Varvara Popova Movies

Magic, mystery, and mistaken identities are all part of this visually striking fantasy based on a well-known Russian fairy tale. While stopping at a well during a journey, Tsar Yeremey (Mikhail Pugovkin) is confronted by Chudo-Yudo the Lawless (Georgi Millyar), a ill-mannered enchanted creature who lives at the bottom of a lake. Chudo-Yudo refuses to release Yeremey without some sort of tribute, so the Tsar agrees that Chudo-Yudo is allowed to take possession of any of the valuables in his fiefdom that he doesn't know about. However, when Yeremey returns, he learns to his surprise that he has just become a father; terrified that his newborn son will be handed over to Chudo-Yudo, the Tsar makes a secret arrangement with a poor fisherman to exchange babies to keep his child from Chudo-Yudo's clutches. As the children grow to be men, Yeremey pays little attention to pudgy and self-centered Prince Andrei (Sergei Nikolayev), while from a distance he dotes on the strapping fisherman's boy Andrei (Andrei Katyshev); what the Tsar doesn't realize, however, is that there was a mix-up in the exchange of babies, and that his true son has been living with him all along. When Chudo-Yudo decides to claim Prince Andrei as a suitable fiancé for his lovely daughter Barbara (Tatyana Klyuyeva), the sullen young man is spirited away to Chudo-Yudo's underwater lair. Yeremey tells the fisherman's son of what he believes is his true parentage, and the young man sets out to rescue the Prince, little realizing the beauty and charm of Barbara. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In a series of strange encounters with the magical and the supernatural, a beautiful, abused girl named Nastenka, and Ivan, a strong, proud young man, find each other and fall in love. Nastenka lives in a tiny house on the edge of the forest, where her wicked stepmother treats her horribly while doting on her own fat, worthless daughter, whom she hopes to marry off to a wealthy family; Ivan, from another part of the forest, goes off seeking adventure, but he is too proud for his own good and must learn humility -- he does this with the help of a strange old man, who casts a spell on him giving him the head of a bear. He gets back his own face only after he performs a good deed for the sheer goodness of doing it, and is soon worthy of marrying Nastenka -- but first the two of them must overcome the evi lmachinations of a witch who tried to cook Ivan, and Nastenka's stepmother, who is still doing her best to thwart the girl's happiness. They get unexpected help from Father Frost, a St. Nicholas-like figure with his magic carriage and his icy staff. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Oppressed women stand together against their enemies in this historical drama from the Soviet Union. In 1919, a group of Ukrainian women are left to fend for themselves when their husbands go away to fight the White Russian forces. Enemy factions soon seize the village, and the women are put to work in a mine performing back-breaking labor. When the occupation troops are forced to flee the village, they hastily decide to destroy the mine, but the women band together to stop them. With the exception of leading lady Emma Tsesarskaya, the women in the film are actual Ukrainian peasants who had not acted professionally before. Lyubov I Nenavist received only a limited release in 1935, as Soviet authorities felt the characters were not heroic enough, but it was well-received in its screening at a retrospective of Soviet films presented at the 2000 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi