Today I present you another two examples of Russian cinema culture. The first one… I don’t like it much, too simple. But somehow a new story under this title is being released every year, so modern Russia likes it.

And the second animation is a pretty good short, based on Ukrainian folk stories. The voice of the wolf is… something.

Yolki / Ёлки / New Year Trees (2010)

Genres/Tags: Comedy
iMDB Rating: 6.3 out of 10 (based on 2721 ratings)
Director: imur Bekmambetov, Yaroslav Chevazhevskiy + 3 more…
Starring: Dmitry Medvedev (Russian president atm), Alina Bulynko, Sergey Pokhodaev…
Budget: ~5.5 M USD
MKV Size: 1.4 GB
Video format: h264, 1040×442
Languages: Russian Audio, English subtitles

Download Mirror

• RuTracker.org [magnet] [.torrent file only]

Description

Yolki (Russian: Ёлки, meaning New Year Trees), also known as Six Degrees of Celebration, is a 2010 Russian comedy film directed by Timur Bekmambetov. As of 2017, six films have been made in the series. It is the most successful non-animated film franchise in Russia.

The films in the series represent a Russian tradition of the New Year’s Movie where films that take place during the holiday season tap into the vein of hope, optimism, and possibility associated with New Year’s in the Russian culture.

There once was a Dog / Жил-был пёс (1982)

Genres/Tags: Short animation
Director: Eduard Nazarov
Video format: YouTube
Languages: Russian Audio, English subtitles

Watch

Description

The day comes when an old watchdog becomes useless but the masters…

♥ Previously on “Russian Movies Weekend”

This weekend I’d like to share two of my old Soviet favs from mid-80s. As far as I can tell they are still popular in modern Russia.

Last Year’s Snow Was Falling / Падал прошлогодний снег (1983)

Genres/Tags: Short Clay Animation
iMDB Rating: 8.4 out of 10 (based on 1518 ratings)
Director: Aleksandr Tatarskiy
Video format: YouTube
Languages: Russian Audio, English subtitles

Description

Surreal misadventures of a lazy drunkard with speech impediment trying to get a New Year tree on a short notice. Loosely based on folk fairy tales.

Watch

Guest from the Future / Гостья из будущего (1985)

Genres/Tags: TV Mini-series (5 episodes)
iMDB Rating: 8.2 out of 10 (based on 1998 ratings)
Director: Pavel Arsenov
Starring: Natalya Guseva, Aleksei Fomkin, Maryana Ionesyan, Ilya Naumov
Video format: YouTube
Languages: Russian Audio, English subtitles

Description

A school boy finds a time machine and he helps Alisa, a scientist girl in the future, to save a mind-reading device from space pirates. Chased by the pirates and followed by Alisa he saves the device bringing it back to his own time.

PS: Absolutely not related to “Back to the Future” 🙂

Watch Episode 1

♥ Previously on “Russian Movies Weekend”

This Russian Movies Weekend won’t show you any animation. But instead you can watch Brat and Brat 2, two movies by Alexey Balabanov, which both became a cult right after their releases. I’m not a big fan of the main character/the actor, but the story and filming are really good in my opinion.

Unfortunately, though both these movies are available online in good HD quality, they lack subtitles other than Russian. So I had to make two torrents for you, with 15 languages in each of them. If you don’t see your subs language, check OpenSubtitles.org

Brother / Брат / Brat (1997)

Genres/Tags: Crime, Drama, Romance
iMDB Rating: 8.0 out of 10 (based on 14996 ratings)
Director: Aleksey Balabanov
Starring: Sergey Bodrov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Svetlana Pismichenko
Budget: ~10.000-20.000 USD
MKV Size: 3.7 GB
Video format: h264, 1920×1080
Languages: Russian Audio, MULTi15 subtitles

Download Mirrors

• 1337x [magnet] [.torrent file only]

Description

Newly discharged from the army, Danila goes to his older brother – a gangster and a killer – to start a new life in St. Petersburg where he’s soon situated in the criminal world and asked to kill someone. There his new life starts. He meets new people, including a girl, and becomes a big fan of the rock band “Nautilus Pompillius,” but now he is a killer, and realizing killing is easier for him than living makes him understand he is going the wrong way.

