"Grown Ups" is about five men who were best friends when they were young kids and now are getting together for the Fourth of July weekend to meet each others' families for the first time. Picking up where they left off, they discover why growing older doesn't mean growing up
Cast: Adam Sandler, Salma Hayek, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider
Director: Dennis Dugan
Producer: Adam Sandler
When asked in an interview whether he ever intended to return to his Motherland, Joseph Brodsky replied: “Such a journey could only take place anonymously...”. The creators of this film imagined that the journey in question was undertaken after all, selecting the genre of an ironic fairytale. The poet sails to the country of his childhood, and with him we traverse not only geographical expanses, but travel through time as well; stringing together a number of facts from the Nobel Prize Laureate's biography, we return to the USSR of the 50s and early 60s, soaking up the atmosphere of the “European” city of Petersburg, to this day Russia's cultural center. Along with live-action sequences, the film features animation, as well as documentary footage concerning Brodsky and his milieu.
– World premiere at Rotterdam IFF, 2009 (program “Spectrum”);
– Grand-Prix and Prize of the Russian Guild of Film Critics “White Elephant” at the IFF “Zerkalo”, 2009;
– Main East of the West Award at the IFF in Karlovy Vary, 2009.
Cast: Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy, Alisa Freyndlih, Sergei Yursky, Artem Smola, Evgeniy Ogandzhanyan
Directed by: Andrei Khrzhanovsky
Script: Yuri Arabov, Andrei Khrzhanovsky
Producer: Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Artem Vassiliev
“Best Film 2” is a parody to modern Russian blockbusters – “Irony Of Fate. The Sequel”, “12”, “Heat”, “We Are From The Future” as well as popular TV shows.
Main characters played by members of popular stand-up comedian show “Comedy Club”.
Cast: Igor Kharlamov, Timur Batrutdinov, Oleg Vereschyagin, Mikhail Galustyan, Dmitry Khrustalev
Directed by Oleg Fomin
Script: Artak Gasparyan, Igor Kharlamov
Two cirminals Koltsov and Sumarokov escape from high security prision just to accidentally become Young Pioneer leaders in a Young Pioneer camp. To their suprise, they discover a lot of talents of communicating and caring for a younger generation in themselves...
Cast: Sergey Bezrukov, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Vladimir Menshov, Alexey Kravchenko, Yelena Babenko
Directed by: Igor Zaitsev
Script: Andrey Kivinov
Producer: Dzhanik Faiziyev, Anatoly Maximov
The kind, naive and lazy Evgeni and several of his comrades make their way from a Belarus village to Moscow in order to earn money. But the megapolis does not like his kind of people: it turns them into marginal groups. On the way an annoying criminal incident occurs: and Zhenia loses his money, his documents, and his fellow travellers. Trashed, plundered and intimidated, he is doomed to become yet another Moscow vagabond. But a miracle happens: the homeless man from the provinces is taken in by a Muscovite pensioner. The former engineer conquers Zhenia’s heart with his simplicity, sincerity and noble behaviour, and – above all – he removes the pathos from the struggle against the everyday nastiness of the Russian capital... A film about the good and the ridiculous, about people and about Russia.
- World Premiere – the Forum Programme, IFF Berlin 2009.
Cast: Evgeni Syty, Sergei Dreiden, Igor Chernevich, Anna Mikhalkova, Alexander Yatsenko, Nikita Emshanov
Directed by Boris Khlebnikov
Script: Alexander Rodionov
Producer: Roman Borisevich, Ruben Dishdishian
A sequence of four (in the television version – five) independent stories with their independent characters, forming a coherent narrative. In its form the film is like a theatre performance with a final bow taken by all the participants. Long-forgotten “un-splintered” monologues allow the actors to put on show their acting skills, without hiding them behind special effects and dynamical montage. Unlike anything, this is original dramatic art. The film tries to drive the spectator into frenzy. It is a protest that is vital in an era of total crisis, a cry from the heart which paradoxically gives us hope that this is not yet the end, but only a crack in the system, a liberation from stereotypes, templates and chains.
– Closing film of the Russian Film Festival "Kinotavr", Sochi, 2009.
Cast: Mikhail Efremov, Alexander Strizhenov, Victor Sukhorukov, Evgeni Stychkin,
Pavel Derevianko, Yuri Kolokolnikov,
Directed by Grigori Konstantinopolsky
Script: Grigori Konstantinopolsky
Producer: Grigori Konstantinopolsky, Andrei Novikov
The opening film of VII Russian Film Festival.
