Russian Resurrection Film Festival 2012

Time Out names highlights of the ninth annual festival

First published on 10 Aug 2012. Updated on 13 Sep 2012.

This event has finished

The biggest festival of Russian cinema held outside of Russia is on again at the end of August 2012 with plenty of new films and the return of come cherished classics.

Alexey Andrianov's thriller Spy has been announced as the opening-night film of the festival. Based on a popular novel, it's set in Moscow in the lead-up to World War II and focuses on an intelligence officer seeking a Fascist agent.

The war provides the backdrop to White Tiger, blending realistic battle scenes with mysticism to offer an enriching insight into the conflict.

August 8th, banned in several former Soviet republics, examines the 2008 War of the Caucuses from two different perspectives. Alexander Proshkin’s Expiation looks at love and life under the hardships of the Soviet State.

In a lighter vein to all this Russian gloom is My Boyfriend Is An Angel, a romcom that delivers exactly what the title promises.

If you loved the recent English language Anton Chekhov’s The Duel then you’ll want to see the Russian-made 1973 version, along with Unfinished Piece for Player Piano, Nikita Mikalkov’s 1977 adaptation of an early Chekhov play.

To cap it all off, the magisterial eight-hour 1965 version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace will be screening in its entirety.

Screenings take place at the Chauvel and also at the Event Cinemas Burwood.