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Russian Film Festival · 2008

Russian Film Festival 2008

Features

An eclectic mix of Russian films produced in 2007-2008, featuring everything from big-budget blockbusters to arthouse offerings.

Programme

10 films · 6 reviews

Jump to a film

12

Twelve characters. Twelve truths. A story of 12 jurors discusing how to pass a verdict on a Chechen boy, who murdered his step-father, an officer in the Russian army.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2007; Director: Nikita Mikhalkov; Writer: Nikita Mikhalkov, Vladimir Moiseyenko, Aleksandr Novototsky; Stars: Sergei Makovetsky, Sergei Garmash, Aleksei Petrenko, Yuri Stoyanov, Sergei Gazarov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Mikhail Yefremov, Valentin Gaft, Aleksei Gorbunov, Sergei Artsybashev)

20 Cigarettes (20 Sigaret)

Review preview for 20 Cigarettes

Technically cutting edge and daring to the point at which the plot and characters start to play second fiddle.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A day in the life of a smoking Muscovite executive.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2007; Director: Alexander Gornovsky; Writer: Dmitry Sobolev; Stars: Ilya Lubimov, Maxim Sukhanov, Oscar Kuchera, Galina Tuyunina, Anna Slynko) , Official site

Full review

Best Of Times (Luchshee Vremya Goda)

Two women recall their youth, during which they made two corners of a love triangle.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2007; Director: Svetlana Proskurina; Writer: Ivan Vyrypayev; Stars: Dana Agisheva, Irina Yevdokimova, Mikhail Yevlanov, Yana Yesipovich, Aleksandra Kulikova, Natalya Sedykh, Viktor Sukhorukov, Yuri Gorin)

Cruelty (Zhestokost)

Review preview for Cruelty

Engrossing and fresh in its approach.

Emma Slawinski · 3.5 out of 5
The worlds of a precocious teenager and a businesswoman collide after an affair is caught on camera.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2007; Director: Marina Lyubakova; Writer: Marina Lyubakova, Denis Rodimin; Stars: Renata Litvinova, Anna Begunova, Yevgeni Serov, Aleksei Frandetti, Olga Onishchenko, Aleksandra Astakhova, Stanislav Belyayev, Nikita Yemshanov)

Full review

Live To Remember

Review preview for Live To Remember

If you like your Dickens dark, your Hardy harsh or your Bronte brutal, you’ll definitely warm to this.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
When a husband deserts the war, her wife finds she must hide him - but their secret threatens them both.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Alexander Proshkin; Writer: Alexander Rodionov and Alexander Proshkin, based on a short story by Valentin Rasputin; Stars: Ruben Dishdishyan, Youri Moroz, Aram Movesyan, Sergei Danielyan)

Full review

Nirvana

Extravagant cyber-punk love triangle.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Igor Voloshin; Writer: Olga Larionova; Stars: Olga Sutulova, Mariya Shalayeva, Artur Smolyaninov, Mikhail Yevlanov, Andrei Khabarov, Tatyana Samojlova)

Simple Things (Prostye veshchi)

This artfully nuanced, occasionally playful story of an anaesthetist, whose daughter runs away just as he hits a rough patch with his mistress and his wife announces that she’s unexpectedly pregnant, has been widely regarded as one of the best Russian films of the past year.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2007; Director: Aleksei Popogrebsky; Writer: Aleksei Popogrebsky; Stars: Sergei Puskepalis, Leonid Bronevoy, Svetlana Kamynina, Mikhail Yevlanov, Ivan Shvedoff, Dinara Kutuyeva) , Official site

Terra Nova (Novaya Zemlya, New Land)

Review preview for Terra Nova

Despite its grim, men-descending-into-savagery themes, the script by Arif Aliev never loses its sense of humour.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Russian blockbuster about a group of convicts sent to colonise a barren island.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Aleksander Melnik; Writer: Arif Aliyev; Stars: Konstantin Lavronenko, Andrei Fes'kov, Pavel Sborshikov, Marat Basharov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Sergei Zhigunov) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

Wild Field (Dikoe pole)

Review preview for Wild Field

The lack of character development is the director’s weakness.

Adam Micklethwaite · 2.5 out of 5
A young doctor is posted to an isolated community in sharp contrast to his previous life.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Mikheil Kalatozishvili; Writer: Pyotr Lutsik, Aleksei Samoryadov; Stars: Oleg Dolin, Daniela Sroyanovich, Aleksandr Ilyin, Aleksandr Ilyin Jr., Roman Madyanov, Yuri Stepanov, Irina Butanayeva, Aleksandr Korshunov)

Full review

Yuri's Day (Yuryev Den)

Review preview for Yuri's Day

Mysterious, surreal and beguiling.

Adam Micklethwaite · 3.5 out of 5
An opera singer's son disappears on a visit to an isolated community.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Kirill Serebrennikov; Writer: Yuri Arabov; Stars: Ksenia Rappoport, Roman Shmakov, Evgenia Kuznetsova, Sergei Sosnovskii, Andrei Smirnov)

Full review