Yefim Kopelyan Movies
- 1968
This Russian feature entry appeared at the 1969 San Sebastian Film Festival. A group of Russian women struggle against the brutality of their Nazi-occupation aggressors, as their husbands, brothers, sons, and lovers are off to fight the war elsewhere. Gathering all their resources, the women form a successful collective farm and overcome tremendous obstacles to thrive in a war-torn era. The women gather strength from each other to survive and prosper. The film is a tribute to the resourcefulness and bravery of Russian women during the war and is based on actual events that transpired. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rimma Markova, Svetlana Sukhovey, (more)
- 1972
The 19th-century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's classic drama The Seagull continued a theatrical movement known as "realism," which focused on the everyday crises and foibles of more believably real people. In order to perform the roles of the new dramatic movement properly, the Actors Theater of Moscow refined a new style of acting, later synthesized under Konstantin Stanislavsky, and known in the U.S. as "method acting." Thus Chekhov's plays represent a theatrical peak to be scaled, and are challenging somewhat in the manner of Shakespeare's or Moliere's plays. This lavish Soviet Russian production attempts to scale that summit. The story concerns an actress, Arkadina (Alla Demidova) who is distressed by the complexity of her life, and of the lives of her friends and family. All the people around her are consumed by self-doubt and dark obsessions, which they discuss at length. Her lover, Tregorin (Yuri Yakovlev), is a self-important but renowned writer who is playing psychological tricks on a simple country girl who has a crush on him. Her son, a playwright, is fascinated by death and may be suicidal. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alla Demidova, Vladimir Chetverikov, (more)
A young and carefree Cossack competing with a neighborhood rival for the love of a beautiful girl is forced to grow up faster than expected when World War I breaks out in this romantic Russian war drama from director Viktor Tregubovich. Roman is a reckless adolescent living in the Baikal region in the waning days of the October Revolution. Thus far, Roman's biggest concern in life was whether he or his neighbor would win the love of ethereal village beauty Dashutka. When news of the war breaks out and Roman is forced to choose a side on which to fight, he soon finds out just how big of a place the world truly is. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arkadiy Trusov, Petr Shelokhonov, (more)
- 1964
The three young lads in this film, vacationing together at the seaside resort town of Odessa, are aware that war will soon change their futures irrevocably. They are all Communist Youth Party members, which means that ordinarily their prospects would be fairly bright. As they lark around in boats and on the shore, some of them have encounters which result in their having their first kiss with a girl, or a first shave. Two of the three die during the war. Whether because the director was Jewish (he emigrated to Israel in 1971) or because of its downbeat ending, this film was not released for two years after it was made and then was only allowed to have a very short run (in 1966). At that time it became something of a legend among Western reviewers as an especially fine film. It was restored and re-released in 1991. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nataliya Bogunova, Yevgeny Steblov, (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 Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vitya Kosykh, Misha Metelkin, (more)
- 1968
This adaptation of Lev Slavin's play was notable for its humorous treatment of the Russian Civil War and foreign governments' involvement in it. The film was shot in 1968 but not completed until 1987 due to the intervention (no pun intended) of the authorities. It was intended to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October revolution and at the same time be an entertaining film. One reviewer (for Variety) likens the resulting film to what might have happened had directors Jean-Luc Godard and Federico Fellini teamed up with the Red Army in 1968 to put on a cabaret show. Farce is liberally mixed with slapstick. This is far from the kind of stodgy film that was usually produced for official celebrations. After the government stopped the production, the cast sent a letter to Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin defending the film and its director, quoting from Lenin that "the Revolution is a jolly thing, and revolutionary art can't be routine, dull, cliched." The letter didn't help. The show opens with a chorus of very fat girls in tight-fitting band uniforms singing while an army unit goes on maneuvers and a general does bookkeeping on an abacus. In the story, Brodsky, (who is also sometimes called Voronov), is a communist agitator in Odessa, which has not yet fallen to the Bolshevik regime. The local police and military are trying to hunt down the communists. Zhena is a wealthy woman who hopes to escape before the Bolsheviks take over, but she falls in love with a good-looking lad named Sasha, who is involved with the communists. When Sasha works out a deal with the local "bourgeois capitalists" (all made up like clowns) to cover his gambling debts, he becomes an official "Enemy of the Working Class." Meanwhile, Brodsky has landed in the capitalist's prison and is declared a hero of the revolution when he dies there. The entire story is told in Odessa slang, liberally mixed with heavy swearing and underworld lingo. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuliya Burygina, (more)
- 1976
Sponsored by both the Polish and the Soviet states, the Polish military officer in this movie was a notable leader in an uprising against the ruling and aristocratic classes of both of those countries. The officer died fighting for the Paris Commune in 1871. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zigmunt Malyanovich, Zygmunt Malanowicz, (more)
