Theme: Russian Cinema

This concerns films produced in Russia. During the time that Russia existed as part of the Soviet Union (1917-89), Russian film was fairly much synonymous with Soviet Cinema.

A modest cinematic output was produced during the Soviet Union. Most of the films that concern us here were works that dealt with Space Exploration and the great Communist experiment paving the way to the stars led by scientist and engineers. These are colourful and often have better effects than US counterparts. This period did produce the great Andrei Tarkovsky. There were also some works of fantasy, mostly fairytale adaptations, produced.

The next major wave of Russian genre cinema began in the 2000s with Timur Bekmambetov having considerable international success with Night Watch (2004). By the 2010s, this has resulted in a remarkable and often well made series of Gothic horror films and SF/horror hybrids.