Marat Basharov Movies
- 2008
Director Oleg Fomin's period thriller Gospoda Ofitsery: Spasti Imperatora unfurls at the turn of the 20th century, coincident with the Russian Revolution. As Civil War rips Russia into two halves - a Red Army, fronted by Communist revolutionaries, and a White Army, fronted by counterrevolutionaries - Tsar Nicholas II falls into the hands of ruthless Bolsheviks, and the White Guard army (many of its officers fully supportive of monarchial restoration) launches a coordinated attempt to rescue him, despite an encroaching Red Army cadre sent to eliminate them. In time, it all boils down to one politically-inclined army against another, though the question lingers, in the background, of whether the White Army will manage to reach Nicholas before the Bolsheviks bring his life to a sudden and tragic end. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Fomin
- 2006
A college student who earns his living by portraying the victims in police crime-scene reenactments discovers that something is rotten in Russia when his deceased father appears before him claiming that he was killed by his still-living wife, who is having an affair with her detestable brother-in-law, in director Kirill Serebrennikov's adaptation of a darkly comic play by the Brothers Presnyakov -- which was in turn loosely based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Valya (Yuri Chursin) travels to crime scenes with the ill-tempered chief detective (Vitaly Khaev) and incompetent camerawoman Lyuda (Anna Mikhalkova) in order to re-create the infractions as described by the perpetrators and eyewitness accounts. When the vengeful specter of Valya's late father appears before the aimless boy claiming that his death wasn't quite the accident that it appeared to be, the stage is soon set for the most realistic crime scene that Valya has participated in to date. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yuri Chursin, Vitaly Khaev, (more)
Political intrigue and total corruption within the so-called democratic Russia are brought to the forefront in Pavel Lungin's Tycoon. Beginning as an investigation into the assassination of one of the richest men in Russia, the story flashes back to late-'80s Russia, just after Perestroika has broken up the Soviet Union. Five intelligent Russian students -- including one Platon Makovski (Vladimir Mashkov) -- abandon their academic careers in exchange for diving into the newly developing private business sector. As the rules for business in Russia are barely in place, the five new businessmen find a number of ways to profit from a wide array of nearly illegal dealings. Platon, in particular, has developed a knack for ingenious new ways of making money and very quickly becomes one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Russia. Along the way, he also manages to alienate and/or infuriate most of his friends as well as a few government officials. Tycoon premiered to positive reviews at the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladimir Mashkov, Andrei Krasko, (more)
- 2000
In this frantic comedy from Russia, Mishka (Marat Basharov) lives in a small town near Moscow, where like most of his neighbors, he works as a miner. Years ago, Mishka was in love with a pretty girl named Tania (Maria Mironova), who moved to Moscow to become a model. After five years in the big city, Tania returns, and she immediately tells Mishka that she wants to marry him. Mishka is thrilled and starts planning a big wedding, though his parents wonder out loud what the bride-to-be was up to while she was gone. One snag in organizing the wedding party is that the mine is having a severe cash flow problem and no one has been paid for six months. However, on the day of the nuptials, the money finally arrives (and Mishka's paycheck just about covers the cost of the reception); soon half the city is celebrating Mishka and Tania's wedding, and as the vodka begins to flow and many friends and relatives arrive, chaos ensues. La Noce was shown in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival; it was the only Russian film screened as an official entry that year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marat Basharov, Mariya Mironova, (more)
- 1999
Love blooms amidst the backdrop of czarist Russia in Nikita Mikhalkov's The Barber of Siberia. The story opens in 1905 Springfield, MA, when a woman writes a letter to a young man in a military summer-training camp. He is currently being punished by one of his superiors, who forces him to wear a gas mask until he acknowledges that Mozart was a worthless composer. The woman has an important story to tell her addressee, and our story flashes back 20 years to Russia, where American Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond) is traveling to Moscow. A man who may or may not be Jane's father, Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), is trying to perfect a machine, christened "The Barber of Siberia," that will harvest trees from the vast Siberian forests. Douglas hopes Jane can charm Gen. Radlov (Alexei Petrenko), the head of a Russian military academy, into arranging the financing that will enable him to complete his work on the harvester. En route, Jane meets a friendly Russian soldier, Andrei Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov), and the two soon fall in love. Jane then meets and flirts with Radlov, who grows reciprocally fond of her -- enough so that he asks her to marry him. When it becomes evident she'd rather be with Tolstoy, he finds himself shipped off to Siberia after allegedly attacking a grand duke. Merging romance, costume drama, and slapstick comedy, The Barber of Siberia was screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Menshikov, Julia Ormond, (more)
