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100 DAYS BEFORE THE COMMAND
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Our Price: $29.95
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Made the year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this "visually astonishing, erotically charged and emotionally jarring" (The New York Times) film captures the battle-weary attitude of the Russian people as well as a sexual ambiguity among soldiers that had never been portrayed in prior Russian cinema. The film's subtle use of homoerotic imagery and subtext caused it to be banned by Soviet censors when first released. Five young Red Army recruits struggle to preserve their humanity and compassion as each day seems to bring another act of senseless violence. In Russian with English Hussein Erkenov---USSR---1990---71 mins.
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12
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Our Price: $28.96
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From the director of Burnt by the Sun comes this Oscar-nominated remake of 12 Angry Men.
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1612
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Our Price: $26.98
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Judicious, no, but this historical epic based on the Time of Troubles in seventeenth century Russia sure is blood-soaked and action-packed. After the death of Tsar Boris Godunov and the murder of his heirs, Russia descends into chaos and is left vulnerable to Polish and Swedish invaders. 1612 is the story of how young Prince Dmitry Pozharsky (Mikhail Porechenkov) unites his people and saves the motherland. Special effects supervised by Ilya Churinov (Night Watch). In Russian with English subtitles. Vladimir Khotinenko---Russia---2007---135 mins.
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4
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Our Price: $24.95
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From director Ilya Khrzhanovsky comes this post-Soviet Russian film that uses a basic plot structure--three strangers sitting in a bar telling wild, untrue stories, then going their separate ways--as an excuse to film some of the most nightmarishly sinister images to come out of Russia in recent years. 4 makes Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor (2004) seem like a playful Van Helsing 2 in comparison. Highly allegorical, 4 is filled with rotten meat, wild animals, old hags, and other abject objects befitting an industr ial wasteland, just one of film's unavoidable critiques of contemporary Russian life. "The stark surreal images evoke a mixture of terror and absurdity that comes as close to the experience of actual nightmare as anything I've seen on screen" (Stephen Holden, New York Times). Official Selection at the Venice, Rotterdam, and Tribeca Film Festivals. In Russian with English Ilya Khrzhanovsky---Russia---2005---126 mins.
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ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR
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Our Price: $9.98
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Karen Shakhnazarov's imaginative film blends taut psychological thrills with the epic sweep of a period drama. Malcolm McDowell stars as a Russian psychiatric patient who is convinced that he assassinated Tsar Nicholas II and helped foment the Russian Revolution of 1918. In an effort to cure his patient, doctor Smirnov (popular Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky) reenacts the carnage of the event in order to break its spell. Karen Shakhnazarov---Russia---1991---98 mins.
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BABUSHKA
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Our Price: $99.95
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Set in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia, Lidiya Bobrova's third feature is a melancholy drama reminiscent of Ozu, about an elderly grandmother who is shuttled between family members who do not wish to care for her. Bobrova uses this spare and intimate set-up to draw distinctions between the older and younger generations in Russian society, and the conclusions she reaches are poignant and quietly heartbreaking. In Russian with English subtitles. Lidiya Bobrova---Russia---2003---95 mins.
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BANISHMENT, THE
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Our Price: $69.95
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The Banishment, Andrei Zvyagintsev's second feature after The Return, is a richly symbolic drama about a family heading down a dark path . Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko) and Vera (Maria Bonnevie) are taking their children (Maxim Shibaev and Katya Kulkina) away from the city in favor of a quiet life in the rolling countryside. That all changes when Vera reveals to Alex that she is pregnant--and the child is not his. Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and winner of a European Film Award for cinematography (Mickhail Krichman). In Russian with English subtitles. Andrei Zvyagintsev---Russia---2007---151 mins.
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BARBER OF SIBERIA
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Our Price: $49.95
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Richard Harris stars in this Russian epic set in the wilds of Siberia towards the end of the nineteenth century. Playing an American entrepreneur, Harris arrives with a steam harvester to sell, and an assistant (Julia Ormond) who has eyes for a local exile (Oleg Menshikov). As the years pass, love blossoms, business booms, and revolutionary politics spread. With Vladimir Ilyin. In Russian with optional English subtitles. Nikita Mikhalkov---Russia---1998---180 mins.
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BESHKEMPIR: THE ADOPTED SON
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Our Price: $29.98
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The first independent feature ever made in Kyrgyzstan and a wonderful debut for its director, Aktan Abdykalykov. A beautifully composed tale of growing up, the film follows a boy who is living through a typical childhood until he discovers one day that he is adopted. "...an understated, idealized, and fastidiously crafted movie" (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice). In Kyrgyzstani with English subtitles. Aktan Abdykalykov---Kyrgyzstan/France---1998---81 mins.
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BLACK & WHITE (FRUMIN)
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Our Price: $19.95
In Stock
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A young Russian emigre and an African-American building superintendent bond as they eke out a meager living in pre-gentrification NYC in the early '90s.
