Alexei Uchitel Movies

The legacy of war leads to hatred and uncertainty on both sides in this historical drama from Russian director Alexey Uchitel. After the end of World War II, many Russians who had been taken prisoner by German troops found themselves subjected to one of Stalin's pogroms, accused of betraying the state and sent to a forced labor camp. Ignat (Vladimir Mashkov) is a strong and handsome former soldier who has been sent to one such camp, where he toils under the ineffectual rule of the commander (Aleksei Gorbanov). Ignat and his fellow inmates help keep a fleet of steam-powered trains in repair and stocked with coal, and while he has health issues that prevent him from spending much time behind the controls, his skill and good looks soon earn him the affections of the lovely and strong-willed Sofia (Yulia Peresild). When Ignat is told tales of a ghost who haunts a nearby island, he decides to investigate and finds Elsa (Anjorka Strechel) -- a child who has been stranded ever since her parents, a pair of German train engineers, were lost there during the war. Ignat brings Elsa back to safety, but discovers that his fellow prisoners still harbor plenty of resentment against the Germans, even as represented by a starving child. Krai (aka The Edge) was Russia's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category to the 2010 Academy Awards. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Forbidden love brings both happiness and tension to two people in this domestic drama. Ilya (Mikhail Porechenkov) and Nina (Anna Mikhalkova) are two people edging into middle age who have made successful careers for themselves in "the New Russia" -- Ilya runs a profitable business in Moscow, while Nina edits a magazine based in St. Petersburg. Ilya and Nina are also married, but not to each other -- while they've been having an affair for several years, Ilya isn't willing to leave his wife Masha (Nastya Seglia), while Nina doesn't want to break things off with her husband Nikita (Dmitry Shevchenko). Instead, Ilya and Nina meet as often as possible on the neutral ground of an inexpensive hotel, and while they clearly enjoy their sexual relationship, they also seem to find an emotional succor in one another they don't get from their spouses. The couple takes great pains to keep their romance a secret from their partners, but with the passage of time the emotion drain of living double lives takes a toll on Ilya and Nina, as well as their mates. Svyaz (aka Relations) was the first feature for director and screenwriter Avdotia Smirnova. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by Alexey Uchitel, Progulka (The Stroll) follows two male best friends and the girl who has managed to entrance both of them. When the buxom Olya (Irina Pegova) sets off on her regular stroll through the crowded city streets, the shaggy-haired Alyosha (Pavel Barshak) immediately professes his love for her, and pesters his cynical best friend Petya (Yevgeny Tsyganov). The plan backfires, however, as Petya falls for Olya himself. Though Olya is mercurial to say the least, she nevertheless manages to drive a wedge between the two friends, as they're both desperate to win a woman who doesn't particularly want either of them. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

During the 1920s, Russian ballerina Olga Spesivtseva created the definitive version of Giselle. This Russian biopic tells her story. Though she was once one of the most famous ballerinas in the world, Spesivtseva, died alone and forgotten in a U.S. mental institution in 1991 at the age of 96. Olga began her illustrious career as a teenager. While in ballet school she became the lover of an important arts journalist. He was much older and after a few years she took a new lover. Unfortunately, Olga was unlucky in love and was frequently attracted to men who turned out to be homosexuals. As the years passed, she found it increasingly difficult to control her paranoid delusions and had to be institutionalized. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi