Andrei Tolubeev Movies

Beginning with perestroika and reaching its peak after the demise of the Soviet Union, pessimistic youth sub-culture films abounded in Russia and the former republics. Anguely V Rayou is another example of these "youth without future" films. Based on the novel Two Notebooks by Piotr Kojevnikov, the action takes place in the Leningrad of 1975, when the "stagnation" era is at its peak. Two teenagers, Micha and Galia, are experiencing a slow death in the slums of the city. Galia's aunt is going crazy in her desperation. Micha's mother is killed by a drunk. One of their friends has committed suicide. These kids are typical of a generation wasted by alcohol and misfortune. Some are bound to become outcasts, some will be destroyed, and others will be sacrificed in Afghanistan. The title is ironic, as there is neither paradise nor angels in this story. It comes from an expression the heroine keeps using: "You drink one shot and you're immediately like the angels in paradise." The film is a drama that at certain moments produces brief reliefs of laughter. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

In this comedy, grandmother (Yelena Bogdanova) is mostly paralyzed, and is unable to speak. She is waited on by her daughter Nina (Inna Churikova), a twice-divorced woman in her fifties, who responds reflexively to the bell that summons her. The daughter has two daughters of her own: Lidia (Svetlana Ryabova) is in her twenties, Natashya (Masha Goloubkina), Nina's child by another husband, is in her mid-teens. The three younger women conduct their lives and their love affairs under the silent but watchful eye of the older woman in a small Moscow apartment. On one disastrous evening, Nina's newest boyfriend Evgeny meets her two former husbands, the older granddaughter's new boyfriend proves to be virtually spineless, and the youngest granddaughter announces her pregnancy just before her loutish young boyfriend Misha drunkenly crashes the party. After all the men leave and the agitation they brought with them dissipates, the three younger women are calmly discussing Natashya's options when they hear singing coming from grandmother's alcove. An accidental blow to the head has restored her faculties. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Mitia (Maxim Kisilev) is the new boy in a technical school who must adjust to his environment in this childhood drama. He goes through a series of initiations before his classmates are ready to accept him. Andrei Ivanovich (Andrei Tolubeev) is the stern but kindly instructor who looks out for Mitia. Mitia loses his girlfriend when her mother comes to take her home, and Andrei leaves the institution when his wife becomes gravely ill. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi