RUSSIA
Postcolonialism or not?
Aleksei Balabanov's
Reka (The River, 2002)
Balabanov's most recent hits have led to him being branded a nationalist. But with Reka, as Lars Kristensen explains, he seeks to give a voice to the indigenous people of the remote Russian region of Yakutia.
From the archive
RUSSIA
He came, he saw...
An overview of Elem Klimov's career
Working first in comedy and then tragedy, Klimov was always in trouble with the regime for his films—so much so, his fellow directors trusted him to restructure the industry when the USSR's demise seemed imminent. Josephine Woll charts the director's journey from film-maker to administrator.
RUSSIA
A stubborn quest for historical truth
Aleksei German interviewed
Although active in the film industry for over 40 years, German has shot just six features. His slender output, though, is matched by an obsessive interest in finding the soul in the eras he portrays, and Moi drug Ivan Lapshin was once voted the best Soviet film of all time. Kinoeye presents a classic interview by Ronald Holloway, conducted with the controversial director in 1988.
LITHUANIA
The will to survive
Lithuanian film surveyed
at the Karlovy Vary film festival
Lithuanian film was forged between the conflicting forces of Soviet centralism and national identity. George Clark examines how the country has produced a cinematic tradition that captures the tensions of modern society.
RUSSIA
The boy from out there
Olga Stolpovskaia and Dmitry Troitsky's Ia liubliu tebia
(You I Love, 2004)
Ia liubliu tebia tries to be modern and breezily open about homosexuality. But, as Andrew James Horton discovers, its attitude to its Kalmyk hero is more stuffily conservative.
From the archive
