Nikolai Volkov, Sr. Movies

This enjoyable children's film is based on a popular fairy tale by Russian writer Samuil Marshak. When a willful little queen requests a bouquet of snowdrop flowers for New Year's Day, everyone listens. She offers a reward for the flowers -- a basketful of gold. A greedy woman sends her stepdaughter, who she does not like, into the cold forest to hunt for flowers, knowing full well the impossibility of the task. The poor little girl is saved from freezing to death by the Twelve Months, who help her by miraculously creating spring all around her. She is able to return with the flowers -- but then others want a share of the action too. ~ Rovi

This propaganda feature chronicles the events which led Russian left-wing socialists to revolt and attempt to seize power from Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The defeat of the Left Socialists gave Lenin and his fledgling communist party a clearer road to power. The group killed the German ambassador in an attempt to draw Germany into a war with Russia. Lenin, of course, is painted in glowing light. Less than two weeks after the 6th of July, the deposed Czar Nicholas and his family were murdered by troops loyal to Lenin. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A young World War II hero's moral and political resolve is tested when he and his father are drummed out of the Communist Party in this political drama. Sergei (Vitali Konyaev) resents his father for taking a lover, but his morals do not stop his own affair with a woman separated from her husband. After the war, Sergei enters the institute hoping to further his education, but he too is kicked out of the Party and the institute for the sins of his father. Vladimir Basov, a famous character actor in his own right, directed the film that was seen by over 50 million people in the USSR alone. This is one of the last films that fell under the political thaw period under Khruschev and openly depicted Stalinist oppression. The feature received the Grand Prize at the All-Union Film Festival in 1964. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this children's fantasy-adventure, a five-year old Russian boy decides to follow the sun around the earth. He then begins rolling a hoop about the city. He takes his time and frequently pauses to stop and see the world through shards of colored glass. Soon he comes to a maternity hospital where he sees a woman giving birth. He goes on to meet many different characters ranging from a legless shoeshine man who loves soccer, to a pretty young gardener who shows the boy how a sunflower will turn its head to follow the sun. The boy is impressed and delighted until a park worker heartlessly mows the lovely flower down. Angered at the wicked act, the boy confronts the caretaker. Later, the boy shares food with some kindly workers, sees a funeral, and encounters a truck driver. He then begins watching gymnasts working out and falls asleep beside a stone lion; the boy begins to dream that the park attendant is burying the sunflower during a funeral--as soon as he finishes, the man becomes a mannequin. Suddenly the shoeshine man appears walking; he takes the boy to a lovely street where they meet the sun. When the boy awakens, a military musician takes him home. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi