A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Konstantin Lopushansky, “Dead Man’s Letters” / “Pisma myortvogo cheloveka” (1986) Depressive in tone but with a hopeful optimism at its end, this film explores how human…
Vasily Zhuravlov, “The Space Voyage” / “Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya Novella” (1936) In the 1930s, the youth branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, usually…
Alexander Dovzhenko, “Aerograd” (1935) It’s a well-made film with stunning shots of wilderness and planes flying in the sky but where would a Dovzhenko film be without…
Mikhail Karyukhov and Alexander Kozyr, “The Sky Calls” / “Nebo Zovyot” (1959) A visually stunning film about space exploration, “The Sky Calls” was the first in…
Northern European Films, Russian and Soviet Films
Risto Orko and Alexander Ptushko, “The Sampo” (1959) A joint Finnish-Soviet fantasy production aimed at a family audience, “The Sampo” is a very loose retelling of…
Eastern European Films, Russian and Soviet Films
Alexander Dovzhenko, “Arsenal” (1928) Notable for its skilful use of montages of images to create and build tension, excitement, urgency and other moods, “Arsenal” revolves around an incident…
Sergei Eisenstein, “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) Unashamedly patriotic and stirring action-movie propaganda for the masses and the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin at the time of release,…
Andrei Tarkovsky, “Stalker” (1979) For Western audiences used to fast action science fiction movies, “Stalker” is a very slow-paced post-apocalyptic mover with a barebones plot that…
Eastern European Films, Northern European Films
Marek Pestrak, “Pilot Pirx’s Inquest” / “Test Pilota Pirxa” / “Doznanie Pilota Pirksa” (1979) A joint Polish-Estonian production, this low-budget movie about a space trip that nearly ends…
Sergei Parajanov and David Abashidze, “Ashik Kerib” (1988) The last completed film by Georgian / Armenian director Sergei Parajanov before his death in 1990, “Ashik Kerib”…