)

1991, 90 min., color, “Lenfilm” studio

Political drama

Director: Dmitry Dolinin, screenplay: Pavel Finn, camera: Lev Kolganov, production designer: Vladimir Bannykh, misic: Gennady Banshchikov, sound: Alexander Sysolyatin

Cast: Sergei Gamov, Niyole Narmontaite, Anzhelika Nevolina, Boris Birman, Olga Tarasenko, Valery Kravchenko, Gabriel Vorobyov, Viktor Bychkov, Boris Kozhemyakin

The film is focused on the versions of the Leningrad Bolsheviks’ leader Kirov's assassination as suggested by Orlov, the ex- KGB general who narrowly escaped death in Stalin purges.

The action of the film begins in the 70's and ends up in our days. The story is pivoted on the conflict of two strong and exceptional characters. The main hero of the film is appointed head of a large foreign trade company and his new job immediately draws attention of the chief of a corporation engaged in an illegal business. We see the metamorphosis of one of the characters and find out what happens to the other hero six years later. We also see what methods the mafia is using today.

Two young boys punish the mobsters connected with corrupt policemen.

Loosely based on Alexander Kabakov’s novel of the same title. The lead character of the film is a journalist and TV reporter. He is also a dissident and a police informer, who has long complicated relations with the authorities. Tired and dissatisfied with everything and above all, with himself, he decides to concentrate on his purely professional activities. Accidentaly he gets hold of the original documents about preparation of a communist coup. The journalist makes his choice — he will never return to his former life. Any danger, any punishment would be better than lies and compromises with his conscience.

Pavel Gorelikov together with his friend Kostya opens a small workshop where they use scrap metal and various fragments to assemble elementary computer games for children. However, this little humble place is attacked by racketeers. Realizing that police failed to protect them the helpless impractical Pavel, a goofball, declares war on the gangsters...

The tragic love story in which the heroes — Pasha and Angel — are patients at a mental hospital. In this cruel world they choose death…

Loosely based on Aleksei Tolstoy's short story “Vampire.” The vivid film focuses on the story of a grandmother who is a vampire.

Loosely based on Alexei Tolstoy's short story “Vampire's Family.”

The action of the novel takes place in modern times. Can Santa Claus die? And if the answer is “yes, “does it mean that time will also stop? Everyone knows that it is Santa Claus who brings the New Year and starts the new cycle of life. A young biologists looks for a secluded place where he can continue his research. He finds a village inhabited by some strange people, everyone seems to be possessed by some mystical maniacal ideas.

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  The film was awarded the “Gold R” – the Grand Prix of the Art Film Festival in Rimini, Italy (1993).
  

Based on Leonid Andreyev’s short story of the same title.

At the turn of the century when Leonid Andreyev was working on this story, some people believed that terrorism was liberating, noble and self-sacrificing. This story of a terrorist and a prostitute reflects this disastrous and romantic delusion of its time.

1176 OI, VY, GUSI... (OH, YOU, GEESE...)

1991, 87 min., color, b/w, ”First and Experimental Film”, ”Lenfilm”

Drama

Written and directed by: Lydia Bobrova, camera: Sergei Astakhov, production designer: Gennady Popov, sound: Oksana Strugina

Cast: Vyacheslav Sobolev, Yuri Bobrov, Vasily Frolov, Nina Usatova, Galina Volkova, Sveltana Gaitan, Marina Kusnetsova

A dying father leaves his three sons an accordion, an old house and a clock…

• 
  The author of the screenplay and the film director Lydia Bobrova was awarded the Grand Prix of the IY European Festival of the First Films in Angere, France for the Best Screenplay and Film (1991).
  

In a countryside writers' colony, a young writer is working on her autobiographical story dealing with the arrest and death of her husband. She is is mad with fear, suspicion, mistrust andanxiety. The film shows how a totalitarian state intrudes upon people's private lives and their creative work, how it mutilates souls and distorts relations between people.

