Gleb Strizhenov Movies
- 1981
- R
This two-part science fiction saga begins with the android Niya (Yelena Metelkina) being discovered in a discarded spacecraft by a spaceship from Earth. She is brought back for scientific research and it is learned she is from the dying planet Dessa which has been polluted by the inhabitants. Part two finds Niya returning to Dessa in an attempt to save the people from extinction. Over 20 million fans saw this feature in the Soviet Union, the last film by noted science fiction director Richard Viktorov. It was first released in 1981 and awarded a USSR state prize the following year. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yelena Metelkina, Uldis Lieldidzh, (more)
- 1981
This story starts in 1980 in Paris as the memories of Andrei Borodin (Igor Kostolevsky), a Soviet agent, take the action back to 1943 during the Teheran meetings of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A high-ranking Nazi intelligence officer (Albert Filozov) developed a plan to assassinate the three world leaders in order to undermine the Allied forces. He commissioned a German agent Max Richard (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) to carry out his plan, but it failed due to the quick action and thinking of Andrei. While in Teheran, Andrei met a Russian woman (Natalia Belokhvostikova) living in the city and they had a brief but intense affair. Nearly four decades later, the Nazi officer has been captured - but not for long. Freed by terrorists, the officer is hunting down the German agent who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. In the meantime, the Soviet agent is in Paris to meet his lover from years ago, and modern terrorists pose threats that seem to have been carried across the decades. Alain Delon briefly appears as the ill-fated police inspector who must hunt down the terrorists. Teheran '43 won a Gold Medal at the 1981 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Natalya Belokhvostikova, Igor Kostolevsky, (more)
Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov takes a break from emulating his beloved Chekhov to film the classic Ivan Goncharov novel Oblomov. The title character (played by Oleg Tabakov) is a 19th century Russian civil servant and landlord who chooses to go to bed one day--and never get up. Preferring to sleep his way through life rather than confront it, Oblomov is shaken from his slumbers by the arrival of a childhood friend Shtoltz. A series of flashbacks show why it is that this friend's presence gets Oblomov out of his 'jammies and back on his feet. Also known as A Few Days in the Life of I. I. Oblomov, this sprightly film is an excellent early example of the work of the director who would win a 1994 Oscar for his Burnt by the Sun. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Oleg Tabakov, Andryusha Razumovsky, (more)
- 1967
Miklos Jancso has said, "To show things in bright colors is devastating." In Csillagosok, Katonak, he examines Hungarians fighting in the Red Army in 1918 during the bloody civil war in Russia. Utilizing horizontal compositions of vast landscapes and lateral tracking shots in a widescreen frame to depict the spaces between two great armies massed against each other, he makes no value judgments for a war in which guilt is shared by both sides in the conflict. The film details a Hungarian unit supporting the Red Army against the counter-revolutionary White army on the banks of the Volga. Jancso adds distinct touches like a White army officer casually tweaking his nose before ordering a mass execution and a doomed romance between a Magyar and a Polish nurse. Through all the confused violence and conflicting emotions, a stoical head nurse must tend to both Red and White army wounded. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andras Kozak, Krystyna Mikolajewska, (more)
Set during the Russian Civil War of the 1920s, this film tells the story of four young friends who make it their business to infiltrate Ataman Burnash's band in order to avenge the death of one of the friends' fathers. The teenagers nearly reach their goal, but one of them is captured. He is sentenced to death, but he certainly won't be executed if the other Avengers have anything to say about it. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vitya Kosykh, Misha Metelkin, (more)
- 1966
With anger and conviction, this 1966 film denounced the Russian reality of that time, the one that oppressed human dignity and turned man into a slave. According to some film historians, this very 1966 movie started the whole wave of "shelved" films during the Brezhnev era. Visually, the film evokes the kinds of poverty and privation seen in the drawings of Daumier. In this farce/satire, Pseudominov is a bridegroom who is understandably nervous about the ceremony; he is also nervous about being married to his astonishingly ugly bride. A lot of rowdy drinking and joking is going on, when a man known as "His Excellency" arrives, a man with nearly unlimited power to affect the lives of all concerned. The entire wedding party is terrified, and they (and the dignitary) drink until they are in a drunken stupor. His Excellency is by now on the floor, drunkenly talking to the guest's shoes. The bridegroom and his new bride quarrel before they can consummate the wedding, and the sleeping arrangements of all concerned have more to do with the need of these inebriated people than with propriety or lust. Eventually, they all awaken, and the sinister appearance of the dignitary is changed: he is seen begging in front of Pseudominov's ramshackle home. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yevgeni Yevstigneyev, Viktor Sergachev, (more)
- 1964
In this factual war drama set during WW II, a soccer match between an excellent German team and Soviet POWS is chronicled. The game, designed to show off the superior skills of the Germans, occurs in occupied Kiev. To insure they win, they tell the Soviets that they either lose or die. The Soviets, realizing that their game could have a direct effect upon the moral of their countrymen sacrifice their lives and win the game. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonid Kuravlev, Vyacheslav Nevinny, (more)
- 1957
Stylistically and perhaps ethnically beyond the pale of ordinary movie fare, this Russian drama set in 1904 in a remote military garrison is a specialized tale of a particular period. Most of its story is told through narration. On the eve of the downfall of Czarist Russia, the soldiers in this military garrison are leading a dull and useless existence -- there is nothing meaningful for them to do. In order to combat boredom, they engage in dubious remedies, one of which is found in a bottle and another in beating each other up. When not drunk or maiming each other, the soldiers also fight "duels of honor." In the midst of this debased environment, a young officer has fallen in love with another man's wife. As sure as the sun rises in the east, he will be forced to defend himself in a duel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kalyu Komissarov, Andrei Popov, (more)
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