Vladimir Ilyin

This version of The Idiot, made for the Russian TV, is actually the first attempt to film the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel in its entirety. Yevgeny Mironov plays the title character, Russian Prince Myshkin, who returns to St. Petersburg after a stay in a Swiss mental hospital. The prince is not literally a mental midget; he is considered an idiot because, as an honest and upright person, he cannot keep pace with the evil in the world. He busies himself with the petty problems of his aristocratic friends, which drive him back into the recesses of insanity. Lidiya Velezheva co-stars as Nastassya Filippovna, the woman of loose morals who turns out to be the only person who truly cares about Myshkin's welfare, while Vladimir Mashkov plays the nominal villain of the piece, an iconoclastic merchant named Rogozhin, whose passion for Nastassya culminates in tragedy. The Idiot was previously filmed in France in 1946, in Japan by Akira Kurosawa in 1951, and in Russia in 1958. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aleksandr Proshkin directs this historic epic, which is full of complex intrigue, doomed lovers, and shots of the icy Russian landscape. Drawing from two of Alexandr Pushkin's most beloved works, The Captain's Daughter and A History of Pugachev, the film opens with young cadet Pyotr Grinyov (Mateusz Damiecki) trekking off to his remote compound after Empress Catherine II (Olga Antonova) has her husband Peter killed. On the rookie soldier's journey, he lends his fur coat to runaway Emelian Pugachev (Vladimir Mashkov), who soon believes that young Pyotr is in fact Tsar Peter III. Later at the fortress, Pyotr finds himself competing with his fellow soldiers for the attention of Masha (Karolina Gruszka), the gorgeous daughter of the fort's commanding officer, while Pugachev masses rebel forces against the fort. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Love blooms amidst the backdrop of czarist Russia in Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia. The story opens in 1905 Springfield, MA, when a woman writes a letter to a young man in a military summer-training camp. He is currently being punished by one of his superiors, who forces him to wear a gas mask until he acknowledges that Mozart was a worthless composer. The woman has an important story to tell her addressee, and our story flashes back 20 years to Russia, where American Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond) is traveling to Moscow. A man who may or may not be Jane's father, Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), is trying to perfect a machine, christened "The Barber of Siberia," that will harvest trees from the vast Siberian forests. Douglas hopes Jane can charm Gen. Radlov (Alexei Petrenko), the head of a Russian military academy, into arranging the financing that will enable him to complete his work on the harvester. En route, Jane meets a friendly Russian soldier, Andrei Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov), and the two soon fall in love. Jane then meets and flirts with Radlov, who grows reciprocally fond of her -- enough so that he asks her to marry him. When it becomes evident she'd rather be with Tolstoy, he finds himself shipped off to Siberia after allegedly attacking a grand duke. Merging romance, costume drama, and slapstick comedy, The Barber of Siberia was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This international award-winning Russian drama offers a broad look at modern life in the troubled former Soviet Union. Featuring at least 80 characters, Karen Shakhnazarov's drama is really a complex string of interwoven vignettes, some of which occasionally reoccur while others briefly appear and just as quickly disappear without explanation. These little episodes include scenes of a young boy reading Pushkin, a couple eating in a restaurant, the fond reminiscence of a bird dog, a gang-land murder, and the discovery of a slain princess in a medieval monastery. Dyen Polnoluniya was screened at several 1998 film festivals including the Pusan Film Festival, the Montreal Film Festival and the Vancouver Film Festival. Kudos include the prestigious FIPRESCI Award. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Russian soldier spends seven years in an Afghan prison. By the time he is released he has become a devout Muslim. This multi-textured Russian drama follows what happens when he finally returns home to his post-Perestroika, Russian Orthodox rural village. Kolya comes from a family of hardworking peasants. His homecoming is joyous as his mother, his older brother and the entire village rushes out to greet him. Things come to a grinding halt when Kolya refuses to drink the proffered vodka. He then informs them of his conversion. The townsfolk are most displeased and he becomes an object of ridicule. The other young men frequently beat him and only Kolya's former lover, Vera, who is more open-minded than the others, tries to accept him. She has a hard time though when he explains the Islamic views on premarital sex. Kolya, himself discovers that he was unprepared for the changes in his village. With newly resurrected free-enterprise, many of the villagers have become materialistic and the town fathers are corrupt. In the story's climax, Kolya finds himself having a final confrontation with a murderous stranger who has come to settle an old score. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Stalinist Russia, circa 1930, is recreated in this Russian-French film that focuses on a small, elite gathering of family and friends who appreciate the idealism of Stalin's visions because they do not have to experience its darker side of gulags and purges. The story focuses upon a single day in Soviet revolutionary hero Serguei Kotov's life. Kotov lives an idyllic country life with his lovely wife Maroussia, and their feisty daughter Nadia. He is highly respected by the locals. On this day, the Kotovs are visited by the roguishly handsome Dimitri, who was a former lover of Maroussia. Dimitri is on a dark mission that may have profound effects on Kotov's peaceful, happy, and idealistic existence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide