Poddubny (Поддубный; The Iron Ivan in English) is a 2014 Russian biopic about Ukrainian/Soviet professional wrestler Ivan Poddubny. Poddubny was born in 1871 in what is now central Ukraine (it was part of the Russian Empire at the time), and he began a career in the circus and then in wrestling. He won championships all […]
Christmas Trees 2 (Ёлки 2; also called Seven Degrees of Celebration in English) is the sequel to the popular 2010 Christmas Trees (Ёлки). Released in 2011, it did even better than its predecessor, both at the box office and in reviews. It is less a true sequel in terms of plot and characters and more […]
Christmas Trees (Ёлки; also called in English) is a 2010 Russian comedy, the first in a multi-film series. Six different directors created different parts of the film. The film consists of nine loosely connected stories that all center on New Year’s (which is one of the most important holidays in Russia and more or less […]
Burned by the Sun 2 (Утомлённые сольнцем 2) is the sequel to the 1994 critically acclaimed Burned by the Sun. It consists of two parts, Exodus (2010; Предстояние) and Citadel (2011; Цитадель). The film takes place almost a decade after its prequel, during World War Two. In Exodus, Kotov (played by Nikita Mikhalkov, who also […]
Burned by the Sun (Утомлённые сольнцем) is a joint Russian and French Russian-language film released in 1994. The title of the film refers to a 1937 song, “The Burned Sun” (“Утомлённое сольнце”), which is featured several times in the film. The film was influenced by the real-life Nikolai Skoblin, a White Army officer who later […]
August Eighth (Август. Восьмого) is a Russian film released in 2012. The film tells the story of one family affected by the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia, a contested territory between the two countries. Life is going along normally for Ksenia, a divorced woman who lives in Moscow, when one day […]
Spy (Шпион) is a Russian film released in 2012. It is based on the novel Spy Novel (Шпионский роман) by well-known Russian novelist Boris Akunin. Akunin contributed to the film’s screenplay. The film takes place in 1941, shortly before the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Nazi agents are trying to convince the Russian leadership that […]
DukhLess 2 (ДухLess 2; “Soulless 2”) is a Russian drama released in 2015, the sequel to 2012’s popular DukhLess. Sergey Minaev, the author of the book that the first DukhLess was based on, contributed to the screenplay. In the film, Max has totally changed his life and given up the high-paying career he had at […]
DukhLess (ДухLess; “Soulless”) is a Russian psychological drama released in 2012. It is based on the novel Soulless: Story of an Unreal Person (Дyxless. Повесть о ненастоящем человеке) by Sergey Minaev. The book was widely read in Russia and internationally, and producer Pyotr Anurov was interested early on in turning it into a film. The […]
