Chulpan Khamatova Movies
- 2008
The men and women who helped make heroes of the Soviet Union's first men in space are shown with all their flaws and insecurities on display in this psychological drama from Russian filmmaker Alexey German Jr.. It's the spring of 1961, and Dr. Daniel Pokrovsky (Merab Ninidze) is a physician who monitors the health of Soviet cosmonauts during the early days of Russia's manned space program. With Vostock 1 scheduled to send Yuri Gagarin into orbit in a matter of weeks, Pokrovsky is a busy man, and while he's outwardly confident, inwardly he has grave doubts about the safety of the upcoming mission. As Pokrovsky's professional life becomes increasingly difficult, his personal life begins to show signs of the strain as he turns his back on his wife Nina (Chulpan Khamatova), another doctor working with the space program, and begins an affair with Vera (Anastasya Sheveleva), a member of the Vostock 1 ground crew. Bumazhny soldat (aka Paper Soldier) was an official selection at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chulpan Khamatova, Merab Ninidze, (more)
- 2007
Chaos and quirk reign in this sweetly funny film set in Latvia. An American's arrival in the Baltic country coincides with the Summer Solstice of the year, and he would rather be anywhere else in the world. As he searches for his half-sister, he encounters a cab driver who gives him fondness for this strange country. Midsummer Madness stars Pulp Fiction's Maria de Medeiros and Amelie's Dominique Pinon. ~ Kimber Myers, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria de Medeiros, Dominique Pinon, (more)
- 2006
Insulted and Humiliated director Andrei A. Eshpai details the complex romance between married sculptress Kira Georgievna (Eugeniya Simonova), her older husband Nikolai (Sergey Dreyden), and her ex-husband Vadim (Igor Mirkurbaganov), who longs to reconnect with his former wife despite having remarried and fathered a child. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eugeniya Simonova, Igor Mirkurbaganov, (more)
A sullen Viennese boy longing for the affection of his neglectful mother determines to find out just why his neighbors scornfully refer to him as a "whore's son" in director Michael Sturminger's Oedipal-oriented drama. When Ozren was just a child, his mother Silvija (Chulpan Khamatova) always told him that she supported the family by working nights as a waitress. As the years went by and the comments made by his neighbors led Ozren to question his mother's true profession, his needs for parental companionship continued to go unfulfilled despite the close relationships shared with his religious Aunt Ljiljana and his worldly Uncle Ante. Now, with only one piece of the puzzle missing in his eye-opening education, Ozren prepares to remove the blinders and find out just where his mother has been going when glides out the door each evening dressed in lavish furs and revealing miniskirts. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A dedicated young German boy pulls off an elaborate scheme to keep his mother in good health in this comedy drama from director Wolfgang Becker. Suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma after seeing her son arrested during a protest, Alex's (Daniel Brühl) socialist mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass), remains comatose through the fall of the Berlin wall and the German Democratic Republic. Knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal upon his mother's awakening, Alex strives to keep the fall of the GDR a secret for as long as possible. Keeping their apartment firmly rooted in the past, Alex's scheme works for a while, but it's not long before his mother is feeling better and ready to get up and around again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, (more)
A would-be ad man starts talking his way to the top, only to discover he has a shortage of usable ideas in this satiric German comedy. Viktor Vogel (Alexander Scheer) is a college student who decides he's tired of studying advertising and wants to go out and start making a living, even though he has more in the way of bluster than experience. Viktor fast-talks his way into a meeting at a major advertising agency and somehow his double talk impresses one of the firm's top executives, who hires him on the spot. Viktor is teamed up Eddie Kaminsky (Gotz George), one of the agencies top directors, and Eddie (who makes his dislike of Viktor immediately clear) needs an idea for a new campaign on the spot. Viktor pitches an idea to Eddie, who decides to go with it, but there's one problem -- it's the same idea Viktor's new girlfriend Rosa (Chulpan Khamatova) came up with for an art project. Obviously, neither side will be happy when they discover they're both using the same idea, so Viktor has to ask himself if his loyalties lie with his new employers or his significant other. Viktor Vogel -- Commercial Man was released in the United States as Advertising Rules. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexander Scheer, Götz George, (more)
