Soviet and Russian Film / Film Culture

I have always been interested in Soviet cinema, which, for me, is not identical with the cinema of Russia (even if I have produced a number of texts related specifically to Russian film). My interest has always been primarily in the cinemas of the numerous former Soviet republics, as well as with the cinemas of the countries of the Soviet sphere. In 2000 I published a study entitled ‘The New Russians: Nostalgia for the Occupier, Commiseration for the Immigrant,’ in Canadian Slavonic Papers, 42:1-2, 113-129. Later on, I was involved in doctoral supervision that looked further into investigating the cross-cultural representations of the changing position of Homo Sovieticus in the post-Soviet world, especially from post-colonial studies point of view. After the full-scale Russian invasion of the Ukraine in 2022, I became interested in the cinema of the former Soviet republics and have been researching and writing on Ukrainian and Central Asian cinema.

Here I am making available some of my short pieces on these matters.

The material is copyrighted. Please make sure to reference appropriately if using

Sokurov’s Mother and Son (1997)

Lyubov Orlova: Stalinism’s Shining Star

Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

Kalatozov’s Letter Never Sent (1959)

Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba (1964)

Kuleshov’s DURA LEX (1926)

Playlist Soviet Hybrid Genre Films of the 1930s

NO UNKNOWN SOLDIERS (2024, Senses of Cinema 109)

No Unknown Soldiers…

UKRAINIAN CINEMA’S TOP 100 (Studies of World Cinemas, 2024)