This political film has elements of satire and philosophical lyricism about the epoch of Great Expectations. It is a surrealistic collage, and a free combination of fragments of Soviet films made in the 20s — 30s. These films were both great and ordinary, feature films and documentaries, instructive films and animations.

Set in the days of Khrushchev's thaw, the film centers on the complicated relations of a father and his teenager son. The film shows the awakening of artistic and creative impulses in a young man standing on the threshold of his independent life.

Adaptation of the play “Barefoot in Athens” by American playwright Maxwell Anderson.

The film centers on the tragic last period of Socrates's life. The long war with Sparta ended up with Athens completely humbled, deprived of its might and prosperity. In the atmosphere of general despair and irritation, democracy is replaced first by tyranny and then by oligarchy. And at that time, a strange old man is wandering about the streets and markets, entering into conversations and asking confusing questions. Gradually the man becomes the focus of public irritation. After all he was the friend and teacher of the most famous Athenian citizens: Aristides, Harmodius and Critas who led the city-state to defeat and collapse.

1181 SCHASTLIVIYE DNI (THE HAPPY DAYS)

1991, 97 min., b/w, “First and Experimental Film”

Drama

Written and directed by: Alexei Balabanov, camera: Sergei Astakhov, production designer: Sergei Karnet, sound: Galina Golubyeva, misic: Richard Wagner, G. Warren

Cast: Viktor Sukhorukov, Anzhelika Nevolina, Yevgeny Merkuryev, Georgy Teikh, Nikolai Lavrov

Loosely based on Samuel Beckett's play of the same title.

We see how the inner world of a man collapses when the world around him goes to pieces. We watch the degradation of the lead character who gives up love, friendship and basic moral standards because the society around him does not need these values. Gradually his ties to the world are getting thinner and thinner. One day he comes across a boat in a courtyard and lies down in it like in a coffin and closes the lid. At the end of the film we see the flooded streets of the city and a tram that comes to a dead stop.

1182 TRETYA PLANETA (THE THIRD PLANET)

1991, 99 min., color, ”Lenfilm”

Written and directed by: Aleksander Rogozhkin, camera: Nikolai Stroganov, production designers:Aleksander Zagoskin, Pavel Novikov, misic: Gennady Byelolipetsky, sound: Nikolai Astakhov

Cast: Anna Matyukhina, Boris Sokolov, Svetlana Mikhalchenko, Konstantin Polyansky, Gosha Pankratov

Sci-fi. Philosophic anti-utopia on the fragility of human life...

Anton is desperate. His daughter is suffering from a serious ailment and has been discharged from the clinic without any signs of improvement. He takes his last chance: he will try his luck in the so called “zone” — the site of a nuclear catastrophe that happened many years ago. Now this place is inhabited by strange human mutants. These people are super-healers and they are his last resort.

1183 ULYBKA (A SMILE)

1991, 97 min., color, “First and Experimental Film”

Phantasmagoria

Director: Sergei Popov, screenplay: Dmitry Lazarev, Sergei Popov, camera: Yuri Vorontsov, production designer: Oleg Tagel, misic: Arkady Gagulashvili, sound: Igor Terekhov

Cast: Natalya Lvova, Nadezhda Zharikova, Galina Zakhurdayeva, Pyotr Kozhavnikov, Igor Nikitin, Valery Poletayev, Viktor Gogolev

Loosely based on a book by Dmitry Lazarev.

Basically the film is set in a mental hospital. However, absurdity has no bounds. A man is just a random victim of the universal madness. In this world of total madness, the heroes of the film try to find answers and, moreover, they feel it necessary to give answers to the questions put before them.

1184 KHMEL (INTOXICATION)

1991, 246 min., 3 parts, color, “Ladoga”

Melodrama

Written and directed by: Viktor Tregubovich, camera: Ivan Bagayev, production designers: Stanislav Romanovsky, Andrei Vasin, misic: Vladlen Chistyakov, sound: Moris Vendrov

Cast: Fyodor Odinokov, Marina Vybornova, Alexander Blok, Andrei Ponomaryov, Viktor Tregubovich, Alexei Buldakov, Alexander Zavyalov, Yuri Dubrovin, Boris Arakelov, Viktor Bychkov

Loosely based on the novel by Alexei Cherkasov of the same title.

