Actress-turned-director Natalya Kudryashova’s sophomore feature, Gerda (2021) is set in the turbulent, harsh social reality of contemporary Russia. However, the filmmaker studies her characters and their painful existence in a manner that…
Tag: Russian Cinema
The rigidity of emphasizing the narratives, character development, and steady linearity of the story is reflective of the quintessential methods associated with filmmaking and storytelling. Its resultant dissemination to the people associates…
The Khrushchev Thaw represents the period in Soviet Union following the death of Joseph Stalin (March 1953) that allowed for considerable cultural and political liberalization. In February 25, 1956, Khrushchev delivered a…
Science fiction movies are rarely about science. In fact, the ostentatious CGI-dependent, invasion-centered storylines we are repeatedly subjected to strictly restricts the sci-fi genre. A lot of sci-fi features exist completely outside…
Aleksandr Askoldov’s first and last film The Commissar (1967) is a great film on its own right. However, the story of how the film nearly got destroyed only makes me more grateful…
Incisive, hard-hitting, subtle and multi-layered in terms of theme and style, the Russian film-maker Andrey Zvyagintsev’s oeuvre elegantly conjures taut moral narratives of spiritual torment, hate, injustice, greed, and isolation. Since…
