RUSS 325: Russian Culture 1914-2014: Websites and Films

Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times.

An experimental film which uses numerous cinematic techniques (split screens, multiple superimpositions, variable speeds, stop-action animation, etc.) to present a dawn-to-dusk view of the Soviet Union and to study the relationship between cinema and reality. Filmed in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and elsewhere in the Soviet Union.

After the death of his grandfather, Vasil wishes the neighboring farmers to share the use of a tractor purchased by the village council. Struggling against superstition, rich landowners and nature itself...

Biographical story of Prince Alexander Nevsky and his successful resistance against an attempt by the Teutonic Knights to invade Russia in 1242.

12-year orphan boy works for the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, undertaking dangerous reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines.

A sweeping romance about a free-spirited Frenchman whose romantic idyll with a princess in pre-Soviet Georgia is threatened by the barbarism of the Russian revolution.

In Russia during the 1880's, the female assistant of a foreign entrepreneur is dispatched to a cadet school in Moscow to negotiate a deal. After her arrival, the head of the school, General Radlov, becomes enamored with her, but the beautiful foreigner falls in love with a young officer. What follows is a drama involving jealousy, honor, love, and friendship.

Colonel Sergei Kotov, a hero of the Revolution, is spending the summer in the country with his young daughter, his wife and her eccentric family. But when his wife's childhood love suddenly appears, the idyllic summer day takes a surprising turn. An account of a man dedicated to family and fatherland, cruelly destroyed by political paranoia.

Eight year old Sasha becomes a hostage of his grandmother's unconditional love.

A modern filmmaker finds himself magically transported to the 18th century where he embarks on a time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history. The first feature film ever created in a single take.

A hard-working, patriotic taxi driver starts to go over the edge when he meets up with a flaky, westernized, Jewish jazz musician who represents everything the taxi driver despises ... and secretly desires.

Having a fatherless childhood, young brothers Andrei and Ivan have grown closer than most siblings. But when they least expect it, the father the boys have never known returns. The boys eagerly join accompany him on a weeklong fishing trip. As they travel deep into the wilderness, their journey devolves from vacation to boot camp to father-son love triangle and ultimately to a test of wills that pushes to the brink of violence.

Trapped by obligations to his pre-teen brother, single mother, and aging grandfather, 18-year-old Sergey rebels by shirking responsibility altogether. Aided by the privileged, Westernized diplomat's son Kostya, and straight-laced schoolmate Styopa, Sergey pursues girls, drugs, and rock n' roll. But the arrival of gorgeous, innocent Lyuda threatens to break Sergey out of his rootless cycle of teenage kicks, even as it tests his already tenuous connection to friends, family, past, and future.

It's 1917, on the eve of the Russian Revolution, and a young doctor (Radcliffe) arrives in the middle of the night to lead an eerie, back-woods hospital. Fresh from med school, he is completely unprepared for the bizarre people and alarming medical maladies that face him, so, in an unexpected twist, he turns to his older self (Hamm) for advice. (Based on stories by Mikhail Bulgakov)

Three generations of women share a small, crowded apartment with Nina at the center of it all. Twice married and divorced, with two sexually active daughters, one from each failed marriage, she is also at the beck and call of her mute mother who rings her bedside bell whenever she craves attention. Trying to cope with the men that exist in their lives and the troubles they bring, forms the cornerstone of this bittersweet, comic film.

With biting satire, jumping back and forth in time, this film condemns its characters to an eternity of irony. In one section, a medieval king named Vano executes his wife for being unfaithful. Seamlessly the film flashes forward to the early 1930s, with another Vano, played by the same actor, portraying a low-down thief who suddenly seizes power. Intercut with all of this is the story of a contemporary Vano, a hapless drunk who wanders across the underworlds of Europe.

In this cross-cultural comedy, Gombo, a Mongolian shepherd, and Sergei, a Russian road builder, strike up a friendship and go on the road together, headed for the city. Intending to buy a TV and condoms, Gombo is on his way to becoming a modern man. But present-day ways may not be so alluring after all.

A young musician discovers a magic window which takes him from his rundown Russian apartment to the streets of Paris.

Danila Bagrov, recently discharged from the army, returns to his quiet, provincial home town. But life is boring in this Russian backwoods, so he heads for Petersburg, to live with his elder brother who, he has heard, is doing quite well. Upon his arrival, Danila discovers that his brother is indeed doing well, having joined the mob. Soon Danila too is immersed in the city's organized crime scene.

Trigger-happy sibling assassins Simon and Sergei work as errand boys for Mikhailovich, the sadistic kingpin of a provincial Russian town.

A Russian army patrol is ambushed by Caucasian rebels and two survivors are taken prisoner by a local patriarch who is hoping to barter them for the release of his captured son. A bond of understanding develops between the soldiers and their captors, but it is broken when plans for their release go awry and a chain of violence and retaliation is precipitated.

In a land torn apart by war, two men on opposite sides are about to find out they have one thing in common. Wounded and emotionally tortured, they are taken in by Anni, a young war widow. None of them understands the others' languages, but it doesn't seem to matter. After a hard day at work on Anni's farm, who needs words?

In a desolate, sun-sorched corner of the world, an elderly woman has come to see her beloved grandson. He is a young officer stationed at a remote military outpost. With the enemy just beyond the compound, she wanders the barracks, observing the routines of military life, before making a sudden trip into the outlying countryside.

"A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who has been living there... the scale of the battle contrasts dramatically with the human drama of the Russian soldiers, the few remaining civilians and their invaders into Stalingrad"-

Living among humans are those who possess various supernatural powers. They are divided into the forces of light and the forces of the dark. Centuries ago both sides signed a treaty to end a war. Now the battle is about to happen again.

Anton fights the forces of darkness while trying to find and save his son, but when vampires from the dark side mysteriously get killed, he is framed for their murders and must now try to escape the Day Watch who is looking for his blood.

Explores the art and culture of Russia in a journey across history, encompassing Russia's architecture, paintings, music, literature and cinema. Part 1 examines icon painting, the first Russian art form, and reveals the spiritual ideas that have animated Russia for 1000 years. Part 2 examines Russian architecture from Eastern-inspired onion domes to Western-type palaces. Part 3 explores Russian music and cinema and looks at how new media forms are shaping Russia today.

Documentary about a Russian rock group, Aquarium, and its dedicated and popular leader, Boris Grebenshikov. The group struggles to make music despite censorship, and when glasnost loosens up the restraints Grebenshikov travels to New York to record an album. Now the question is, will he return to his bandmates and loyal fans?

What's motivating the thousands of Russian women who sign up with agencies to meet and marry American men? From the gray skies of St. Petersburg to sunny California ranches, we see the financial and emotional pros and cons of exporting one's heart. The film grapples with the tremendous economic challenges and difficult decisions facing Russian women today.

This documentary portrays how Russians and Americans collaborated in reviving women's activism in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia and in creating Russian women's studies on both sides of the ocean. The film is based on interviews with 18 experts who were engaged in this project, including activists and scholars. Participants assess the project's successes and failures since the days of glasnost and discuss the stiff challenges that Russian feminists face in the Putin-Medvedev era.

Follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times, from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionments of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.