- Shot in pieces by the White Russian cinema community during their emigration to France, L'Angoissante Aventure is afascinating hybrid, reflecting the multifaceted talents of the first generations of Russian filmmakers and the path not taken by early Soviet cinema. Director Yakov Protazanov had already made a name for h…
- A Cult sci-fi comedy fom Uzbekistan, produced in 1991-1992. Uzbekistan had a reputation for its films when it was still part of the USSR. The international success of Abdulladzhan, or dedicated to Steven Spielberg (1992) proved that the Uzbek film industry was still viable even after its independence. The country's rep…
- The Land of Our Fathers is one of the outstanding Kazakh films of the Soviet epoch. Since it was shot during the Thaw, the director was able to portray truly national characters and their resistance to the Soviet ideology. This was indeed a bold decision on the part of the director, considering the possible repercussio…
- This is an interesting yet bizarre little tale of a fictional (as far as I know, anyway) experiment performed during the Stalin-controlled years in the USSR. The main character is changed from a woman into a man. This is part of a larger plan to change more women into men and have a stronger work-forcearmy, etc. It's a…
- Yugoslav Partizans, captured by Nazis, are sent to concentration camps in distant Norway. The local population help some Partizans survive or flee to neutral Sweden. Provoked by the brutal actions of German occupier and his quisling collaborators, Kjetil helps the Yugoslavs internated in Norway. It seems that the escap…
- This is a story of strange, impossible, inexplicable love between a Muslim Turk woman and a non-Muslim Bulgarian man. Ivan (the Bulgarian) is a pure and romantic young fellow, who gets caught up in the so-called "regeneration process" (when ethnic Turks' names were forcibly changed to Bulgarian ones). He is r…