Maria Vinogradova Movies

Sporting a number of in-jokes which refer to persons and events in Russian film history, this is a comedy drama about Shura (Olga Yevtushenko), a young girl growing up in the Russia of the 1920s who wants with all her heart to become a movie star like Mary Pickford. She keeps this desire to herself. Model young Communist Party Pioneer that she is (the Pioneers were communism's answer to the Girl Scouts, with a heavy dose of political education thrown in), Shura attempts to correct bourgeois "wrong thinking" in her family and community. As her true ambitions become known, however, she increasingly upsets the political sensitivities of those around her, until she is forced to take a train to Moscow to escape her outraged community. Highlights include a re-created silent film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A satirical look at Stalinism and Soviet bureaucracy, the movie is based upon a previously banned Russian novel by Vladimir Voinovich. Ivan Chonkin, an uncomplicated man with a taste for sex, is a soldier assigned to guard a broken down airplane in Red, a tiny rural village. Unbeknownst to him, World War II has erupted and his superior officers have forgotten about him. Chonkin enrages the neighbors when he moves into the home of his lover Nyura, the town postal clerk. To get revenge, the neighbors send an anonymous letter to the secret police accusing Ivan of being a spy. The dreaded NKVD immediately go the remote village to arrest Ivan, but he refuses to leave his post without direct orders from his general. In the end, Ivan Chonkin triumphs over both the secret police and the Soviet army. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Andrei Konchalovsky's examination of totalitarianism, and the self-deluded mind-set that allows it to happen, is based on Konchalovsky's meeting with a bureaucratic flunky of Stalin's -- his personal projectionist -- during his early days as a filmmaker. Set during the height of Stalin's rule (1939 through 1953), the story concerns Ivan Sanchin (Tom Hulce), a motion picture projectionist who worships the Soviet leader like a god. He lives in a tiny apartment, sharing his space with a Jewish family. One day, the KGB bursts into the apartment of his Jewish neighbors and carts them away. Later that night, there is a loud banging on his door and standing before him are two KGB agents, who drag him off into the night. While at first Ivan can't understand what he did wrong, it seems the news is good -- Stalin wants Ivan to take over as his official motion picture projectionist. But since his job is high security, he can't tell his wife Anastasia (Lolita Davidovich) what he does for a living. When Anastasia takes an interest in the orphaned child of his former Jewish neighbors, Ivan begins to worry that Anastasia's visits to the state orphanage might have political repercussions against him. When he gets his wife a job serving Stalin's cabinet, he thinks he's solved his political worries. Unfortunately, Anastasia catches the amorous eye of KGB chief Beria (Bob Hoskins), and Ivan's unquestioning faith in the Soviet leaders is sorely tested. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi