Vor- Thief (1997)

This movie was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Movie in Oscar, European Film Awards, Golden Globe and many others, see the IMDB page for all list. It has a total o 7 awards in several organizations.

It is a nice and warm movie, Sanya's father is dead, they meet a soldier on a train with her mother, romance starts between the soldier and mother and they start to live together but it appears that he is not a real soldier but a thief!

I liked this one and highly recommend.IMDB

Voditel dlya Very -A Driver for Vera (2004)

This nice movie reminded me the Turkish movies of 60s, a young soldier is assigned as a driver for a Soviet Army General in 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, General's daughter is physically disabled and has a hard-spoilt personality but later a romance starts between these two...

Doesn't it remind you Ayhan Isik and Belgin Doruk concept:)

it was a nice movie, I can recommend this one to everybody.

4 (2005)

I did not understand much from this movie, this might be another sample representing that i am not an arts guy:) because it has several awards
see IMDB link

Sorok Pervy -The Forty-First (1956)

During Russian Civil war, a Red Army unit captures an important white officer who is believed to carry important information from Kolcak to Denikin [both are white commanders].

The only female member of the team is a sniper who has shot 40 whites already but misses this 41th but takes him prisoner...after many events a romance occurs between this two..

DVD of this movie is also sold on amazon.com and more movie info is available on IMDB and wikipedia. I personally liked this idea.

Mimino(1977)

This Georgian comedy Mimino(means Falcon) is a nice watch, it is funny and warm. I would recommend it but I must say that it is not completely in Russian, some parts are in Georgian.
More info here.

Little Moscow(2008)

Great! movie,I liked this one very much. Highly recommended!!

Mała Moskwa is set in the 1960s in the southwestern Polish city of Legnica, where Krzystek(the director of this movie) was born in 1953. Legnica was the headquarters of the Soviet forces stationed in Poland from 1945 until 1990 and much of the city was a Soviet enclave closed to outsiders, including Polish citizens, during this time. Yuri (Dmitry Ulyanov) is a young Russian pilot and failed astronaut posted to Legnica with his even younger wife Vera (Svetlana khodchenkova, judged best leading actress for her performance). Vera learns Polish and becomes fascinated with Polish music and poetry. She meets Polish officer and musician Michał (Lesław Żurek) at a Polish-Soviet “friendship song contest” which she wins. The story inexorably leads to tragedy as Vera desperately tries to stop herself from falling in love with Michał, equally desperately tries to hide her infatuation when this fails, and finally kills herself. The grave of the Russian woman on whose life Mała Moskwa is based still attracts visitors.http://www.foriegnmoviesddl.com/2009/04/maa-moskwa-little-moscow-2008-waldemar.html

The Ascent (1977) - Voskhozhdeniye

Yet another famous Soviet Movie, The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye ) is listed in the 20 Must See Films list of Russian Life magazine (20 Must See Russian Films of course :) )

Two soviet partisans separate from their group to go yo the nearest village and find some food but they are captured by the Germans, you can feel the cold and freezing snow ..one more time remember how wild and cruel is the war, especially the WWII.

BUT I must say that the movie is only average,it can be considered slow on today's basis.More info on this black and white movie is here.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors(Tini zabutykh predkiv) is another famous Soviet movie, but I personally did not enjoy it very much, maybe I did not get the implications or symbols. The movie has 8.1/10 on IMDB.
The only good thing about this movie is you can see the daily village life, clothes, music in the Carpathian region.

Igla (1988)

This '88 Soviet Movie is in fact not very interesting, its only point is the main actor is Victor Tsoi and this makes this movie important, worth seeing.

For those who do not know him: He is one of the pioneers of Russian Rock with his group Kino during Perestroika years. You can watch his song "A star called sun"
I personally did not like his songs in the movie very much, but for some reasons I understand that Russians love him.


The wall above, people who know Moscow will easily recognize, is on Arbat Street, it is a memorial site for Victor Tsoi who died on a car accident at the age of 28.

I found the movie here.

edit:in the meantime I liked this Kino song very much : ЗВЕЗДА ПО ИМЕНИ СОЛНЦЕ

Some Russian Songs

Other than Инфинити, there are several very good Russian pop songs, I would like to share some of them with you.
ВИНТАЖ is a very good group, here are some songs of the group that I like.

• От Москвы до Нью-Йорка
• Ева
• Плохая девочка
• Мама Мия

I came into this X-Mode & DJ Nil in my 2005 trip to Moscow, their album is for sale on amazon.com but unfortunately their music videos are not widely available here is one of my favorites La Peregrinacion. I also love their song Leto!.

Turkish music listeners will immediately recognize this song Капкан from group Пропаганда . For those who insist not to recognize here is the Turkish video.

Beautiful Russian Madonna Valeriya Perfilova has many lovely songs, here is only one sample:
Капелькою .



AND last but not the list, this great song...Whenever I went to a club/bar in Moscow this song was played at least once! I always wondered what is was but i could not find out since i could not understand a word:) Now I accidentally came across this song and happily know what it is :
"Музыка нас связала" from the Group Мираж.It is very good, give it a chance i am sure you will like.

Note: I have written about Alla Pugacheva already in a previous post so i don't repeat one more time here.

Инфинити(Infiniti)

I love Инфинити !!!.

This must be my first sentence of a topic on Инфинити, because I have their both albums "Где ты" and Я так хочу(2010) and they are great!. They are both excellent, all the songs, yes all songs with no exception are great in these albums.


Both albums are very very good.Try to find them both.

The official site of Инфинити is http://www.infiniti-music.ru/ and you can listen them on http://infinity.pdj.ru/.

Here is the official Infiniti youtube channel: INFINITIofficial.

Here are some of the music video of this great group, I guarantee that you will like.

• Где Ты
• Я так хочу
• Слёзы-вода
• Замечталась
• я не боюсь
• Ты
• нонстоп
• Когда уйдешь
  

Юленька (2009)

Not a superb movie, but still can be seen to spend some time. Note the small girl's(Darya Balabanova) acting skills.

I am quoting the plot from IMDB : "A university professor, who wants to slow down a little, moves with his wife and daughter, from the big city to a small town and starts a new job as a teacher in a girls' gymnasium. Something weird is happening with the class, they seem to hide a secret. As it turns out, these girls don't play with dolls, they make a toy of human lives - and soon teacher's life and family are jeopardized by something evil. And whether he'll be able to get out of this nightmare, depends solely on a little girl, who claims: "all I wanted is my mommy to be happy"

1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (2007)

The Time of Troubles (Russian: Смутное время, Smutnoye Vremya) was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. At the time, Russia was occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Dymytriads, and suffered from civil uprisings, usurpers and impostors. [From Wikipedia ]

So, the movie taked place in those times were a slave[serf] becomes a hero during the war against the Poles.A historical movie with war scenes with humor in it, I liked this warm movie.Not a bloody war movie, recommended for everyone.IMDB page is here.

Buzkiran

Another anti-soviet propaganda book, the author which is himself a KGB officer also, claims that Russians forced Germans to attack them.He claims that due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Hitler had confidence in Russia that there won't be a war among these two.But Stalin planned to attack Germans suddenly and made preparations for this purpose, Germans sensed this an prepared a sudden counter attack....Details are here

A Sister's Kiss - Potseluy sestry (2007)

A 50mins Russian Drama,I am quoting the plot from its IMDB page:

Masha, 16, meets Anya, 14, after a difficult breakup with her boyfriend. Anya is friendless, lonely, finding Masha more experienced and seductive. The two see a strange connection in each other which becomes an intense love-affair. Too late, the girls find out the fathers who have been missing from their lives are one and the same man.

19. Yüzyıl Siyasi Tarihi - Fahir Armaoglu

1200 pages of 19th Century Political History, read the contention among England, Germany, France, Austria and Russia for world politics and specifically for the great lands of Ottoman Empire that is just about to collapse.

The very thick book is in hard-cover with a very low price compared to its value.See the details here. I am planning to start the next volume of 1200 pages, 20th century political history, here.

Back in town: @IBTECH

Today,I started working again at IBTECH, the IT company of Finansbank where I worked between 2000 and 2006.

Again in Moscow,after a year

I was in Moscow last month, for two weeks.It's been more than one year since my last visit and I really missed this city.

Moscow has a mystical affect on me, I don't think the city is beautiful,but i still miss it,I miss the cold air, gray city, Cyrillic letters,metro and even the smell in the metro stations.

This visit was art oriented:) I visited 'Picasso in Moscow' exhibition at Pushkin's museum.This was my second Picasso exhibition,I also had a to visit 'Picasso in Istanbul' exhibition in 2006,well...I am more fan of classic art,clearly Picasso is not my style.

I also had the great chance to visit 'Khruschev and His Time' photo exhibition in Moscow House of Photography.


And finally, there was another interesting photo exhibition, Best of Russia 2009.It seems this is a selection of best photos among categories Russian Architecture, Nature, People, Everyday Life and Style. Here is one sample from style category

Romanovlar - Bir Hanedanin Sonu

I guess the book title tells everything: Romanovs- End of a Dynasty . The books starts with days even before Nicholas ascends to throne, the political and economical background is presented, then tells the Nicholas rule, his wife Alexandra, Rasputin, internal politics, his resistance to forming Duma-parliament, and the end of him and his family.This is the only book among many that I read telling the end of Romanovs in this detail,generally this chapter is explained in one paragraph ,revolution takes place and whole family is executed, this book has more than that,better details, longer version of story, their exile days...

12 ( 2007 Russian Movie)

12 is a very interesting movie! 12 people are members of a jury, locked down in a place to decide on a case,trivial case at first sight a Chechen boy kills his Russian step-father who is also a Russian army officer. The movie is takes place in a single place, the room that they are locked and there are mainly 12 characters, the jurors so easy to follow.I liked this movie,it is different and interesting, definitely recommended.Check the IMDB page here, nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe.

Ankara'da bir Sovyet Ajani

Although the book title implies memories of a Soviet Spy in Turkey, this is not the case, I guess the title is chosen for marketing reasons.The book is on a KGB agent who was unhappy with the soviet system so voluntarily gave USSR secrets to 'western world'. During his KGB days his way also crossed with Ankara- capital of Turkey, that's all.Anyway, I briefly outlined he subject of the book,it is a real life spy story after all, so good to read.