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

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.

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.

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.

Gray Wolves - Serye Volki (1993)

Another interesting movie, let me first list the names of characters in the movie and you will agree with me:

Khrushchov -you know him :)
Brezhnev - you know him :)
Mikoyan - you probably know him:)
Semichastny - head of KGB who is replaced by Andrapov who later became Soviet President
Shelepin head of KGB before Semichastny
Podgorny Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet
Suslov - Politburo member, he was the one accusing Jukov with 'Bonapartism'

Yes! , very rich number of Soviet politicians.The movie is on Coup_d'etat in 1964 that these listed politicians organized secretly against Nikita Khrushchov to remove him from power and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev. The movie shows Brezhnev as a stupid figure that everyone agreed upon since he is easy to manipulate.

The IMDB link is here and a detailed movie info is listed here.

I stongly advice you to see this movie if you are interested in Soviet History.

977 Movie

I do not want to give any positive or negative feedbacks about this movie since I undestood nothing, absolutely nothing.See yourself here.

Gruz 200 -Cargo (2007)

Another very nice movie from the Russians! This movie, Gruz 200, was shot in 2007.The events take place in 1984, a young girl is kidnapped by a mad police officer... I liked the Soviet air of the movie, the houses,steets, clothes...nice thriller.

The director Aleksey Balabanov is also the director of famous Brat movie which I reviewed shortly here,this time he made a better jog.

Kin-Dza-Dza (1986)

This is the weirdest movie I've ever seen.It was competely absurd.Movie genre is noted as 'Cyber Punk' but IMDB states as 'Bizarre,Absurdism,Absurd Humor,Surrealism'.

Two Russians are transferred to an outer planet and they are trying to get back to earth.Meanwhile they meet with strange aliens[all exactly looking like Humans and knowing Russian] and those aliens have strange and funny customs.

Although the movie was so absurd I did not come to the point 'Come ooon' and shut it down but instead I wanted to continue seeing it to see what absurd will happen next.


IMDB rating of movie is fairly high: 8.1 and wikipedia says recently animated version of the film is completed for kids.Here is a small except from the movie on youtube.

It is also strange that this is a Soviet movie from Mosfilm studios.Anyway, if you want to see it yourselves check here.

Agoniya-Rasputin(1981)

I have downloaded this film from http://www.foriegnmoviesddl.com but unfortunately it was so boring that I could not advance to the second CD. IMDB point is surprisingly high as 6.9.

Lilja 4-ever (2002)

I have downloaded this movie sometime ago,but was down on my list then I saw Stilyagi and leart that the pretty main actress was also the star of this movie, Lilja 4-Ever so I decided to bring it to an upper position on my list.

I am glad I did so it is a very nice movie with a sad theme.Here is the summary of IMDB "Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in a poor village in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life...."

Vozvrashcheniye - The Return (2003)

Another sample of boring movie with many awards. The movie has 28 wins and another 12 nominations,see IMBD for details, by the way IMDB point is 8.1 with 10 thousand votes, i don't know why.This film is simply boring, i did not get its message.