Jane Sloan Media Librarian jsloan@rci.rutgers.edu June 2006

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Media Collections:
Feature Films Russia

This guide is a browsing aid to selected titles in the video/DVD collections at Rutgers Libraries. The most up-to-date, accurate, and complete information regarding the libraries' holdings is available only through IRIS, our online catalog.

Aelita 1991

A Moscow engineer designs a spaceship and travels to Mars to meet a woman who haunts his dreams. He succeeds, but finds himself embroiled in a Martian proletarian uprising.

1 videocassette (113 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5569

Aleksandr Nevskii Alexander Nevsky 2001

Biographical story of Prince Alexander Nevsky and his successful resistance against an attempt by the Teutonic Knights to invade Russia in 1242.

1 videodisc (108 min.)

MEDIA 10-300

Alexander Nevsky 198-

Historical drama set in 1242 which deals with the defence of Russia by the prince, Alexander Nevsky, from invasion by Teutonic crusaders.

1 videocassette (107 min.) :

MEDIA 2-105

Alexander Nevsky 1990

Historical drama set in 1242 which deals with the defence of Russia by the prince, Alexander Nevsky, from invasion by Teutonic crusaders.

1 videocassette (108 min.) :

MEDIA 2-105

Alexander Nevsky Aleksandr Nevskii 1987

Created as a propaganda piece in Stalinist Russia to raise the fears of the Russian populace about the threat of a German invasion, this artistic masterpiece by one of Russia's greatest directors tells the story of Russian folk hero Alexander Nevsky who united the peasants of Russia in 1242 to defeat invading Teutonic knights.

1 videocassette (110 min.) :

MUSIC 310

Andrei Rublev strasti po Andreiu 1998

Story of the famed 15th century icon painter who survives the cruelties of medieval Russia and creates works of art.

1 videodisc (205 min.) :

MEDIA 10-65

Anna Karenina 2000

The wife of an aging Russian aristocrat falls for a dashing cavalry officer.

2 videodiscs (145 min.)

MEDIA 10-253

Arsenal 197-

Provides a picture of life in the Ukraine in 1914 by intercutting scenes showing the miseries of the class struggle in the countryside and the horrors of war at the front.

1 videocassette (70 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1264

Awakening 1991

Examines the social, political, and religious issues of the Soviet Union, along with its long history of oppression.

1 videocassette (ca. 60 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1631

The Battleship Potemkin 1998

Re-creates the 1905 mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin." It focuses on a mutiny by the battleship's crew and the subsequent massacre of civilians, reflecting the spirit of the times.

1 videodisc (74 min.)

MEDIA 10-240

Bed and sofa 198

Depicts family life in Russia under the Five Year Plan by focusing on a Moscow family and their lodger during a housing crisis.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1292

Beloe solntse pustyni White sun of the desert 2003

A recently discharged soldier makes his way across the desert, seeking only to get to his native village. He happens to be in the area usually occupied by a bandit and his gang. The bandit has left, abandoning all the women connected with the gang, and it falls to the soldier to help them get to safety.

1 videodisc (85 min.)

MEDIA 10-377

Brat 2000

Danila returns from army service and looks up his older brother, who's become a contract killer in post-Soviet St. Petersburg. Danila is drawn into the violent underworld culture but retains a kind of honor in his dealings with those he encounters there.

1 videodisc (96 min.)

MEDIA 10-299

Brat 2 Brother 2 2000

Second film about a Russian "hero" Danila Bargov. He meets his army buddies with whom he fought in Chechnya. One of them, Konstantin, tells Danila about his brother, a professional hockey player in America, who is swindled into an oppressive contract by the team owner and his Russian partner. A few days after this conversation Konstantin is found dead and Danila needs to go to America to solve this crime.

1 videodisc (120 min.)

MEDIA 10-388

Chapayev 1987

Based on a biography by Dmitri Furmanov, a drama which depicts the exploits and battles of an individualistic Red Army officer during the Russian civil war of 1919.

