Vsevolod Shilovsky Movies
- 1993
This contemporary melodrama is narrated by a young woman (Anzhelika Nevolina) who was forced onto the streets when the death of her mother left her solely in the custody of her abusive father. After leaving home, she somehow found work, got married, and had some children. However, that all fell apart after the children died, and her marriage was no great shakes anyhow. Now she survives by petty thievery and occasional prostitution. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anzhelika Nevolina, Andrei Rostotsky, (more)
- 1989
Tatyana (Yelena Yakovleva) works as a nurse in a hospital in Leningrad. However, she has wants that her salary cannot provide for her, and sometimes she earns some hard currency by sleeping with foreign tourists. One of these is an uninspiring Swedish man, who offers to marry her. She is tempted, because she believes that the material aspect of life in Sweden is infinitely superior to that in Russia. Overcoming the resistence of the bureaucracy to her marriage, she succeeds in moving to Sweden with her new husband. Alas, she is soon bored with her new existence, and returns to her old hooking habits. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yelena Yakovleva, Tomas Laustiola, (more)
Director Semyon Aranovich combines historical combat footage with a mix of black and white and murky color to create a fairly seamless narration about specific Soviet soldiers in the Baltics in 1944 and the women they meet and/or lose. War takes its toll on the one hand as buddies are killed in action -- demonstrated in the deliberate kamikaze dive of a damaged Russian plane into a German warship. On the other hand, personal relationships are themselves often tragic. Just after Bebolrov is wounded, he finds out his wife has a lover, just after Gavrilov joyfully meets his son, he begins to doubt the little boy is his, and just after Cherepovets starts a romantic liaison with Maria, she is killed by an act of war. Life offers no assurances, not even for a short while, and even in the face of these and other hardships, the soldiers will soon have to go into battle again. A poignant review of faces at the end of these travails reveals just how many did not survive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodion Nakhapetov, Alexei Zharkov, (more)