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BROTHER (BALABANOV)
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Our Price: $14.95
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A simple man returns from his army service, coming home to St. Petersburg, where he finds his brother is now a contract killer for the Russian mob. Soon, both brothers are in the service of organized crime and they team up to kill a Chechen mafia boss. This riveting crime film addresses the social breakdown and accepted grimness of city life in the former Soviet Union. Lead actor Sergei Bodrov Jr.'s superb performance won him well-deserved honors around the world, including the award for Best Actor at the 1997 Chicago International Film Festival. "A wonderfully mordant excursion through the new Russian thugocracy...the best Russian movie I've seen in years" (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice). In Russian with English subtitles. Alexei Balabanov---Russia---1997---96 mins.
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BROTHER 2 (BALABANOV)
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Our Price: $66.78
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Alexei Balabanov's sequel to 1997's Brother finds the Chechen war veteran-turned-Russian gangster Danila running into an old army buddy, who tells Danila that his twin brother, a hockey player in the U.S., is experiencing financial difficulties. Danila agrees to help out, but when he discovers that his friend has been killed, he travels to the U.S. to help his friend's brother investigate the killing. In Russian WITHOUT English Alexei Balabanov---Russia---1999---123 mins.
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BURNT BY THE SUN
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Our Price: $89.95
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This Academy Award-winning feature (Best Foreign Language Film) is a wonderfully intimate, Chekhovian idyll set in Stalinist Russia, which, at its conclusion, packs an explosive political punch. Director Nikita Mikhalkov plays a legendary revolutionary hero living in a dacha outside Moscow with family and friends. Most of the film's complex relationships are seen through the innocent eyes of Mikhalkov's (and the hero's) beautiful daughter in a film that gently reveals the tragedy of living under Stalinism. In Russian with Nikita Mikhalkov---Russia---1994---146 mins.
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CARGO 200
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Our Price: $24.95
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"Art house meets grind house in Cargo 200, Alexey Balabanov's morbidly compelling thriller set in the Soviet Union" (Jeanette Catsoulis, The New York Times). Perhaps best known for directing Brother, Balabanov shocked audiences at the Venice, Rotterdam, and Los Angeles film festivals with this black comedy set in a decaying industrial town in 1984 Russia. A depraved police captain (Aleksei Poluyan) stops by a shack to pick up more bootlegged vodka, but instead makes off with a girl (Agniya Kuznetsova) whom he proceeds to rape and torture. While the war raged in Afghanistan, Cargo 200 argues that the Motherland was far worse. In Russian with English Alexei Balabanov---Russia---2007---89 mins.
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CHEKHOV'S MOTIVES
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Our Price: $49.00
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This hostile "comedy" from Russian filmmaker Kira Muratova concerns a lowdown, combative Russian family and their son, who sneaks off to a traditional Orthodox wedding in hopes of finding respite, of which there is none. "You could call this distanciation, if it weren't so claustrophobic" (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice). Winner of the Golden Aries from the Russian Guild of Film Critics. In Russian with English subtitles. Kira Muratova---Ukraine/Russia---2002---120 mins.
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CONCERT, THE (LE CONCERT 2009)
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Our Price: $19.99
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Aleksei Guskov and Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) star in this Eurozone comedy about a once-mighty conductor of the Bolshoi, reduced to janitor status for refusing to fire his Jewish musicians during the Brezhnev years. Now 30 years later, he intercepts an invitation for the company to perform in Paris. So instead of the real Bolshoi...
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DEAD MAN'S BLUFF
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Our Price: $14.95
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This incendiary and subversively comic action thriller from Russian director Aleksei Balabanov (Brother) follows a pair of sibling assassins employed by sadistic mafia boss Mikhailovich (Burnt by the Sun director Nikita Mikhalkov in one of the film's many cameos). After the brothers bungle a drug deal, they find themselves on the run from their employer, who's not above using brutish torture methods to drive home his point. Weaving through a post-communist world of cops and robbers, the heroes discover that in New Russia, allegiances can get tangled. "A giddy mixture of bonhomie and bloodthirstiness" (Variety). In Russian with English subtitles. Alexei Balabanov---Russia---2005---105 mins.
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DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (PROSHKIN)
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Our Price: $89.95
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Not to be confused with the David Lean epic, this Russian mini-series is an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's classic novel about a young doctor whose life is intertwined with Russian history during the tumultuous early years of the 20th century. This 4-DVD set stars Kirill Pirogov, Andrej Panin and Oleg Menshikov. In Russian with English subtitles. Alexander Proshkin---Russia---2006---484 mins.
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EUPHORIA
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Winner of the Little Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, Euphoria is "a very eye-catching feature debut for helmer Ivan Vyrypaev, an up-and-comer from Moscow's experimental legit scene. [The picture] plunges lustily into an operatic love-triangle composed of a farmer, his wife and an interloping goatherd that leads to tragedy on the Southern steppes. Ravishing lensing by Andrey Neidenov" (Leslie Felperin, Variety). In Russian with English subtitles.
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FILMS OF NIKITA MIKHALKOV: VOLUME 1
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Our Price: $74.95
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This collection of five films from celebrated Russian actor-director Nikita Mikhalkov includes A Slave of Love, Five Evenings, Oblomov, Without Witness, and the Academy Award-winning Burnt by the Sun (1994, 135 mins.), a wonderfully intimate, Chekhovian idyll that's set in Stalinist Russia and packs an explosive political punch.
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