Poor YouTube Video in 10 parts

Watch

Brother 2 / Брат 2 / Brat 2 (2000)

Genres/Tags: Action, Crime, Thriller
iMDB Rating: 7.8 out of 10 (based on 10980 ratings)
Director: Aleksey Balabanov
Starring: Sergey Bodrov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Sergey Makovetskiy
Budget: ~1.500.000 USD
MKV Size: 4.8 GB
Video format: h264, 1920×1080
Languages: Russian Audio, MULTi15 standalone subtitles

Download Mirrors

• 1337x [magnet] [.torrent file only]

Description

Danila Bagrov meets his army buddy Konstantin Gromov in Moscow, with whom he fought in Chechnya. The friend tells Danila about his twin brother Dmitry, who is a professional hockey player in America. However, the team owner, in cahoots with his Russian partner, has swindled the young star into an oppressive contract, allowing them to rob him blind. Several days after this conversation, Danila finds Konstantin dead. In order to straighten things out and avenge his friend, Danila goes to Chicago.

♥ Previously on “Russian Movies Weekend”

Today’s a great day for watching these two Soviet movies.

The first one – Kin-dza-dza! (Кин-дза-дза!), a 1986 Soviet sci-fi dystopian tragicomedy film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgiy Daneliya.

And another one is a 1975 Soviet short animated film Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане), directed by Yuri Norstein.

Don’t forget to share your opinion in comments.

This weekend I present you one comedy and one very sad and creepy animation. Choose what poison you will eat first, but you definitely should swallow both of them.

There Will Come Soft Rains (Будет ласковый дождь), USSR (Uzbekistan), 1984

This animation is based on Ray Bradbury’s short story with the same name. It was released back in the 1984 by Uzbekfilm. I watched as a child and it kicked me in the nut back then and still I find it very stressful to watch. The quality of the YT sucks big time, but it’s enough to feel the story.

The Diamond Arm (Бриллиантовая рука), USSR, 1969

And this is just for lulz. Here’s the excerpt from Wikipedia:
The Diamond Arm (Brilliantovaya ruka) is a Soviet comedy film made by Mosfilm and first released in 1969. The film was directed by director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova and Svetlana Svetlichnaya. The Diamond Arm has become a Russian cult film and is considered by many Russian contemporaries to be one of the finest comedies of all time. It was also one of the all-time leaders at the Soviet box office with over 76,700,000 theatre admissions in the Soviet era. The plot of the film was based on a real-life news item about Swiss smugglers who tried to transport jewels in an orthopedic cast.

Or watch on YouTube.

The Mediator (Посредник), 1990 – by Vladimir Potapov

– Short TV Series in 3 parts

“In an ordinary industrial Soviet town, notable only for presence of a radio-telescope, people start behaving strangely, in a robotic manner, while assuming geometry-inspired aliases and organizing into a new hierarchy.”

This movie was released in 1990, but I’ve watched it for the first time around 5-7 years ago. It’s pretty rare one, cause it was made for television only and the release has happened just one year before the USSR disappearance. I don’t want to spoil you the story and urge you not to google it. If you like Andrei Tarkovsky vision, this flick looks pretty similar and for me was a scary experience. Please don’t forget to share your opinion in the comments.

Armenian Animation

Those short animations were made in early 80x by “Armenfilm” studio. Armenia was a part of the Soviet Union then, so these movies are considered as a Soviet Heritage. I must say that those cartoons are not mainstream, but I hope you’ll love them, like I do.

There are more like this, probably someone will share those in comments.

Being native Russian, I was grown in the mixed environment, but still Russian is my first language, I love it and I love Russian culture and arts, including Russian and Soviet movies. With this topic I want to see if anyone in the world is interested in learning stuff about Russia and Russian people via cinematic experience.

Let’s start with a comedy. It’s titled “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!) and it was released in 1976, long before my birth. Yet me and millions of other Russian-speaking people watch it every year on a New Year’s eve. It’s kinda premature to show it to you in November, yet it’s a good start. It’s a comedy – but I don’t want to spoil you the story.

It consists of two series and has subtitles in Russian, English, Spanish, French and Bulgarian.

Videos are not embeddable, so here are the links to YouTube:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpmZnRIMKs
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmGPeowN-0
Magnet: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:415297CD8B2369483E1F5C6A65F4C1677CD9BD25

Let me know in comments if this format is interesting for you, how you find this flick and should I continue this in the future or stick to my repacks 🙂

Update: So, looks like you people are really interested in that part of the Russian culture. Expect weekly posts with my recommendations for Russian movies and animations.