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In 1565, Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of Russia suffers a defeat in the long war against Poland. Around him, he can see only treachery. To struggle against the traitors, he creates a personal guard, the “Tsar’s Dogs”, whose sign of recognition is a dog’s head attached to their saddles. The Tsar’s Dogs plunge Russia into a blood bath. In alarm, the Metropolitan, the Head of the Russian Church, takes refuge in a monastery. Ivan the Terrible, believing that he can understand and interpret the signs, sees the Last Judgment approaching. So he sends for Metropolitan Philip, his childhood friend, the Superior of the monastery on the Solovki Islands. The latter, attempting to save the innocent from the Tsar’s cruelty, fights increasingly against the Tsar’s power. There is thus a clash between two violently and diametrically opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men.
Cannes Film Festival, 2009 – Official Selection – Un Certain Regard;
Moscow IFF, 2009 – “Opening Film”
Cast: Pyotr Mamonov, Oleg Yankovsky, Yury Kuznetsov, Ramilya Iskander, Aleksandr Domogarov, Ivan Okhlobystin, Alexei Frandetti, Alexei Makarov, Nastia Dontsova, Ville Haapasalo
Directed by Pavel Lungin
Script: Alexei Ivanov, Pavel Lungin
Producer: Pavel Lungin
Angelina lives in the Far East in a big city on the coast of the warm sea. Working with difficult children, Gelia wants to break with her loneliness: she simply needs to find happiness and, at last, start her own family. But have you ever seen that life is all that simple?
– The “Certain Regard” programme in Cannes in 2009;
– Award for Best Actor (Boris Kamorzin) – ORFF “Kinotavr”, Sochi, 2009.
Cast: Alisa Khazanova, Boris Kamorzin, Yuri Safarov, Dmitri Podnozov
Directed by Nikolai Khomeriki
Script: Alexander Rodionov, Nikolai Khomeriki
Producer: Roman Borisevich, Alexander Kushaev
The screenplay is an adaptation of Chekhov’s mysterious paradoxical and disturbing story, which can be in all justice called the most pessimistic and also the most life-asserting work of the author. The story is based on a real life incident and centers around the head doctor of an asylum who winds up as the asylum patient. Lonely, estranged, reflecting doctor Andrei Ragin is one of the focal characters in the work of Chekhov and the entire world literature of the 20th century. Preserving the story-line the authors deliberately move the scene into the present. Shooting of the film was done in a real asylum.
– Award for Best Actor (Vladimir Ilyin) – Moscow IFF, 2009.
Cast: Vladimir Ilyin, Alexei Vertkov, Alexander Pankratov-Chiorny, Evgeny Stychkin, Victor Soloviov, Alexei Zarkov, Albina Evtushevskaya, Anna Siniakina
Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov, with participation Alexander Gornovsky
Script: Alexander Borodiansky, Karen Shakhnazarov
Producer: Karen Shakhnazarov
In a village at edge of a large city a girl was born. This settlement was called Settlement. The mother did not know who gave her this present. And it was very difficult to figure out, since there had been so many accidents in her life. Now there are two of them, mother and daughter. They have no names. They run. Constantly, without stopping. The mother runs from the daughter in search of her self, of life, of the world. The girl runs after the mother because she can’t imagine either herself or the world without her. Their run is an infinite line of repeated mistakes, like the melody of a street organ, like the spinning of a top: the ridiculous toy which the mother once gave the little girl. But one day the spinning stops…
– Main prize (Grand-Prix), Prize for the best actress (Yana Troyanova), Grigory Gorin's Prize for the best screenplay (Vasily Sigarev), Prize of the Russian Film Critics' Guild "White Elephant" – Russian Film Festival "Kinotavr", Sochi-2009;
– Special mention (Don Quixote Award) of the International Federation of Cine Clubs – IFF in Karlovy Vary
Cast: Yana Troyanova, Polina Pluchek
Directed by Vasili Sigarev
Script: Vasili Sigarev
Producer: Roman Borisevich, Ruben Dishdishian
Andrey is a Moscow yuppie working as a creative manager in a large advertising agency. That day he smokes out an entire pack of cigarettes. With each cigarette the storm of events and conflicts Andrey is involved in becomes more and more violent. Confronted to a situation in which his professional and personal future is jeopardized, Andrey must make the one and only right decision.
Script writer Dmitry Sobolev: "Taking sides, making your choice in the world where everyone strives to achieve success. It is absolutely true about Moscow. In other areas of Russia changes haven't been so drastic. The way of life has remained the same. In Moscow success makes you. As a matter of fact I attempted to reveal that success was not all in life. The most important is the decisive choice. God has endowed us with the ability to choose and has given us the opportunity to make the choice. Success is not of vital importance, there is something else that counts. No use shrinking from taking sides. No one knows with whom the correct choice lies. The movie has no ready answer; it poses the question and leaves it unanswered. No answer is available; it can't be supplied either by philosophy or by any kind of art".