Moscow International Film Festival

Programmes


Socialist Avant-gardizm. Part 2

Once upon a time at night (omnibus “Our Girls”) // Odnazhdi nochyu
Soviet Union, 1943, 30 min.

Director: Grigory Kozintsev
Cast: Nina Petropavlovskaya, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Aleksandr Yachnitsky, Yury Bogolubov

The second novella in the battle collection «Our Girls». Realizing that one of the two pilots, who pay a late night visit to her house, is a wrecker the kolkhoz laboratory assistant announces that she has poisoned them. The wrecker gives himself away by his cowardly behavior.

Young Fritz, The // Iunyi Frits
Soviet Union, 1943, 29 min.

Director: Grigory Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg
Cast: Mikhail Zharov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Astangov, N.Visotsky, Lidiya Atmanaki, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Konstantin Sorokin, Ludmila Shebalina

A propaganda sketch (satirical pamphlet) based on Samuil Marshak’s eponymous poem about the education of «a true fascist» featuring artificial sets and artificial characters.

Wind, The // Veter
Soviet Union, 1958, 100 min.

Director: Aleksandr Alov, Vladimir Naumov
Cast: Eduard Bredun, Tamara Loginova, Elza Lezhdey, Aleksandr Demyanenko

The civil war. A small southern town is occupied by the White Guard. A bunch of young people set off on a long journey to take part in the first All-Russia congress of the Union of young workers and peasants. The three youths – the young Bolshevik Fyodor, the secondary school student Mitya and the young worker Nastia – travel to Moscow. On the way they are joined by two more people, the girl Mari and the homeless guy Okurok. A long and difficult road lies ahead of them…

State functionary // Gosuderstvenny chinovnik
Soviet Union, 1930, 88 min.

Director: Ivan Pyryev
Cast: Maksim Shtraukh, Lidiya Nenasheva, Naum Rogozhin, Leonid Yurenev, Aleksander Antonov

The management of a certain railway line employs a cashier named Apollon Fokin. The leader of a gang of saboteurs arranges an attack on the cashier. Fokin offers resistance while the bag with the money, unnoticed, end up under the stairs. It is found by the cashier’s wife, thus offering him a chance to appropriate the money…

Ten steps to the east // Desyat shagov k vostoku
Soviet Union, 1960, 60 min.

Director: V.Zak, Khangeldi Agakhanov
Cast: Artyk Dzhallyev, Aman Kulmamedov, Evgeny Markov, Feliks Yavorsky

An adventure thriller about the search for wreckers hiding in the old Turkmen fortress of «Kum-Basan-Kala».

At Great Cost // Dorogoy tsenoy
Soviet Union, 1957, 97 min.

Director: Mark Donskoy
Cast: Vera Donskaya, Yury Dedovich, Ivan Tverdokhleb, Olga Petrova

Drama based on the novella by M.Kotsybinsky. The 1730s. At the master’s order the peasant girl Solomia is married off to a gaiduk. Her beloved escapes to the other bank of the Dunai, and Solomia follows him running away from the wedding. Ostap is wounded by a stray bullet, so they have to hide in the reeds until days later the are rescued by the Gypsies. There will be another unequal battle, Solomia will die, but the time will come when Ostap tells the story of his unextinguished love.

Lenin in Paris // Lenin v Parizhe
Soviet Union, 1981, 102 min.

Director: Sergey Yutkevich
Cast: Yury Kayurov, Valentina Svetlova, Claude Jade, Pavel Kadochnikov

1911. In a small town of Longjumeau near Paris Lenin sets up the first Bolshevik party school. A series of historical parallels and allusions connects this time period with the events of the Commune of Paris, the October revolution and the post-revolutionary political struggle

Believe it or not // Nebyvalshchina
Soviet Union, 1983, 82 min.

Director: Sergey Ovcharov
Cast: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Aleksey Buldakov, Sergey Bekhterev, Nina Usatova, Igor Ivanov, Vyacheslav Polunin

Musical folk comedy / comic fairy spectacle based on V.Shishkov’s short story «Divers» as well as Russian legends, songs, chastooshkas and fairy tales. The protagonists are traditional characters from Russian folk tales: the smart soldier, the optimistic Neznam, the hard working peasant Bobyl.

One of us // Odin iz nas
Soviet Union, 1970, 106 min.

Director: Gennady Poloka
Cast: Georgy Yumatov, Dmitry Masanov, Valentin Grachev, Nikolay Grinko, Fedor Nikitin, Tamara Semina, Ludmila Gurchenko

April 1941. The NKVD sends cavalry commander Sergei Biryukov to the plant. He must find out all about the plans of the group, which is working under the protection of the German embassy. As it turns out, it was a good choice. Biryukov contacts the fascist spy Keller, easily deals away with his agents Stepanov and Ivanov and then with Keller himself. Half an hour before the explosion he learns that the attack is scheduled for the 21st on June…

First Russians, The // Pervorossiyane
Soviet Union, 1967, 97 min.

