Vyacheslav Yezepov Movies

In this disaster movie about an overnight express train out of Moscow, a fire starts in one passenger car and quickly spreads, threatening the safety of the travelers. During the first and less successful half of the film, the lives of the passengers in one car are tentatively sketched - an airline flight attendant and a soldier strike up a mutual attraction, a black market operative guards his suitcase full of illegal money, a female conductor presses a relationship with a man she let onto the train for free, and other passengers relate their own hardships or indirectly reveal serious character flaws. During the second and more effective half of the film, disaster strikes, the fire starts, and with the flames coming very close to the actors, it was probably not a long stretch to feign terror or pain. The action scenes are well-executed and compensate for the surface treatment of the characters in the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In an adaptation of a story set in the 19th century by Ivan Turgenev, director Josef Heifitz has a rather strait-laced, inhibited Russian man visiting Germany by himself and then running into Asya (Yelena Koreneva), a carefree, happy young Russian woman and her half-brother, also doing some traveling. The three of them hook up together and it soon becomes apparent that the Russian gentleman is falling in love with Asya, though he is too timid to do anything about the way he feels -- perhaps because the feeling is so strong. Suddenly one morning he wakes up to find that the pair are gone and although he tries to track them down, it is to no avail. He must return to Russia having lost the one love of his life -- a dejected and unfortunate man. When he visits Germany again many years later, he seems too far immersed in his own self-pity to be salvaged by anyone, including Asya herself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide