Best Russian Film

In honor of our beloved unit on films, I thought I would list and describe the top five most-loved Russian movies of all time. 

1. Alexander Nevsky (1938): 

It is the 13th century, and Russia is overrun by foreign invaders. A Russian knyaz', or prince, Alexander Nevsky, rallies the people to form a ragtag army to drive back an invasion by the Teutonic knights. This is a true story based on the actual battle at a lake near Novgorod. Starring: Nikolai Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrikosov, Dmitriy Orlov, and Vasili Novikov.

2. Andrei Rublev (1966): 

Andreiv Rublev charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th Century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and by Tatar invasions. Starring: Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko, Nikolay Sergeev, and Irina Tarkovskaya.

3. Ankor, eshchyo ankor! (1993): 

A drama set at the end of the Forties and the beginning of the Fifties. In a distant garrison town, life proceeds at a measured past. The officers drink and debauch, while the soldiers serve. Meanwhile accidentally unleashed human emotions are suffocated by the atmosphere of cruelty and hypocrisy. Starring: Valentin Gaft, Irina Rozanova, Evgeniy Mironov, Elena Yakovleva, and Sergey Nikonenko. 

4. Assa (1988): 

ASSA is set in Crimea during the winter in the mid eighties. A young musician (Bananan) falls for mobster's (Krymov) young mistress (Alika). The parallel story line involves an 18th century assassination plot. Starring: Natan Eidelman, Anatoly Slivnikov, German Shorr, Ilya Ivanov, and Aleksandr Bashirov.

5. Ballad of a Soldier (1959): During World War II, 19 year old soldier Alyosha gets a medal as a reward for a heroic act at the front. Instead of this medal he asks for a few days leave to visit his mother and repair the roof of their home. On the train eastwards he meets Shura who is on her way to her aunt. In those few days traveling together they fall in love. Starring: Vladimir Ivashov, Zhanna Prokhorenko, Antonina Maksimova, Nikolay Kryuchkov,  and Evgeniy Urbanskiy.