A drama about an affair between 18 years old dinning-room waitress and much older police investigator.

The story is set in a relatively comfortable Stalin-era prison in the town of Marfino where a community of prisoners with highly technical skills do research for the state. Based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

In a small provincial town, a famous actress comes on tour, who once fled from here from the shame of unhappy love. Many years ago, she was forced to leave her illegitimate son to raise strangers. Therefore, when a talented and reckless young actor appears on the way of a now rich and famous woman, she certainly wants to help him. The actress begins to take an active part in the fate of the young man.

The title is a Russian expression meaning "I wish to speak". This is one of my three favorite Panfilov films which I consider masterpieces, the other two being "Nachalo" and "Tema"; Panfilov wrote this script by himself it seems. It shows, this film is genius. For me, this is honestly one of the most thought-provoking films of my life. Perfectly written. It is about a family woman who was made the mayor of a town. I am mystified by this film. Not since Tarkovsky have I felt this strange spiritual energy, and that's saying something. This is the last Panfilov film I saw, I've seen five others. The incredible world of the characters is what reminds me of a Tarkovsky movie. This movie is about a family. It could be said to be about a lot of things. But to me this film is about communism. I can't have enough room to write and express all the incredible thoughts and scenes contained in this movie, nor would I want to. But I must say how realistic and natural the script and acting are and how poetic and beautiful yet simple the cinematography is. This films is about the ideals and morals of communism that any human being with a conscience can relate to: want for peace all over the world, a sense of duty to make the world better, love of your country and respect for all men and women. This mayor is still an attractive young woman, but she is stern when she needs to be and she can be rude and takes her job very seriously. But she also spends a lot of time with her family, she was a champion marksman, her husband is a soccer coach, they have two kids, son and daughter. This film uses some real Beatles songs, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" for instance is played almost in it's entirety in the first 10 minutes, which I still find to be 10 of some the most incredible minutes in film ever, just incredible poetry. This film is definitely not for everyone, but it is a very good film, with an even more important message. It reminds me of an Oliviera film, because of long talking scenes. This film is definitely a nostalgic piece now that communism ended, especially because that is specifically it's topic. Also it paints a very realistic picture of what the feel under communism was for most working normal people, and it wasn't fear but togetherness. If you want a film that isn't propaganda and is very human and shows what a normal individual who is a communist "sees" in it, definitely watch this film, it is the one and only to treat the topic so respectfully and truthfully, the only other one is "U Ozera", IMO. The story is fiction but the ideas are absolutely true, in the end it doesn't matter what the directors/writers stance on anything was, he understood his subject and was inspired by it enough to make this poetic film, and I thank him.

For many years, Vassa Zheleznova has been leading the family business and, despite the inconspicuous children, her dissolute husband, alcoholic brother, and revolutionary daughter-in-law, is trying to maintain at least the appearance of a normal family... 1913 is coming, and everything that was dedicated to her life is wrecked.

The story of the last year and a half of Tsar Nicholas II and his family from the February Revolution of 1917 to their execution in July 1918

Первая масштабная экранизация произведения А.И.Солженицына, сценарий к которой написал сам автор. Фрагменты романа "В круге первом" в прочтении Александра Исаевича звучат в закадровом тексте. Жизненный путь героя книги Глеба Нержина - математика, принявшего вновь погрузиться в кошмар ГУЛАГа, но не изменить своей совести - списан Солженицыным со своего собственного. Именно это - выбор пусть невероятно мучительного, но достойного пути - делает роман удивительно привлекательным и, в известной мере, оптимистичным. "В круге первом" - фильм о победе сильного духа над тоталитаризмом.

100 Minutes is the tale of thousands of Soviet soldiers who fought the Nazis and whose only ‘crime’ was to get caught. Stalin’s justice meted out on the prisoners who returned home was swift: ten years of forced labour in the Siberian camps. Why then would prisoners like Ivan Denisovich fight to stay alive to face another day of hell?

The social ferment in late 19th century Russia which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution is movingly portrayed in this lengthy historical drama, which is very faithful to the 1907 novel The Mother by the celebrated Marxist writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In the story, "the mother" (Inna Tchourikova) has no other recourse than to watch her decent, kindly husband turn into an animalistic, drunken brute as a result of working in the inhuman conditions of a steel mill in the town of Sormovo. When he begins to express his suppressed rage by beating her, she is defended by her teenaged son Pavel (depicted Viktor Rakov as an adult, Sacha Chichonok as a boy). After his father's death, Pavel is forced to go to work in the same factory. However, Pavel and his friends begin investigating Marxism and socialist thought, and work to organize their fellow workers.

A talented girl is trying to find happiness amidst the Russian revolution of 1917 and the civil war that split the nation.

"The Theme" is a film that had to stay on the shelf for almost ten years because of its "theme". Mikhail Ulyanov plays Kim Yesenin, a disillusioned and cynical playwright who uses the system by writing the conformist plays and enjoys the benefits of being the officially recognized and appointed "great Soviet writer" but who in reality has been used by a system and spent all the talent he ever had in writing the plays that had no artistic value whatsoever. Bitter irony lies in the name of the character: Sergei Yesenin was a real life enormously talented, widely popular and beloved Russian poet who committed suicide at the age of 30 in 1925 because he could not fit in the Soviet Russia. Kim Yesenin in the movie suffers the writing block and arrives to the small provincial town with a friend and a young mistress in search of inspiration. He meets an attractive, intelligent and well educated museum guide named Sasha (Inna Churikova never looked so beautiful and sophisticated and I finally understood why Panfilov always had been fascinated by her face, never conventionally pretty) who used to be a big fan of his earlier works but has a lot of unflattering things to say about his officially praised outings. Sasha is in love with a talented historian who had made a very difficult and life changing decision to emigrate from the Soviet Union. He had lost his job by becoming a dissident and had to work as a gravedigger to support himself while waiting for permission to leave the country. Those who never had to emigrate from their country knowing that they might leave forever and never be allowed to go back to see their loved ones and the places dear to their heart again would not fully understand why Panfilov's film had to stay on the shelf for almost ten year after it was completed. It was released only during the "perestroika" in 1987 and I saw it then. I respect Panfilov for his siding with the real artists rejected by the system but his film is not only a courageous statement against the conformity suffocating cultural life under the Brezhnev regime which would be later called "period zastoya" or "stagnation", it is a memorable work of cinema with very good performances from his muse, Inna Churikova, Mikhail Ulyanov, and supporting cast.

A talented girl from the provincial Russian town Pasha Stroganova dreams of becoming an actress. She plays the role of Baba Yaga in the amateur theatre — and does it so organically that the visiting filmmaker offers her the most difficult role in the historical drama about Joan of Arc. She was given not only great acting talent, but the talent of deep, selfless love. A dream comes true: she is invited to the main role, and she begins a completely different life, full of real creative torment, insights and true happiness.