1 videocassette (94 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1309

Chelovek s kino-apparatom 198-

Multi-leveled study of daily life in the Soviet Union. Enables the viewer to see the making of a film and at the same time the film that is being made. Noteworthy are the presence in the film of camera and cameraman, use of freeze frames, superimposures, trick shots.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-477

The Commissar 1988

In this drama set against the Russian Civil War, a tough Red Army commander's military career is disrupted by an unwanted pregnancy. Forced to stay with a poor Jewish family until her child is born, she finds herself transformed by the warmth and compassion of her hosts. She must ultimately decide whether to rejoin her troops or stay with her child.

1 videocassette (105 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2643

Dersu Uzala Dersou Ouzala 1994

An enthralling tale of an eccentric Mongolian frontiersman who is taken on as a guide by a Soviet surveying crew. At first perceived a naive and comical relic of an uncivilized age, he quickly proves himself otherwise with displays of ingenuity and bravery.

1 videocassette (140 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6008

Dom na peske 199-

A slice of life among the Russian intelligentsia on the eve of World War II. A bored group of friends plays a practical joke on their clique's outcast, sending her a letter from a supposed admirer hopelessly in love with her.

1 videocassette (75 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5044

Don Kikhot Don Quixote 1988

An old Spaniard becomes so impressed by stories of ancient chivalry that he transforms himself into a mighty knight-errant and takes up arms in defense of the weak and the oppressed. Considered one of the director's best.

1 videocassette (ca. 98 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 356 2-2394

The End of St. Petersburg 198

A view of changing conditions in Russia as interpreted by a young peasant who lived through the upheaval in St. Petersburg which culminated in revolution in 1917. Surveys the events of the war years, the overthrow of the Czarist regime, and the final establishment of the people's government - the transition from St. Petersburg to Leningrad.

1 videocassette (80 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1298

Genghis blues 1998

The story of blind blues singer Paul Pena and his triumpant trek to the forgotten land of Tuva, where he competes in a triennial throat singing contest.

1 videocassette (88 min.) :

JAZZ 376

Gorilla bathes at noon 2000

Examines the Soviet Union's collapse through the goofball misadventures of one Russian soldier stranded in East Berlin after the fall of the wall. Makavejev shows us part of the sea of change in Eastern Europe by following the absurdly optimistic Major Victor Borisovich after his entire army unit deserts.

1 videocassette (80 min.)

MEDIA 2-7218

IA-Kuba I am Cuba 1995

A series of vignettes illustrates the extremes of wealth and poverty, the exploitation, and the passions that led to the Cuban Revolution.

1 videocassette (141 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2837

The inspector general a comedy by N.V. Gogol 1996

A corrupt village incorrectly believes that a medicine-show entertainer is the omnipotent Inspector General in disguise.

1 videocassette (130 min.) :

DANA 1618

Ivan Groznyi Ivan the Terrible 2001

Part one is set in Moscow during the 16th century, Ivan Alexieff, Prince of Moscow, is crowned Tsar Ivan. This action puts him in direct opposition to all other royal families and Ivan finds himself isolated and alone in his attempt to centralize power under the crown. In Part two, Ivan returns to the throne after a self-imposed abdication to challenge the Boyars, Russia's corrupt aristocracy. Betrayed by his oldest friend and surrounded by murderous court intrigues, he resorts to summary executions to secure his throne.

2 videodiscs (184 min.)

MEDIA 10-301

Ivan the Terrible 1984?

Ivan, Grand Duke of Russia, is crowned as the first Czar of Russia. His struggles to preserve his country are the main concerns of the first part. The landed gentry of Russia conspire to dethrone Ivan in the second part.

2 videocassettes (118 min.) :

MEDIA. MEDIA 2-1217 cassette 1 2-1218 cassette 2

Ivanovo detstvo khudozhestvennyi fil m 1997

An orphan boy serves the Russian army by reconnoitering behind enemy lines during World War II.

1 videocassette (92 min.)

MEDIA 2-6631

King Lear (Russia, 1971) 1996

A dramatization of William Shakespeare's play in which tragedy occurs when an old king divides his kingdom between his daughters.

