Nobody loves Russian movies, even Russians themselves.Their films are very long, very slow, black & white or monochromatic. They are crowded by intellectual talk and lack plot, characters or any kind of entertainment. This is common knowledge and, of course, it’s not true. We, the Russians, love our cinema – although the majority of us don’t know about Tarkovsky of Zviagintsev. Moreover, we – surprise! – love movies with an intense plot, powerful characters and funny jokes as much as any audience. So, I would like to introduce you to fifteen great Russian movies you don’t know (if you are not Russian film fans or a Slavic Studies professor). To shake things up, there are no films on this list from the most well-known Russian film directors: Sergey Eizenshtein (Battleship Potemkin, 1925), Andrei Tarkovsky (Stalker, 1979) or Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun, 1994). I also tried to avoid very slow and very long monochromatic films – although there are a few great movies of this type. I chose the Russian Westerns, the war flicks, the comedies and the criminal films – the movies you would like even if you find Tolstoy and Dostoevsky wordy and boring. Brother (Alexei Balabanov, 1997): The indie-style crime movie from one of the best Russian directors of the last decade — Alexei Balbanov (Cargo 200, The Stoker) — is about a young Afghanistan war veteran Danila (the best role of Danila Bagrov’s career, he tragically died a few years after the film) who fights for justice in the chaotic Saint Petersburg of the post-perestroika period. Danila is not John Rambo – he is a skinny shy boy who loves Russian existential rock music and only his inner “Truth” gives him strength 5086
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