The film is set in 1827 in Siberia. The aristocrat, Loparev, has been convicted for participation in a revolt against tsar. He escapes from prison and takes refuge in a settlement of Old believers, the dissident Orthodox sect hiding in the forests from the persecution of the official church and state authorities. This film first opened the unknown world of the Old Believers, their customs and traditions. The film offers the vivid story of fatal love between Loparev and Yefimia, as well as the description of exceptional Russian characters, it meditates on the inevitable fall of tyranny.

1185 TSINIKI (CYNICS)

1991, 106 min., color, ”Lenfilm”, “Diapazon”, “Podmoskovye”

Melodrama

Director: Dmitry Meskhiyev, screenplay: Valery Todorovsky, camera: Yuri Shaigardanov, production designer: Vladimir Yuzhakov, misic: Vadim Golutvin, sound: Garri Belenky

Cast: Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Andrei Ilyin, Irina Rozanova, Viktor Pavlov, Yuri Belyayev, Sergei Batalov, Yekaterina Vasilyeva

Loosely based on Anatoly Marienhof’s novel of the same title. The hero of the film is a university professor, a historian and a bookworm. The heroine is a daughter of wealthy parents who emigrated from the country after the first decrees of Soviet power.

They are the so called 'blue blood', outcasts who can not adjust to realities of post-revolutionary life and to the “building of the new world.' The film offers a cynical view on the events that were taking place in Russia in 1918 — 1924.

1186 CHERNOYE I BELOYE (BLACK AND WHITE)

1991, 85 min., color, “Troitsky Most”, “Sovexportfilm”, “Elegant Logic”

Melodrama

Written and directed by: Boris Frumin, camera: Vladimir Il’yin, production designer: Mary Keith Willett, sound: Eduard Vanumts, Michel Carman

Cast: Yelena Shevchenko, Gilbert Giles, Patrick Godfry, Gina Dellio

A little Russian girl lost in a foreign country, makes friends with a black janitor, who is also another lonely outcast excluded from society.

• 
  The film was awarded the Second Prizr at the Art Film Festival in Rimini, Italy (1993).
  

The funny and moving story of Stepan Chichulin, the shy soloist in a provincial folk group, who has been imitating the voices of other singers all his life.

Loosely based on the novel “Chip” by Vladimir Zazubrin.

The film takes place in the gloomy days of the Red Terror when within a short period of time millions of people representing the best part of Russian society were executed without any investigation or trial. The film is centred on a psychological portrait of a executioner- a man who has power over both the murderers and their victims.

1189 SANKT-PETERBURG VES NA LADONI (ALL ST. PETERSBURG IN YOUR PALM)

1991, 27 min., color, ”Troitsky Most”

Documentary

Written and directed by: Vitaly Aksyonov, camera: Vladimir Smirnov, production designer: Stanislav Romanovsky, sound: Alexander Sysolyatin

A bird's eye view of the city

A film about the destinies of those who fled Russia after the revolution of 1917. It is a reminiscence of turn of the century Russian ballet, when the world was amazed by this new wonder. On the screen we see very old people who gave their lives to the art: Nina Vyrubova, Nina Tikhonova, Marina Chelidova, Irina Grzhebina, Olga Debazil, Dmitry Bushen, Irina Nizhinskaya. Their names are very well known to all those who have every right to be proud of the great contribution of Russian art to the world ballet history.

The authors of the film take a close-up of Farukh Ruzimatov, a brilliant ballet soloist who successfully performed in America and Japan. The dancer's life is shown — long exhausting rehearsals that later result in the ethereal lightness of his dance on the stage, his attempts to seek his own style, his desire to express the music sounding in his heart through his dance, and his constant feeling of dissatisfaction with himself which is a distinctive feature of a true artist.

