Armen Dzhigarkhanyan Movies

This fast-paced, convoluted bit of European escapist fare is set in crumbling contemporary Moscow, where a French composer finds himself seduced into a fantastic adventure after his flight to Paris is delayed and he finds himself broke and stranded in the Moscow airport. His temptress is the mischievous Oksana, who convinces him to sneak out of the airport to sample the Moscow nightlife. He doesn't realize that she is actually the daughter of Papa, a powerful local Mafia don. Papa looks weak and helpless, but he is anything but and secretly drugs the composer Phillipe's drink and then kidnaps him. When Phillipe awakens, Papa forces him to impersonate the commercial director of a huge French textile mill so the Mafioso can continue to con the leader of a recently liberated Central Asian country into investing in a non-existent mill. The plot works until the bilked gets his own revenge. Meanwhile, Phillipe and Oksana fall in love even though they realize that one of them must be sacrificed to save face. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The confusion inherit in contemporary Russian society provides the basis of this slapstick social satire that focuses on a case of mistaken identity. The trouble begins in a Siberian diamond field as miners bring to light the world's biggest diamond. So valuable is the giant gem, that it will not only pay off the enormous national debt, it will also allow every Russian citizen to move to the Canary Islands. Unfortunately, the Mafia plans to steal the massive stone. Their plans are foiled when a renowned thief, Vesja, exchanges stones at the airport. Now the chase is on as the Mafia begins its pursuit. Also chasing him is the inept police chief Igor Ugolnikov, who trails him to the home of his alcoholic auntie. But Vesja, a master of disguise, still eludes them all. He then learns that he is a triplet when his two brothers suddenly appear. One is a renowned Jewish conductor, and the other brother is a gypsy. The conductor, Imokenty, has come back to Russia to marry a fluff-headed American divorcee. Mayhem and a merry chase ensue as he continues to elude his pursuers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A man unwillingly looks back upon his life as he prepares for his death in this grim Russian drama that features the final film appearance of star of stage and screen Innokenti Smoktunovsky. Knowing that he will soon pass on, elderly Valentin Grack hires private detective Stanislav to follow him around for an entire day and write down everything that he does. It is a cold day and during Grack's travels he encounters a younger woman who addresses him as "professor." He then meets a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter, and finally he meets an old woman, his worried wife who has been searching eight days for him. In between meeting the women, Grack finds himself in some almost surreal situations and having flashbacks about his youth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this satire, the Countess Masha (Lyudmila Mordovinova) is the young wife of an important government official in Tsarist Russia. She has been having a series of inexplicable nightmares. Eventually she comes to believe that they are experiences of the future - 1993 in Russia to be exact. She is horrified. When she tells her husband the contents of her dreams, he is horrified. When she dresses in a fashion from one of her dreams (the miniskirt), the Russian court is horrified. All the same, despite earnest attempts by her husband to propose some reforms which would prevent that future from happening, it is to no avail. Nothing, it seems, can prevent the "complete cretinization" of the Russia of the future. Her nightmarish dream/visions include one where she is a female government economics minister who sleeps with western moneymen in order to bamboozle loans out of them, in another, she works at a cafeteria as a waitress and must constantly be on the run to avoid being cornered by her lustful (male) coworkers. Actors from one time period reappear in other guises in the other. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide