Feb 28 2024
The 1973 animation Fox and Rabbit (Лиса и заяц) was Yuri Norstein’s debut as an exclusive director. In keeping with Norstein’s most beloved animation techniques, it is made with wonderful cut-outs and has that signature Norstein earthy feel, brimming with folksy forest animals and seasonal motifs. Based on a Russian folk tale, it is the …
Feb 07 2024
A boy wakes beneath a tree, walks through grass glittering with sunlight, follows a butterfly, and hears his mother’s voice. For a few moments, the world seems untouched by violence. Then the dream ends, and twelve-year-old Ivan is back in the darkness of war. That movement between childhood and destruction lies at the heart of …
Jan 24 2024
A rusted railway track disappears into weeds. Water drips through abandoned buildings. Telephone poles stand in landscapes where nobody seems to need electricity. A dog appears without explanation. Three men walk toward a room that may grant their deepest desires, yet the closer they get to it, the less certain they become that they want …
Jan 03 2024
A man carrying a lit candle tries to cross an empty thermal pool. He moves slowly, shielding the flame with his hand as though the survival of something much larger depends upon keeping this tiny light alive. Twice the candle goes out. Each time he returns to the beginning and starts again. Few scenes summarize …
Nov 22 2023
A man rises above medieval Russia in a primitive flying machine, suspended beneath a great balloon while fields, rivers, churches, and tiny human figures spread beneath him. For a few astonishing moments, he sees the world from a perspective nobody around him is supposed to possess. Then the flight ends violently. Andrei Tarkovsky begins Andrei …
Apr 19 2023
This wonderfully illustrated 1968 Russian animation is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. It begins with a Copenhagen tour guide’s introduction to Andersen’s story, and unfolds to show us the rest of the story, which is not quite the same as the Disney version. As is often the case with re-imagined fairy tales, the older tale …
Mar 15 2023
Tales of Tales (Сказка сказок), also titled The Little Grey Wolf Will Come, was the first Soviet animation that I ever remember seeing, and for years I would return to this mysterious film, intermittently, in awe and wonder, taking in the magic and trying to piece together the different parts. Then I watched more Yuri …
Dec 21 2022
The Night Before Christmas (1951) was directed by the prolific Soviet animation duo of Valentina Brumberg and Zinaida Brumberg, who were also known as the “Brumberg sisters” as well as the “grandmothers of Russian animation.” Some of their most well known films are Little Red Riding Hood and Ivashka and Baba-Yaga. Not your typical Christmas story, it begins …
Nov 16 2022
Made in 1928, Samoyed Boy was one of the first films directed by the Brumberg sisters, along with directors Nikolai Khodataev and Olga Chodatajewa. It is the story of a boy who fights corruption in his village, then goes on to study in Moscow. It may be best known for its innovative animation; the mesmerizing waves are stunning …
Sep 14 2022
Between 1966 and1967, writer and director Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace (Война и мир) was released in four parts; a seven-hour-plus long adaptation of Tolstoy’s epic novel depicting the lives of several aristocratic families during the time of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. The stunningly beautiful film skillfully portrays personal stories amidst the political backdrop. Highly …