The story of Gerasim Dyagilev, a young man working at a factory in Siberia. In the 60's, when he was a child, he lived in a working class neighborhood located near the large municipal garbage dump. A strong willed boy, Gerasim makes several attempts to break away from his surroundings. He makes a brilliant career in sports, and becomes the European champion in boxing. However, the world of sports has its laws and one day Gerasim drops out from among the sport elite. 1984... He returns to his native town, to his mother's hut standing near the dump. He goes to pot, and starts drinking. However, his strong character saves him from complete degradation. He gets a job at the factory and marries a girl he went to school with.

The hero of the film is a well-known actor. Reflecting himself in the characters he plays on stage, in eyes of women, in the silent awe of the audience he looses touch with his ego. His attempts to reach his inner self are blocked by habits, illusions and self-deception. He behaves in a way that earlier would seem to him unthinkable and crazy. His life resembles a theatrical production, lost in search of lost reality — with no director, no author and no applause.

Loosely based on Pyotr Kozhevnikov’s novel of the same title.

Story of silly youngsters living in the gloomy “stagnation” times, when lie was often presented as truth, ugliness — as beauty. Life of its heroes rather resembles hell — although they do not realize it. There will be no other life and they are content with this one — with its love, betrayal, death, fights, disco, vodka and vague uncertain future…

1195 NEOBYKNOVENNYYE PRIKLYUCHENIYA IBIKUSA V SANKT PETERBURGE (AMAZING ADVENTURES OF IBIKUS IN ST. PETERSBURG

1992, 81 min., color

Director: Roman Yershov, screenplay: Yevgeny Yurkov, Irina Gonchar, camera: Vladimri Vasilyev, production designer: Galina Lukina

Cast: Sergei Bekhterev, Natalya Fisson

Russian language course for foreigners.

Cinema variation on the theme of the Russian history of the beginning of the 20th century. A surrealistic collage where fragments from early Russian feature, documentary and animated films acquire a new unexpected meaning. The film is dedicated to the memory of Vera Kholodnaya, the famous Russian film star.

• 
  Grand-Prix, Open Russian film festival, Sochi, 1993
  

The film is set in Russia in the ‘70s.

A boy nicknamed “Shumilka” (“Noisy”) lives in a remote village on a shore of a cold sea. A mischievous mocker with the soul of Charlie Chaplin, he dreams of the fame of the Great Mime. Loathing morals and manners of a small provincial town, its miserable and half drunk inhabitants, Shumilka is prepared to take vengeance on the surrounding world.

• 
  Prize for debut and Children’s Jury Prize “For the best film for youth” (Children international Film Festival, Moscow, 1994).
  

Footage shot by camera men Vacily Sery and Vladimir Petukhov is used in the film

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  Russian folk songs and romanes performed by engine-driver Vladimir Gromov, soloist of Kolon theater, engineer Konstantin Link (Buenos-Aires) etc. Mikhail Sopin reads his lyrics.
  
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  NIKA, annual professional prize for the best scientific-popular film (1993)
  

The story of the lead character of the film is the story of her rise and moral degradation. We see Mamlakat when she is a child, a young girl and a mature woman. A typical character of her epoch, she is stuffed with its slogans. Pursuing her goals she easily discards ethical standards. Her life was not an easy one: love, life with a man she did not love, a labor camp, again love and a reciprocal feeling, earthquakes, fires, post-war devastation. She ruins her own family and takes part in deceiving people of her country.

Loosely based on the novel by Sergei Zalygin of the same title.

The film is set in the tragic period in Russian history — the so called agricultural “collectivization”, when for the sake of a wrong idea agricultural land was ruthlessly confiscated from its true owners — Russian peasants, hard workers who were feeding the country.

