June 9–July 9

 Films will be shown Monday and Wednesday evenings, beginning at 7:30 p.m., in the Illini Tower's tenth floor lounge. All films have English subtitles.

 

Monday, June 9

EAST/WEST (Russia/ France, 2000, 125 min)

Director: Régis Wargnier           

Cast: Serguei Bodrov Jr., Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve, Oleg Menchikov

At the end of the war, Stalin invited Russians who fled the country to return. The talented young doctor Alexei Golovine, accompanied by his French bride, the beautiful Marie, and their son, optimistically returns to the Soviet Union. Their arrival is a rude one. Interrogations are followed by the grim reality of the post-war Soviet Union: shared apartments, suspicious neighbors and lack of privacy. Marie soon starts to rebel against the circumstances, but her husband finds that his talents are needed and appreciated by the authorities, so he starts to get ahead. Marie meets up with a touring French actress and soon faces a terrifying choice: to leave her husband and child for freedom, or stay and confront a grim future.

 

Wednesday, June 11

RUSSIAN ARK (Russia, 2002, 96 min)

Director: Alexander Sokurov

Cast: Sergei Dreiden, Maria Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy

This cinematic tour-de-force follows a modern filmmaker who magically finds himself transported to the 18th century. There, he embarks on a time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history. Filmed with a cast of thousands, three live orchestras and an army of technicians, Russian Ark is the longest uninterrupted shot in film history, and the first feature film ever created in a single take.

 

Monday, June 16

LOVE FILM (Hugary, 1970, 123 min)

Director: Istvan Szabo

Cast: Judit Halasz, Andras Balint, Edit Kelemen, Andras Szamosfalvi

As children in pre-WWII Budapest, Jansci and Kata are inseparable. Every schoolyard challenge and capricious adult expectation they face together only serves to strengthen their bond. But later, the misery and upheaval that arrives in the wake of the invading Nazi army succeeds in separating them. Reunited as teenagers, love ignites between the two just in time for the riots, insurrection and occupation that tore Hungary apart in the mid-fifties. Rejecting Communist rule, Kata emigrates to France while Jansci chooses to remain in Budapest. Their lengthy correspondence culminates in Jansci’s visit to Kata’s home in Lyon. Reunited as adults, they must unpack their mutual fascination with their shared past and each other in order to discover whether the courses their lives take will keep them together or force them apart.

 

Wednesday, June 18

TYCOON (Russia, 2002, 128 min)

Director: Pavel Lounguine         

Cast: Vladimir Mahkov, Andrei Krasko, Maria Mironova, Sergei Oshkevich

A stylish, slick crime drama based on the life of notorious billionaire Boris Berezovsky, Tycoon follows the life of Plato Makovski, a renegade Russian entrepreneur whose seductive and brutal climb to the top in the post-Soviet era flourishes as the line between business, crime, and politics breaks down. Opening with Plat’s assassination by car bomb, an investigation of his life through flashbacks involving a vivid array of gangsters, mistresses, childhood friends, idealistic intellectuals and trigger-happy veterans offers an inside view of a country in which gangsters and greedy politicians conspire to rub out their enemies. Building a media empire, Plato uses his genius to become a monster, unhesitatingly sacrificing his ideals and closest friends until he topples.

Monday, June 23

THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Germany, 2007, 138 min)

Director: Florian von Donnersmarck

Cast: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch

Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police, or Stasi. Only a few citizens above suspicion, like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman, were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg’s stunning actress girlfriend, Christa, an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer’s apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. Now, what the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives—as well as his—in this seductive political thriller.

 

Wednesday, June 25

KIDNAPPING CAUCASIAN STYLE, OR SHURIK’S NEW ADVENTURES (Russia, 1966, 82 min)

Director: Leonid Gaidai                   

Cast: Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Varley, Ruslan Akhmetov, Yuri Nikulin

Gullible naïf Shurik goes to the Caucasus Mountains in search of native folk tales and legends, but finds instead a local gang who, through the liberal application of alcohol and lies, convinces him to kidnap a local beauty for the regional overlord as “a re-enactment of a Caucasian legend”. When he realizes his mistake, Shurik sets out to get the girl back and make things right.

 

Monday, June 30

KOSOVO: OF BLOOD AND HISTORY (2005, 41 min)

To fully understand the recent bloodshed in Kosovo, one must go back 600 years and trace the causes of the undying hatreds that permeate Serbia and the surrounding region. Using eyewitness accounts, maps, and footage both of historic events and of Serbian life, this program examines the ethnic nationalism and religious extremism that have resulted in the long-standing hatred between Serbia and Kosovar Albanians—a hatred that continues to destabilize the Balkans during the Milosevic regime.

 

Wednesday, July 2

HOUSE OF FOOLS (Russia, 2003, 108 min)

Director: Andrei Konchalovsky                                               

Cast: Julia Vysotsky, Sultan Islamov, Stanislav Varkki

As a war led by local rebels surrounds their tranquil heaven, the patients of a small psychiatric hospital blissfully remain cut off from the raging conflict. But problems ensue as the medical staff abandons the hospital, leaving the residents to fend for themselves. Zhanna, a beautiful young patient, takes it upon herself to organize the hapless group as best she can- entertaining them with her accordion and dreaming of the day when her imaginary fiancé, pop musician Bryan Adams, will arrive to whisk her off to a better life.

 

Monday, July 7

ALEXANDER NEVSKY (Russia, 1938 [1993 soundtrack],110 min)

The Soviet Union’s most eminent film director, Sergei Eisenstein, and its most remarkable composer, Sergei Prokofiev, were asked by Stalin to make a “film with a purpose” outlining the threat of the German invasion. These two geniuses, knowing their task was to make a popular film, used the historical tale of one of Russia’s great heroes, the 13th century warrior-prince popularly known as Alexander Nevsky. The film had some of the most thrilling battle scenes ever made. Fifty years later, this film was remade with a full symphonic orchestra and chorus.

Wednesday, July 9

CITIZEN VACLAV HAVEL (77 min)

Directors: Jan and Adam Novak

This documentary recreates a trip around Czechoslovakia that its future president Vaclav Havel took in 1985 when he was still the country’s most prominent dissident. In the course of one week, he was twice thrown into jail for 48 hours of preventative detention and followed by over 300 plain clothed policemen, who would helpfully point out the right way whenever he got lost. Contrasted with authentic Czech TV news of the period, the stories of Havel and his dissident hosts show that you can live a great life even under the staggering pressure of a totalitarian juggernaut.

 

 

 

 

2007 Film Series