Adapted from four different Russian folk-tales, this early Soviet fantasy film tells the story of Emelya the Fool, who, fishing one day, catches a talking pike who pleads for his life and in return grants Emelya wishes for a life spared.
My Universities (Moi universiteti) is the last installment of Russian director Mark Donskoy's "Maxim Gorki" trilogy. Having endured a painful youth in My Childhood and a torturous sojourn as a serf in My Apprenticeship, future writer Gorki reaches maturity with an insatiable desire for personal and artistic freedom. The "university" of the title is actual the school of Hard Knocks, as Gorky goes to work in the shipyards and commisserates with the hard-drinking, philosophical dockworkers.
Young Maxim grows up under the czarist regime with his grandparents as guardians. Continually demeaned by his martinet grandfather, Maxim is drawn to his warm-hearted grandmother, who instills in him the willingness to pursue his writing muse.
A beautiful maiden, Marya Morevna, gives her prospective husband, the mighty warrior Nikita Kozhemyaka, three riddles to solve before she'll marry him. Before he can tell her the answers, the Russian land is invaded by the armies of Kashchei the Immortal, in whose footsteps death and destruction follow. Marya is abducted by Kashchei, and Nikita finds his home in ashes. Nikita meets a kindly wizard who gives him a cap of darkness. With it, the hero will find a way to save his bride and rout Kashchei.
Based on a Russian folk tale, Vasilisa Prekrasnaya (Vasilisa the Beautiful) is about a father whose three sons go out to finds themselves brides. Two of the boys come home with perfectly normal girls, but the youngest brother, Ivanushka, brings home a frog from the marshes. His father finds this most curious, but what he does not know was that the frog was actually a beautiful girl named Vasilisa who was cursed by a magical serpent whom she refused to marry. Now Ivanushka must overcome tremendous obstacles to restore Vasilisa to her true form and free her from the serpent's spell.
A classic movie based on a famous "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen" novel by Jules Verne.
The true story of one of Russia's most beloved national heroines. During the Nazi siege of Moscow, a fearless 18-year-old girl named Zoya risked her life as a partisan fighter. Captured by the Germans, Zoya endured unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Gestapo but still refused to betray her comrades. Even on the gallows, Zoya defiantly spoke out against the Nazis and everything they stood for. In a series of flashbacks, this film re-creates not merely Zoya's death, but also her life.
The film is about the Soviet youth who fearlessly fight in the years of the Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invaders in the German-occupied Donbass and continue the work of their fathers, who in their time defended the Soviet Union.
Two young boys strive to save the life of an officer trapped by the White Russians. Their efforts are both comic and dramatic
A story about two teenagers and their life during WWII in Urals district of Russia.
An adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" with drastic changes to the plot. A group of English rebels searches for pirate's treasures to buy weapons for the civil war.
A life-long story of a romantic school teacher who left imperial St. Petersburg for teaching country children. Driven by noble intentions to enlighten people and examples by 1880s revolutionary "People's Will" member teachers, a young woman spent her life in a village and evidenced the changes a Russian village has undergone from pre-revolutionary tsarist times to late 1940s.
A story of heroic Russian war cruiser 'Varyag'.
Woven around the daily lives of two children, nine-year-old Nastenka and five-year-old Katia, this is a story of the 17 months' siege of Leningrad and of the people and families shattered by the war, their homes bombed and destroyed, their lives in a constant anticipation of the advancing German army and air raids.
The film is about the exploit of a nineteen-year-old soldier of the Great Patriotic War - Alexander Matrosov, who covered the embrasure of the enemy's bunker with his body.
Chronicle of the life of Russian poet Michail Lermontov, from the final days of Alexandr Pushkin to the fatal destiny of the poet himself.
The New Adventures of Schweik adopted to the WWII reality.
A story about a young boy Timur and his team who are living in a small Moscow suburb during the years before WWII.
