Apart from ‘enemy at the gates’ is there any good films about my favourite country, Russia?
Hmmm, the collected films of Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Sergei Paradjanov are a good place to start. Highlights include Strike, Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, Andrei Rublev, Stalker and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Other classics:
Earth (Dovzhenko)
The Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov)
The Ballad of a Soldier (Chukhrai)
Come and See (Klimov)
The last film in particular is as powerful as WWII movie as you’ll ever see–leagues better than Enemy.
“Enemy at the Gates” is hardly about Russia.
If you’re looking for movies *set[/] in Russia, or with Russian themes/characters, how about:
*Gorky Park
War and Peace
Reds
The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming * (yes, I know it’s set on an submarine and in the American northeast, but it’s one one the few fine comedies you will find about Russians)
I also reccommend the TV series, The World at War.
Ditto the films of Eisenstein.
Dr. Zivago (sp)
Gah! Are there any good films about Russia.
All films that can be bought and how about the fall of berlin? Can I get that film from amazon( I want it because it is soviet propaganda)
Check out Burnt by the Sun. It won the Oscar for best foreign language picture in either '94 or '95. It deals with the period right before WWII, during Stalin’s excesses, and it’s very sad.
Two silent documentaries from the early 1930’s:
Let’s not forget about Solaris
Dr. Zhivago
It’s Doctor Zhivago
Also, Onegin, Catherine the Great, and Rasputin: the Dark Servant.
Whatever you do, avoid Nicholas and Alexandra like the plague. A travesty!
SInce no one has mentioned it: Fiddler on the Roof. Its not a bad movie, based on a popular play. It deals, of course, with the Jewish subset of the Russian population, and takes place in the time period set a bit before 1917.
I have to agree with Dr. Zhivago.
I’d also suggest one of the most beautiful films ever made, Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzula.