Yevgeny Leonov-Gladyshev Movies
- 1980
Ironically titled "Saint Hope," this strange, downbeat drama about a prison camp in a fictitious South American country offers no hope at all. The prison is somewhere in the middle of a desert, and it is likely that the inmates are there for political reasons. Life is dreary and goes by slowly in spite of a few attempts at escape. When the action does heat up a little, the story gets more interesting though even that promise is short-lived. Whatever his intentions, Chilean director Sebastian Alarcon is definitely not encouraging tourism to the southern half of the Americas. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laymonas Noreyka, Pavel Kadochnikov, (more)
Sibiriada was controversial in the Soviet Union, but it received the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the second most prestigious prize after the Palme d'Or. After making this film, director Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky moved to the West. In the story, the lives of two Siberian families lives are chronicled through three generations, beginning with the period just after the turn of the century, and carrying on through the '60s. Before the revolution, a poor boy is the same age as a girl from a rich family, who uses her family position to torment him. Meanwhile, his father has been building a "corduroy" wooden road into the forest. However, as the boy and girl grow up, they fall in love. Their union is forbidden by her family, and he is beaten by their henchmen and cast adrift at sea. During the Revolution, the girl flees her family, thinking to join her true love. Many years later, he returns to his village with his teenaged son, and discovers that the former rich girl was killed long ago. The teenaged boy, in turn, become a geological engineer, and returns to his father's village to look for oil. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladimir Samoylov, Vitaliy Solomin, (more)
- 1979
One of the most popular TV miniseries in its home country, The Meeting Place Can't Be Changed is a police procedural set in post-World War II Moscow. Vladimir Sharapov (Vladimir Konkin), recently discharged from the Red Army, joins the homicide bureau of the local police. Sharapov, who tends to do everything by the book, often clashes with seasoned police detective Gleb Zheglov (Vladimir Vysotsky). The latter is so convinced that "a thief's place is in prison" that he does not stop at planting evidence himself if necessary. The two men learn to work together during a murder investigation that leads them to a gang of criminals known as "the Black Cat." ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladimir Vysotsky, Vladimir Konkin, (more)
