Nikolai Dobrynin Movies

Despite some technical problems and a lackluster performance by the American lead, George Segal, this film was sought out with interest by Russian viewers, as it contained quite a few elements of the supernatural and the mystical in it - elements that had long been banished from Soviet cinema. The Russian release title Feofaniya, Risuyushchaya Smert literally means, "Feofaniya who paints death." The story is set in 11th-century Siberia, where Christianity is just beginning to make an impact, and it concerns the romantic rivalry of the local priest Agafangel (Nikolai Kochegarov) with the pagan chieftain Grigory (George Segal) for the affections of Feofania (Tamara Tana), who is a witch, a painter, a healer, and has a mystical power over living and dead objects. Russian critics were enthusiastic about this "arty thriller" which purportedly contains elements of philosophical fable, mystery, romantic drama and a horror film, but it was panned by a western reviewer who saw it at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Isaac Babel was a popular writer in the 1920s and 1930s who fell victim to Stalin's "purges". His exact date of death was never established. It's assumed that he died in 1940. Understandably, his works were not published again until the '60s. Another reason why his works were not adapted to the screen earlier was the pervasive anti-Semitic attitude among the state and communist bureaucracy during the Soviet times. Bindyuzhnik i Korol is a musical based on Isaac Babel's works. It was much hyped but it wasn't a huge success. Maxim Leonidov, who played Benya Krik (the "king") in the movie, was a handsome-looking leading singer from the popular Leningrad beat quartet "Sekret". "Sekret" was a Russian hommage to The Beatles. Shortly after starring in the movie, Leonidov immigrated to Israel, where he organized another band. In the story, set in the Jewish quarter of a Russian city, Mendel Krik (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) is the wealthy owner of a large livery stable (the "drayman") who lords it over everyone who comes in his path, especially his two grown sons, whom he plans to disinherit. One of his sons, Benya, is far cleverer than his critical wrath of a father thinks, and manages to take his father's business away from him. This musical generally has a somber tone, and resembles the dark, serious works of Bertold Brecht rather than the much lighter tone of Fiddler on the Roof, with which it has sometimes been compared. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The bleak lives of Moscow's underclass in the Soviet era are highlighted in this simple drama about the love that flowers between a fifteen-year-old youth who is the son of "an enemy of the people," and a waitress who is perhaps six years older than him. They face many obstacles, her hot-tempered, knife-wielding ex-boyfriend not the least of them. When the ex-boyfriend steals money from an untended cash-register, the woman who should have prevented that is arrested and faces a long prison term. However, he has bragged about the theft to his ex, and she turns him into the police with the hope of preventing a jail term for the cashier and of getting rid of the old boyfriend. One bright note in this unremitting examination of futureless lives is the return of the boy's father from prison. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide