Sergei Loznitsa - Schastye moe aka My Joy (2010)

"My Joy" is a tale of truck driver Georgy. Georgy leaves his home town with a load of goods, but he is forced to take a wrong turning on the motorway, and finds himself in the middle of nowhere. Georgy tries to find his way, but gradually, against his will, he becomes drawn in the daily life of a Russian village. In a place, where brutal force and survival instincts overcome humanity and common
sense, the truck driver’s story heads for a dead end...

Donatella Baglivo - Andrey Tarkovsky in Nostalghia (1984)

Donatella Baglivo's documentary during filming of Nostalghia.
Shot on the film's set, gives a fascinating insight into the making of Nostalghia and includes interviews with Tarkovsky, the cast and crew.

Andrei Tarkovsky - Andrey Rublyov AKA Andrei Rublev (1969) DVD

Presented as a tableaux of seven sections in black and white, with a final montage of Rublev's painted icons in color, the film takes an unflinching gaze at medieval Russia during the first quarter of the 15th century, a period of Mongol-Tartar invasion and growing Christian influence.

Commissioned to paint the interior of the Vladimir cathedral, Andrei Rublev (Anatoli Solonitsyn) leaves the Andronnikov monastery with an entourage of monks and assistants, witnessing in his travels the degradations befalling his fellow Russians, including pillage, oppression from tyrants and Mongols, torture, rape, and plague. Faced with the brutalities of the world outside the religious enclave, Rublev's faith is shaken, prompting him to question the uses or even possibility of art in a degraded world. After Mongols sack the city of Vladimir, burning the very cathedral that he has been commissioned to paint, Rublev takes a vow of silence and withdraws completely, removing himself to the hermetic confines of the monastery.

Eduard Artemiev - Tarkovsky movies OST (1972-79)

Eduard Artemiev - Tarkovsky movies OST (Solaris-The Mirror- Stalker)

Eduard Artemiev

In the latter part of the 1950’s, the engineer and mathematician Yevgeniy Murzin had a problem. He had just realized his life long dream of constructing music synthesizer (then called "ANS") but knew no musician with sufficient imagination to explore its vast potential. In 1960, upon meeting 22-year-old Edward Artemyev, a recent graduate of the Moscow conservatoire, Murzin immediately felt he had found what he was searching for in the young composer, who embraced the new instrument and quickly mastered its many subtleties. Artemyev has since composed numerous works varying from electronic avant-garde to film music. He is probably best known for his collaboration with A. Tarkovskiy composing music for his films: "SOLARIS" in 1972, "THE MIRROR" in 1975 and "STALKER" in 1979; and with such filmmakers as Andrei Mikhalkov-Kontchalovskiy and Nikita Mikhalkov.

Ideya Garanina - Koshka, kotoraya gulyala sama po sebe AKA The Cat Who Walked by Herself (1988)

Quote:
Virtually unknown nowadays, even in its home country of Russia, The Cat Who Walked by Herself is an endearing children's film directed by Ideya Garanina and produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. It is based upon Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Cat that Walked by Himself," which was first published in 1902. As far as I've been able to tell, the film uses a variety of animation techniques, including puppetry, stop motion and traditional animation, blending it all into an interesting tale of the origin of the civilised human and his millenia-long partnership with several species of domesticated animal. The story is narrated by a seemingly omniscient cat, who reminds a young child of an agreement struck long ago by the Cat and the Woman. The voice of the feline (whom, having absolutely no knowledge of Russian, I have been unable to identify) is a brilliant narrator, her voice at once carrying a sense of quiet arrogance, pride, dignity and everlasting knowledge.

Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg - S.V.D. - Soyuz velikogo dela AKA Union of the Great Cause (1927)

Summary:
The film tells about the Decembrists’ revolt in the south of Russia.

(imdb)
A failed Russian Revolution succeeded magnificently on screen., 3 June 1999
Author: Theodore J. van Houten from Haamstede, 4328 ZG 1 Netherlands

S.V.D. was released in August 1927. A beautiful costume drama, it is on the other hand a somewhat expressionistic, poetical fantasy. Its photography and images are more important than its desired political contents. The script, written by the inspiring historian Yuri Tinyanov (director Leonid Trauberg [1901-1990]could speak about Tinyanov for hours) supplied a failed love story, a political intrigue involving two czars, and a traveling circus background. The picture glorifies the 1825 'Decembrists' uprisal: officers in the imperial Russian army are fed up with the new czar's autocracy. The main character is a traitor, the Scotsman Maddocks (Medoks). He has won a ring gambling. It carries the initials S.V.D. - the secret union of the 'Big Deed' (overthrowing the czar). Maddocks expects the ring to protect him. He is desparate to enter the circles of political power in St. Petersburg hoping a former lover (Sofia Magaril) will introduce him there. A wounded revolutionary officer is on the run, finding refuge in a circus. This setting enabled cinematographer Andrei Moskvin to film a sequence on a galloping horse 'holding only the camera'. One of the most imaginative scenes takes place on the skating rink. The picture suddenly turns into an ice crystal created by using mirrors. The skater now waltzes his rounds all over the picture. S.V.D. introduces several pessimistic symbols: night clouds, a turtle suggesting how slowly the wounded revolutionary can move, etc. It is an extremely beautiful film, its narrative less important than its image qualities. An un-Russian revolution that failed but turned out a success on screen. It is clear that Kozintsev & Trauberg were ready for their next costume drama THE NEW BABYLON, now considered their great masterpiece. S.V.D. was restored by the German TV-station ZDF ca. 1980. For this version German composer Hamel wrote a new electronic music score, not very fitting apart from the skating rink waltz.

Kira Muratova - Astenicheskiy sindrom AKA Asthenic Syndrome (1989)

Quote:
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun. Worse yet, quite a few other people, even an entire society, seem to be afflicted with the same problem writ extremely large... Written by L.H. Wong

Nikolai Gubenko - Podranki aka The Orphans (1977)

Synopsis
The original Russian title Podranki can be translated as War Orphans. The protagonist is an adult writer who undergoes a flashback at the drop of a hat. He recalls how he was orphaned when his father was killed in World War II and his mother committed suicide. He remembers the appalling treatment afforded him by a sadistic orphanage official. And he muses over his losing contact with his brothers and sisters. This is why the grown-up writer is currently involved in lobbying for better treatment of Russian orphans. Orphans caused a minor stir in 1977 when it became the first Russian film in nearly two decades to be chosen for the Cannes Film Festival by the festival judges, rather than being submitted by the Soviets. The film did not see the light of a carbon arc in America until 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi