Films by Language

Russian

4

Ilya Khrzhanovsky

The feral and the heavily metallic vie for dominance in this extraordinary assault on the senses, the year's most transfixingly baffling movie – which, among other things, purports to reveal the meaninglessness of the number 4.

Darwin's Nightmare

Hubert Sauper

A jaw-dropping and scathing exposé of the ecological devastation and economic exploitation of Tanzania's Lake Victoria.

The Intruder

Claire Denis

"[Claire] Denis is one of cinema's greatest narrative poets, and The Intruder, the story of an adventurer, is her most adventurous cinematic poem." — Amy Taubin, Film Comment

Night Watch

Nochnoy dozor

Timur Bekmambetov

A spectacular and wickedly convoluted saga of vampire wars in 21st-century Moscow. "This audacious film takes every element of horror, fantasy and action genres and emerges with something completely innovative.” — Los Angeles Film Festival

Up and Down

Horem pádem

Jan Hřebejk

The latest tragicomedy from he director of Cosy Dens and Divided We Fall. "The rollicking social comedy continues the director's interest in adaptability and its discontents, then ups the ante by setting the story in the shape-shifting post-Communist present." — Entertainment Weekly

Yuri Norstein Retrospective

Yuri Norstein

This incredibly rich programme showcases the work of the remarkable animator Yuri Norstein. Exquisitely rendered and drawing deeply from the well of folklore and literature, these films are as unmistakably Russian as the work of Tolstoy or Tarkovsky.