Director: Aleksandr Ivanov
Cast: Vladimir Chesnokov, Vladimir Zamansky, Larisa Danilina, Inna Kondratieva, Ivan Krasko

Optimistic drama based on Olga Gerggolts’s poem «Pervorossiisk» about the workers from Narvaskaya Zastava in Petrograd who came to Altai in 1918 to set up the first farming commune.

Ghost That Never Returns, The // Prividenie, kotoroe ne vozvrashchaetsya
Soviet Union, 1929, 70 min.

Director: Abram Room
Cast: Boris Ferdinandov, Olga Zhizneva, Maksim Shtraukh, Leonid Yurenev

Drama based on Henri Barbusse’s novella «Le rendez-vous qui n’a pas eu lieu». The events take place in a certain South African republic. The leader of the revolutionary movement of oil prospectors Jose Real is sentenced to life imprisonment and after serving ten years he is awarded «24 hours of freedom» to meet his family. Joze is shadowed by a police agent who was instructed to kill Jose. At the last moment workers rise to the defense of the revolutionary leader…

Save the drowning man // Spasite utopayushchego
Soviet Union, 1967, 72 min.

Director: Pavel Arsenov
Cast: Andrey Ushakov, Lenya Karasev, Egor Dyakov, Georgy Vitsyn, Mikhail Derzhavin, Aleksandr Shirvindt

The pioneer Andrei Vasilkov decided to become a hero and before the eyes of Czech tourists he «saved» Gulka, who could not swim. He had thoughtfully cut a hole in the bottom of the boat to drop into the water at the right moment. So now Andrei speaks at meetings, shares his experience, off ers advice… At the town water festival the «hero» who is already tired of the humdrum, avows that there was no heroic deed. Then Gulka makes a high dive, followed by Vasilkov….

Stones fall here // Khabarda
Soviet Union, 1931, 66 min.

Director: Mikheil Chiaureli
Cast: S.Zavriev, P.Chkonya, Sh. Asatiani, S.Vacnadze, Nikolay Gotsiridze

The late 1920s. The Tifl is executive council takes the decision to reorganize a district starting with the demolition of an old unremarkable church. The petty bourgeoisie rise to the defense of the historical monument. Komsomol members promptly carry out the decision of the authorities. To the utter bafflement of the defenders of the church, a plaque is discovered in its foundation bearing the inscription which contradicts the information known to the truth seekers.

Bread // Khleb
Soviet Union, 1930, 38 min.

Director: Nikolay Shpikovsky
Cast: S. Smirnova, Luka Lyashenko, Fedor Gamaley, Dmitry Kapka, A.Korneva

An epic about the struggle for the socialist reorganization of the Ukrainian village waged by red army soldiers who had come back from the war. Released on 04.03.1930 and immediately withdrawn from theatres.

Clean Ponds // Chistye prudy
Soviet Union, 1965, 80 min.

Director: Aleksey Sakharov
Cast: Aleksandr Zbruev, Yevgeniya Filonova, Tamara Syomina, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Nikolay Kryuchkov, Nina Menshikova, Vyacheslav Nevinny

Poetic portrayal of the young generation of the pre-war and war times. Four best friends – Serezha, Nina, Oska and Zhenya – spent all their school childhood on Clean Ponds. But now the school is finished, and in their favorite arbor they share their dreams of the future, swear allegiance to each other, but they don’t know that tomorrow there will be a war and they will be forced to share parts in terrible events...

Miracle woman // Chudesnitsa
Soviet Union, 1936, 81 min.

Director: Aleksandr Medvedkin
Cast: Zinaida Bokareva, S.Bulaevsky, V.Smetana-Tolstova, E.Ibragimova-Dobrzhanskaya

After much hesitation workers of the farming cooperative «White Sands» challenge the kolkhoz «Dawn of Victory» to a socialist competition. The kolkhoz has won the red banner in the district for the fourth consecutive year. The milkmaid Varvara asks old Uliana, the best witch in the village, to cast a spell on her cows. In the meantime Zinka, the granddaughter of the chairman of the kolkhoz, pleads with her grandfather to make her a milkmaid. Zinka shows excellent results and her kolkhoz gets the banner. The «miracle woman» is summoned to Moscow to take part in the congress of shock-workers.

Our Fathers' Youth // Yunost nashikh otsov
Soviet Union, 1958, 86 min.

Director: Mikhail Kalik, Boris Rytsarev
Cast: Aleksandr Kutepov, Georgy Yumatov, Inna Vykhodtseva, Nikolay Kruchkov

A heroic movie novella based on A.Fadeev’s novel Razgrom / The Nineteen.