1 videocassette (ca. 140 min.) :

DANA 851

Kino-Pravda Enthusiasm 199-

Kino-Pravda (1922, 14 min., b&w) -- Enthusiasm (1931, 67 min., b&w)Kino-Pravda: Consists of a record of Soviet life edited into a unique genre of mixed documentary, animation and reviews and provides a record of the Revolution's social achievements. Enthusiasm: Celebrates the enthusiasm with which the peasants and miners of the Don River basin in Russia fulfilled their first five-year plan quotas following the October Revolution.

1 videocassette (81 min.) :

MEDIA D-452

Krug vtoroi The second circle 1992?

A young man travels to a frigid Siberian town and tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.

1 videocassette (92 in.)

MEDIA 2-6484

Larisa Larisa / Mosfilm USSR ; this film was created by E. Klimov ... [et al.] ; director, Elem Klimov ; writer, V. Rasputin 1996?

Tells the story of the life and creative work of Larisa Shepit ko, one of the most popular Soviet motion picture directors; features remembrances by colleagues and her husband, Elem Klimov.

1 videocassette (25 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5438

Letiat zhuravli The cranes are flying 2002

When Veronica's lover, Boris, goes to war, she moves in with Boris' family. His cousin seduces her and out of guilt she marrys him. Unhappy in her marriage and still in love with Boris she leaves her husband to wait for Boris to return. Later she learns Boris has been killed in the war.

1 videodisc (94 min.)

MEDIA 10-235

Little Vera 1988

The story of a sullen, sultry teenager with few goals in life who is trying to deal with a brooding boyfriend, an abusive alcoholic father, an ineffectual mother and the futility of a life trapped in her small industrial town.

1 videocassette (110 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1644

The Mirror 198-

Tarkovsky's looking glass is not merely cracked but shattered and we see the jagged, jumbled reflections of its shards, images of Tarkovsky's childhood mixed with fragments of his adult life--a child's wartime exile, a mother's experience with political terror, the breakup of a marriage, life in a country home--all intermingled with slow-motion dream sequences and chuncks of stark newsreels.

1 videocassette (106 min.) :

MEDIA 2-705

Mother 197-

Pudovkin's film of Maxim Gorky's novel about a heroic young revolutionary who, in the futile prewar revolution of 1905, gives his life fighting against the misery and poverty of Tsarist Russia and, in so doing, brings about his own mother's political awareness.

1 videocassette (ca. 75 min.)

MEDIA D-418

Oblomov 1992?

A comedic drama about a landed gentry of nineteenth-century Russia whose indolence destroys his life.

1 videocassette (145 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2018

October 1917 1990

This Russian epic details the events which culminated in the Russian Revolution of October 1917, using the actual locations and many actual participants.

1 videocassette (105 min.) :

DANA 539

October ten days that shook the world 1980

Depicts events of the Russian Revolution of October 1917. Describes the Kerensky regime and the European War, and discusses the conflicting plans and ambitions of various participants.

1 videocassettes (95 min.) :

MEDIA 2-147

Okraina 2004

A group of men fight injustice as they try to discover who stole their land. Their hunt for the offenders takes them from the gentle countryside to the halls of power.

1 videodisc (95 min.)

MEDIA 10-321

Peter the First 1986

Revolves around the war between Russia and Sweden over control of the Baltic Sea.

2 videocassettes (ca. 203 min.) :

MEDIA. MEDIA 2-995 cassette 1 2-996 cassette 2

Po zakonu By the law ; Shakhmatnaia goriachka = Chess fever 1997

Contents: By the law (80 min.) (1926) / director, Lev Kuleshov ; based upon "The unexpected," by Jack London -- Chess fever (28 min.) (1925) / directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Shpikovsky Soviet avant gardeBy the law: While searching for gold in the Yukon, a disgruntled prospector viciously murders two of his fellow shareholders. The surviving members must decide the fate of their deranged cohort. Chess fever: A Keaton-esque comedy in which a young man's passion for the game threatens to wreck his marriage.