1201 KLUCH (THE KEY)

1992, 58 min., color, ”Troitsky Most”, ”La Sept”, “Sodaperaga” (France)

Detective

Director: Pavel Chukhrai, screenplay: Jacques Baynac, camera: Ivan Bagayev, production designer: Sergei Kokovkin, sound: Oksana Strugina

Cast: Anatoly Kuznetsov, Anatoly Romashin, Veniamin Smekhov, Aleksander Kalyagin, Maryana Polteva, Alexei Serebryakov

Loosely based on Mark Aldanov’s novel of the same title.

The film is set in St. Petersburg in winter of 1917, on the eve of the February revolution. The secret police investigators, rich merchants and their families, journalists, bankers and military engineers live with the premonition of approaching disaster which will spare no one.

1202 TAINA (MYSTERY)

1992, 106 min., color, ”Russkoje Video” with the input from “Golos”

Detective story

Written and directed by: Gennady Beglov, camera: Aleksander Chechulin, production designer: Mikhail Gavrilov, misic: Boris Grabovskiy, sound: Maxim Belovolov

Cast: Povilas Gaidis, Natalya Fateyeva, Povilas Stankus, Sergei Mezhov, Laima Kernyute, Vitautas Kantsleris, Era Ziganshina

Private detective Sam Patrick has to solve the mystery of an old chest lost in the house belonging to an ex-pilot. The atmosphere is getting very tense, one murder is followed by another until Sam Patrick himself almost falls a victim of this intrigue...

The hero of the film, Rodion Chechunov, a musician playing in a small provincial operetta orchestra falls in love with a beautiful gipsy. He leaves his family and joins the wandering gipsy band. He finds neither new home, nor love -only pity. For the gipsy people he will always remain “Gadzho” – the stranger...

Loosely based on Maxim Gorky’s “Tales of Italy”

An eccentric Melodrama with a tragic end.

The main character of the film, the Guest, returns after his death to his house, guarded by the young Watchman. The only other alive creature near him is the crane...

The new rich businessmen and entrepreneurs, “the new Russians” who have the power to restore the city’s past glory. It is not easy for them to find common language with vulnerable St. Petersburg intellectuals, accustomed to their life full of troubles in the old dilapidated city and fearful of the “coming brutes”.

A popular TV reporter Alexei Kornilov who covers the most sensational city news, often shows people who would rather prefer to keep in the background. The film begins with the scene of funerals of the head of the city. However, Kornilov’s reportage of this event is not shown in the TV news and the man who could shed some light on this situation is found dead. Kornilov begins his own investigation of the murder.

Capitain Glazkov, an Afghan war veteran and now the deputy chief of the police department for fight with organized crime, helps Kornilov. They trace a criminal group that unites former Party functionaries, merchants and corrupt members of city administration... A tough struggle begins...

1209 TARTYUF (LE TARTUFFE)

1992, 95 min., color, “Petropol”, “Sojuztelefilm”, “Assotsiatsiya Sankt-Peterburg”

A musical

Director: Yan Frid, screenplay: Yan Frid, Boris Ratser, Vladimir

Konstantinov, camera: Nikolai Stroganov, production designer: Alexandr Rudyakov, misic: Gennady Gladkov, sound: Eduard Vanunts

Cast: Mikhail Boyarsky, Larisa Udovichenko, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Irina Muravyova, Igor Sklyar, Viktoria Gorshenina, Igor Dmitriyev, Anna Samokhina, German Orlov, Alexander Samokhin

Loosely based on Jean-Baptiste Moliere’s comedy “Le Tartuffe”

“We are lucky that there fools in this world”, sings Tartuffe about the family of Orgon. Authors of the film believe that stupidity is the greatest misfortune — it allows all the tartuffes, swindlers and crooks to triumph over honest people. Lively colourful film is immensely popular among wide range of viewers.