- 2000
The story of a Russian man's attempted journey to England, this film opens in Kiev in 1986 just after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, where the carefree Valeri Sikorksi (Ivan Shvedoff) pals around with his friend Victor (Dennis Burgazliev). Several years later, Valeri is on a bus from Kiev to pick up Victor in Berlin on his way to England. En route to Berlin, Valeri becomes acquainted with the attractive Yelena (Chulpan Khamatova), who is traveling to Hanover to meet her German husband. Once in Berlin, Valeri meets Pavel (Merab Ninidze), an icon-painter, and eventually learns that Victor has died. After he gets a job at the Russian guest house where he's staying, Valeri begins a friendship with Maria (Anna Geislerova), the wife of his new boss, Schurig (Maxim Kowalewski). They eventually enter into an affair, even though Valeri is becoming increasingly ill with the same disease that killed Victor. As Valeri's sickness grows, so does his pessimism, and his entire world threatens to collapse. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivan Shvedov, Merab Ninidze, (more)
Drawing from the influences of Georges Méliès, Jean Vigo, Buster Keaton, and Franz Kafka, noted German filmmaker Veit Helmer directs this atmospheric, darkly comic film about attendants at a public swimming pool. Lonely Anton (Denis Lavant) watches over his bathhouse located in the midst of a barren industrial moonscape. He spends much of his time pining for a life on the ocean and thinking of ways to trick his sightless father into believing that their run-down establishment is actually thriving. Anton's narrow world comes crashing down when his wife spurns him after her father is killed in one of Anton's pools because of his devious brother Gregor's misdeeds. Gregor hopes to raze the place in order to put up some slick development project, but Anton and the pool's bizarre assortment of regulars band together to save the historic building. Soon Anton finds himself struggling valiantly to save both his dad's prized bathhouse and to win back the woman he loves. Tuvalu was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Lavant, Chulpan Khamatova, (more)
- 1999
Tajik filmmaker Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov directs this magical realist tragicomedy about a teenaged Tatar girl who mysteriously finds herself pregnant. Told from the point of view of the gestating fetus, young Mamlakat (Chulpan Khamatova) lives with her excitable father (Ato Mukhamedshanov) and her brother (Moritz Bleibtreu of Run Lola Run (1998)), who went mad after losing a chunk of skull during a war. Mamlakat dreams of becoming an actress, but when the local itinerate theater company breezes through the village, she misses it. Instead, she finds herself rolling down a hill in the arms of one of the actors. When she awakes the next morning, she finds that she's pregnant. In order to restore their family's honor, they pack up and travel across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan in search of the acting troupe. Luna Papa was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chulpan Khamatova, Moritz Bleibtreu, (more)
- 1998
Director Vadim Abdrashitov helmed this Russian drama set south of the Caucasus. After months away from the war-ravaged region, Larisa (Svetlana Kopylova) returns with her children to rejoin husband Valeri (Yuri Stepanov). Present at the welcome-home party is young Katya (Chulpan Khamatova), and it's evident that Valeri is continuing his affair with her, despite Larisa's return. Meanwhile, Valeri's friend Fyodor (Sergei Nikonenko) becomes a twosome with nurse Olga (Natalya Loskutova), and Valeri suspects Katya is seeing his pal Andrei (Andrei Yegorov). Shown at 1998 film fests (Locarno, Sochi, Montreal). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrei Yegorov, Yuri Stepanov, (more)
- 1998
Strana Glukhikh is about an unusual relationship between two women, one of them a deaf-mute dancer and the other on the run from the mafia. Yaya, the deaf girl, offers to hide Rita whose boyfriend, Alyosha owes gambling debts to the mafia, but in return she wants her to leave the young man and run off with her to an imaginary paradise where material values do not exist. Third feature by Valery Todorovsky, the film can be interpreted as an allegory of life in the ex-Soviet republics after the fall of the Soviet Union. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chulpan Khamatova, Dina Korzun, (more)