1 videocassette (108 min.)

MEDIA 2-6574

Potemkin 1986

A dramatic reenactment of the mutiny aboard the Russian battleship potemkin in 1905.

1 videocassette (63 min.) :

MEDIA 2-149

Prince Igor 1985

1 videocassette (VHS) (109 min.) :

MUSIC 136

Repentance 1988

In a small, somewhat surreal Russian village, a mysterious woman is put on trial for repeatedly digging up the body of Varlam, the town's recently deceased ruler. The trial progresses, and it's learned that the woman's parents perished under Varlam's vicious reign of terror.

1 videocassette (151 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1258

Russian ark 2003

A modern filmmaker magically finds himself transported to the 18th century where he embarks on a time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history. The first feature film ever created in a single take.

1 videodisc (96 min.)

MEDIA 10-239

The Sea gull 198-

A study of the languid melancholia of the residents of an isolated country estate in provincial Russia.

1 videocassette (VHS) (99 min.) :

DOUGLASS. MEDIA 75 2-1254

The Sea gull Chaika 1986?

A study of the languid melancholia of the residents of an isolated country estate in 19th century provincial Russia.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

DANA 340

Shadows of forgotten ancestors Tini zabutykh predkiv 1994

The heartbreaking story of Ivan and Marichka, whose love blooms, only to brutally die, in the remote Carpathian Mountains of medieval Russia.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

DANA 540

Siberiade 1994

An epic romantic drama about three generations of two feuding families, the rich Solomins and the poor Ustyuzhanins, of a rural Siberian village, from the time of the Russian Revolution to the present-day exploration of hidden resources of Siberian soil.

2 videocassettes (206 min.)

MEDIA 2-6579, 2-6580

A Slave of love Raba liubvi 1989

The year is 1917 and the Bolsheviks have taken control of northern Russia. But in southern Crimea, where the White Army is still in control, a small film crew is hurrying to finish a frivolously melodramatic silent picture. The beautiful star, Olga, falls in love with the cameraman, a revolutionary, and through him Olga is drawn into the Bolshevik underground and becomes passionate about her political involvement.

1 videocassette (94 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1949

Stalingrad 1998

This film features the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare - the legendary battle of Stalingrad.

1 videodisc (150 min.)

MEDIA 10-287

Strike Stachka 198

Set in pre-World War I Tsarist Russia, the story depicts a strike by factory workers and its brutal suppression by the authorities. The hero and principal character is the mass of workers.

1 videocassette (90 min.) :

MEDIA 2-1296

The Tsar's bride 1985

1 videocassette (VHS) (96 min.) :

MUSIC 131

Un nouveau russe Tycoon 2004

During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.

1 videocassette (123 min.)

MEDIA 2-6642

Uvlechen ia 2000

Bizarre, idiosyncratic characters are all connected to the world of horse racing where sporting intrigues interlace with love affairs.

1 videodisc (112 min.)

MEDIA 10-318

Veselye rebiata muzykal naia kino-komediia = The world is laughing 1996

A musical comedy which pits a whip-cracking, animal-herding, good-hearted rustic with a fine voice and a Pan-like effect on all who hear him against a so-called "finer" stratum of society. Leaving a trail of mirth and mayhem from the seaside to the Moscow theater world, our hero eventually finds harmony and lifelong melody with a pretty, tuneful serving girl.

1 videocassette (93 min.)

MEDIA 2-6644

Volga, Volga muzykal naia komedia = Wolga, Wolga 1996

Love story in which the boy and girl quarrel over whether his classical music performance or her folk music performance will win the Moscow amateur talent show.

1 videocassette (90 min.)

MEDIA 2-6392

Vor The thief 1999

A tale of passion, betrayal and innocence lost, as seen through the eyes of an impressionable young boy. Set in post-World War II Russia.

1 videodisc (ca. 94 min.)

MEDIA 10-310

Zhestokii romans 2000

Laria Ogudalova, the heroine, loses security in marriage and even life for love.

2 videodiscs (145 min.)

MEDIA 10-243