1210 OKNO V PARIZH (A WINDOW TO PARIS)

1992, 120 min., color, ”Films du Bouloi”, “La Sept” (France), “Fontan”, “Troitsky Most”, INEX

Fantastic comedy

Director: Yuri Mamin, Vladimir Vardunas, screenplay: Yuri Mamin, Arkady Tigai, Vladimir Vardunas, Vyacheslav Leikin, camera: Sergei Nekrasov, Anatoly Lapshov, production designer: Vera Zelinskaya, sound: Leonid Gavrichenko

Cast: Agnes Sorel, Sergei Dontsov (Dreiden), Viktor Mikhailov, Nina Usatova, Andrei Urgant, Kira Kreilis-Petrova, Yelena Drapeko

After a heavy drinking party several people living in a dreadful St.

Petersburg communal apartment find in it a window that opens...on Paris. This is the beginning of a series of funny adventures

of the Russians in the “city of their dreams” and of incredible

experience of French “guests” on the banks of the Neva river. Russian

personages of the film enjoy their wanderings down Paris streets while the French go through all the ordeals of every day life in Russia...

• 
  The film was awarded the Prize for the Film Director’s Work at the KINOSHOK Festival in Anapa (1993); the Special Prize of “Yunge Welt” news-paper at the International Film Festival in Berlin (1994).
  

The guardian angel comes to Andrei in one of the most miserable days of his life. The angel calls himself Filipp and looks like an ordinary man. Andrei who takes all his words and actions for a stupid and cruel joke, tries to avoid Filipp. Gradually, endless patience and loving care of Filipp stir the deep emotion of love in Andrei’s heart. Filipp disappears but the brief encounter has changed Andrei, allowed him to discover his vast resources of love and humanism and to obtain confidence in himself.

This story began when Madame Dubois, a tourist from Paris, broke her heel on a St. Petersburg street and went in a shoe repair shop. Some time later the family of one of the workers of the shop plays host to Orlette — a young niece of Madame Dubois.

Two Afghan war veterans and a young provincial girl who is dreaming to become an actress unite in an effort to survive and to achieve success in life. After a series of adventures all their wishes come true — but in a different way... Vladimir marries Olga and Oleg becomes a successful businessman.

The main character of the film, Katerina, is a drama theatre actress.

Far from being a star, awkward, eccentric and extravagant she is capable of working rare wonders — the wonders of compassion, kindness, selflessness and love, reminding us the old truth: our salvation is in ourselves — if only we could come to our senses and remember that we are human beings.

1215 DEREVNYA KHLYUPOVO VYKHODIT IZ SOYUZA (THE VILLAGE OF KHLYUPOVO SEPARATES FROM THE SOVIET UNION)

1992, 88 min., color, ”Baltfilm”, “Lenfilm”

Satirical comedy

Director: Anatoly Vekhotko, screenplay: Gennady Chernayev, camera: Valentin Sidorin, production designer: Alexander Grebaus, misic: Igor Tzvetkov, sound: Yevgeny Nesterov, Irina Volkova

Cast: Georgy Shtil, Katya Chernayeva, Sergei Isavnin, Lyudmila Tishchenko, Igor Yefimov

Once upon a time in one large country there was a village Khlyupovo. And one day all the residents of the village — young and old — got so sick and tired of all the ministers with and without portfolios that they decided that their village should separate from the country.

Loosely based on Sergey Dovlatov’s story “Zone”

On the eve of the all-union festival, the centenary of Lenin’s birthday, attempting to win attention of higher authorities administration of a Colony decides to stage in the prison a play on October revolution.

• 
  Engrossed in their roles the inmates start thinking and acting like the personages they play on the stage. The actor Viktor Sukhorukov was awarded the Prize for the Besr Actor’s Work at the III Russian Film Festival in Onfleur, France.
  

Loosely based on the novel “Smoke” by Ivan Turgenev.

The heroine of the film, Yelena, comes to the Baltic sea coast to visit her friend. In spite of all her efforts she can not tear actor Shuvalov out of her heart. Her vacation is over and she returns to her daily routine — the hectic world of film-making. During shooting of a film Shuvalov is killed. Yelena can not find her way out of the impasse.

