20th Century Flicks, Bristol

SPUTNIK (2020)

Certification15 Our Rating

At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander's mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him. Set in an intriguingly nostalgic feeling USSR of the 80s, "Sputnik" is a slow-paced, but increasingly intense story that manages to make you think a bit. The characters are nuanced, the plo find out more...

STALKER (1979)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Based on the novel "Roadside Picnic" by Arcady and Boris Strugatsky. The Stalker guides the Professor and the Writer across the Zone, a forbidden territory deep inside a police state, toward the Room, in a nihilistic, journey to the heart of darkness. find out more...

STRIKE (1924)

Certification15 Our Rating

The first of Eisenstein's classic series of films. The story of a revolt in a factory and its murderous suppression contains all the elements that went into his later films - the crowd masses, the mosaic of detail, the caricatures, faces of love, breathless montage and ferocious images of cruelty. find out more...

TANGERINES (2013)

Certification15 Our Rating

War in Georgia, Apkhazeti region in 1990. An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.

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THE BANISHMENT (2007)

Certification12 Our Rating

Having left the city, Alex and Vera set up home with their children in a remote but idyllic-seeming country house. But then one day Vera makes a shocking confession, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to tragedy. The Banishment is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of an unravelling marriage loosely based on a short story by American novelist William Saroyan. A stunningly shot film about male pride, morality and betrayal. find out more...

THE BARBER OF SIBERIA (1998)

Certification12 Our Rating

In 1885 a foreign entrepreneur ventures to Russia with dreams of selling a new, experimental steam-driven timber-harvester, named 'The Barber', in the wilds of Siberia. An American falls in love a young Russian officer she has met in Moscow, and spends the next 10 years pursuing her love, who has been exiled there. Lots of drunken Generals, dancing bears, cadets fighting Pushkin-like duels, postcard imagery of the grandest Moscow buildings, and shots of the untamed Siberian landscape - this is M find out more...

THE CONCERT (2009)

Certification15 Our Rating

30 years after losing his job as conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra (for hiring Jews) and now a cleaner, Andrei Filipov discovers an invite from the Ch'telet Theater in Paris for the Bolshoi to perform there. Hiding the message he gathers all his old hands together and sets off to do the show.
A mad cap comedy drama with a top notch classical music soundtrack. find out more...

THE CRANES ARE FLYING (1957)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Set during WW2; Veronica is madly in love with her fianc�, Boris, who departs for the front to do his patriotic duty. The story unravels to depict a poignant portrayal of blameless individuals doing their best to survive the travails of tragedy and hardship in the face of such an all consuming conflict. The compelling narrative is complemented by stunning black and white cinematography and the film deservedly won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1958, reintroducing Soviet cinema to the Western world. find out more...

THE CUCKOO (2004)

Certification12 Our Rating

Following his escape from his Nazi captors, a Finnish sniper struggles through no-man's-land as he attempt to find the required tools to remove his heavy shackles. He happens upon a farm where a war widow is tending a wounded deserter from the Red Army and so begins a perceptive and thoughtful human drama. find out more...

THE ISLAND (2006)

CertificationPG Our Rating

Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future. —Anonymous

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THE ITALIAN (2005)

Certification12 Our Rating

A young boy, Vanya, lives in a rundown and corrupt orphanage in a remote Russian village, where the kids dream of being adopted/sold to a wealthy foreigner, even at the possible risk of being dissected for spare parts. But, when the biological mother of an already sold child turns up looking for her son, Vanya decides to uncover his own real identity. The 6-year-old makes a sterling getaway and sets off, pursued by child sellers, for the orphanage of his birth. Charles Dickens does 'The Vanya Id find out more...

THE RETURN (2003)

Certification12 Our Rating

Andrey and Vanya are two young boys growing up alone with their mother. There is a solidarity to the family, a closeness born out of hardship and emotional dependence, but it is the re-appearance of their father after over a decade's absence that will prove the lads greatest test of brotherhood. Reluctantly allowed on a fishing trip with their new found father, what should have been an exercise in family bonding becomes a tortuous and punishing journey of discovery. "The Return" is a thriller th find out more...

THE THIEF (RUSSIAN) (1998)

Certification15 Our Rating

Set in post-war Russia, and nominated for the 1998 Academy Awards. A young widow, Katya, and her young son Sanya, meet a handsome young army officer, Tolyan, and set up home together posing as a family. Travelling from town to town, the trio rent rooms where, to Katya's initial surprise, Tolyan robs their fellow tenants. Meanwhile the unscrupulous Tolyan becomes something of an icon to the bewildered but fascinated young Sanya, through whose eyes the story is told. Touching yet unsentimental. find out more...

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TO GET TO HEAVEN FIRST YOU HAVE TO DIE (2006)

Certification15 Our Rating

Kamal, 20 years old, can't have sexual intercourse with women although he is married. He goes to the big city and notices beautiful Vera, whom he follows round town. Will his partnership with her husband, a mafia thug, help him become a man ? —anonymous

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TULPAN (2008)

Certification12 Our Rating

Asa's sister is married to a tough nomadic herdsman who lives on the sun-baked Kazakh steppes and it is to there that Asa heads to attempt to find a wife and a life. Tulpan is the only available girl for hundreds of miles and so it is to her that he makes a beeline.
A sympathetic portrayal both of the dying nomadic lifestyle on the Kazakh steppes and of Asa as we follow the realisation, disenchantment and rebirth of his dreams. find out more...

WAR AND PEACE: DISC 1 (1966)

CertificationPG Our Rating

This Russian version of Tolstoys War and peace is more faithful to the novel than the 1956 Hollywood version. More than this it is also the most expensive movie ever made and every rubel shows on screen! With more than 10 000 extras and 300 speaking parts director Sergei Bondarchuk recreates every aspect of Tolstoys classic. Most noticeable are the scenes of Natashas first ball, the battle of Borodino and the burning of Moscow. Bondarchuk rendition is on such a grand scale that you actually b find out more...

WHITE TIGER (2012)

Certification12 Our Rating

Set at the fierce height of the conflict in WW2, amidst the brutal winter of the Eastern Front, a war-ravaged hero sets out on a perilous mission to confront the legendary White Tiger . After barely surviving a battle with the mysterious, ghostly-white Tiger tank that has devastated the artillery corps under his command, Red Army Sergeant Ivan Naydenov becomes obsessed with the war-machine s destruction. This find out more...