It is not a war film, it is a film about happiness lost. So many of these people — brimming over with life, kind, loving and loved, will be separated forever by World War II. The last minutes before the outbreak of the war: the clock on a lively square of a sunlit southern town shows 4 a.m., June 22, 1941.

The story of an 11-year old Petersburg boy Misha Orlov and his mother Julia. Misha loves watching “Murderer”, the TV psychological serial. “Once he sees the car of actor Borodin, who plays the main character in the serial and follows him up to the film studio. The boy meets people belonging to the “dreamland of cinema” and watches the process of shooting films.

Looking for her son Julia comes to the studio, meets Borodin and falls in love with him...

Julia gives up her job of a waitress, which she feels sick and tired of, and starts working at the studio. Her sudden death breaks the usual cinema illusion. However, Misha, still living in the psychological world of “Murderer” has already made up his mind: he would destroy this place, which produces nightmares instead of dreams…

Russia, end of the 19th century, European news-reels, beginning of the 20th century.

Natural combination of documentary and poetic elements is a characteristic feature of Sokurov’s films. The sound, the image and photographs of the end of the 19th century Russia are intertwined to create an artistic symbol, making us nostalgic for the past times which we have never seen or experienced...

1222 MY YEDEM V AMERIKU (WE ARE GOING TO AMERICA)

1992, 123 min., color, ”Universal-film”, “Unirem-film”(Switzerland) with input from “Lenfilm”

Melodrama

Director: Yefim Gribov, screenplay: Yefim Gribov, Arkady Krasilshchikov, camera: Pavel Barsky, Denis Shcheglovsky, production designer: Yelena Amshinskaya, misic: Mikhail Gluz, sound: Aliakper Gasan-Zade

Cast: Dima Davydov, Lubov Rumyantseva, Semyon Strugachev, Vadim Danilevsky, Danuta Slavgorodska, Baiba Kranats

Loosely based on Sholom Aleichem’s story “Mottle Boy”.

The lead character of the film, set at the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th century, is an eleven- year- old Jewish boy with an amazingly fantastic concept of the world and people around him.

1223 ORLANDO (ORLANDO)

1992, 92 min., color, ”Adventure Pictures”(London) with the input from “Lenfilm”

Fantastic drama

Written and directed by: Sally Porter, camera: Alexei Rodionov, production designers: Ben Van Os, Jan Rolfse, sound: Jean Louis Duquari

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zahne, Lothar Bluto, John Wood, Charlotta Valandri, Hithcout Williams, Alexander Medvedev

Loosely based on Virginia Wolf’s novel “Orlando”.

Tells the story of the person who is travelling in time. He has been living for 400 years — at first in the disguise of a man, later — in that of a woman.

1224 NIKOTIN (NICOTINE)

1992, 70 min., b/w, ”Salamat”, ”Centre”, ”Lenfilm”

Melodrama

Director: Yevgeny Ivanov, screenplay: Sergei Dobrotvorsky, Maxim

Pezhemsky, camera: Valery Martynov, production designer: Vladimir Yuzhakov, misic: Sergei Kuriokhin, sound: Aliakper Gasan-Zade

Cast: Natalya Fisson, Igor Chernevich, Oleg Kovalov

The story narrated by Jean-Luc Godard in his famous “A Bout de

Souffle” has been transferred by the film director into modern St.

Petersburg. A boy meets a girl and she betrays him.This simple fairy-tale is plunged into the atmosphere of screen myths and legends.

Loosely based on Vsevolod Ivanov’s short story of the same title.

The small episode of the cruel civil war times, story of defenselessness of human life in front of unreasoning violence.

1226 CHKHAYA O “SAIGONE” (A TALE OF “SAIGON” IN AN OFFHAND MANNER)

1992, 27 min., color, ”Lenfilm”, “Kinodocument”

Combination of a documentary and a feature film

Written and directed by: Vladimir Vitukhnovsky, camera: Valentin Sidorin, Sergei Nekrasov, sound: Sergei Vartsan