The Childhood of Maxim Gorky

The Childhood of Maxim Gorky 1938

6.10

Young Maxim grows up under the czarist regime with his grandparents as guardians. Continually demeaned by his martinet grandfather, Maxim is drawn to his warm-hearted grandmother, who instills in him the willingness to pursue his writing muse.

1938

An Elephant and a Rope

An Elephant and a Rope 1945

1

All the girls of one of the Moscow houses can tirelessly jump over a skipping rope. But little Lida did: can't learn to jump. Once in a dream a wise elephant gives her a piece of advice: to learn how to jump, you must first do a good deed...

1945

It Happened in the Donbass

It Happened in the Donbass 1945

6.00

The film is about the Soviet youth who fearlessly fight in the years of the Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invaders in the German-occupied Donbass and continue the work of their fathers, who in their time defended the Soviet Union.

1945

Kashchey the Immortal

Kashchey the Immortal 1944

6.90

A beautiful maiden, Marya Morevna, gives her prospective husband, the mighty warrior Nikita Kozhemyaka, three riddles to solve before she'll marry him. Before he can tell her the answers, the Russian land is invaded by the armies of Kashchei the Immortal, in whose footsteps death and destruction follow. Marya is abducted by Kashchei, and Nikita finds his home in ashes. Nikita meets a kindly wizard who gives him a cap of darkness. With it, the hero will find a way to save his bride and rout Kashchei.

1944

My Universities

My Universities 1940

5.60

My Universities (Moi universiteti) is the last installment of Russian director Mark Donskoy's "Maxim Gorki" trilogy. Having endured a painful youth in My Childhood and a torturous sojourn as a serf in My Apprenticeship, future writer Gorki reaches maturity with an insatiable desire for personal and artistic freedom. The "university" of the title is actual the school of Hard Knocks, as Gorky goes to work in the shipyards and commisserates with the hard-drinking, philosophical dockworkers.

1940

Duel

Duel 1944

6.00

The Second World War. A new L-2 heavy duty gun is being supplied to the Soviet Army. German intelligence needs to seize a new secret weapon.

1944

The Village Teacher

The Village Teacher 1947

5.40

A life-long story of a romantic school teacher who left imperial St. Petersburg for teaching country children. Driven by noble intentions to enlighten people and examples by 1880s revolutionary "People's Will" member teachers, a young woman spent her life in a village and evidenced the changes a Russian village has undergone from pre-revolutionary tsarist times to late 1940s.

1947

Timur and His Team

Timur and His Team 1940

4.90

A story about a young boy Timur and his team who are living in a small Moscow suburb during the years before WWII.

1940

Vassilisa the Beautiful

Vassilisa the Beautiful 1940

6.50

Based on a Russian folk tale, Vasilisa Prekrasnaya (Vasilisa the Beautiful) is about a father whose three sons go out to finds themselves brides. Two of the boys come home with perfectly normal girls, but the youngest brother, Ivanushka, brings home a frog from the marshes. His father finds this most curious, but what he does not know was that the frog was actually a beautiful girl named Vasilisa who was cursed by a magical serpent whom she refused to marry. Now Ivanushka must overcome tremendous obstacles to restore Vasilisa to her true form and free her from the serpent's spell.

1940

The Lonely White Sail

The Lonely White Sail 1937

5.00

Two young boys strive to save the life of an officer trapped by the White Russians. Their efforts are both comic and dramatic

1937

The Ballad of Cossack Golota

The Ballad of Cossack Golota 1937

4.00

The story of three young Russsian adventurers against the background of post-revolutionary skirmishes in the Ukraine. The boys get mixed up with a wounded commissar and a marauding White Russian officer. They find themselves in all sorts of predicaments before the Reds arrive to save the day, and become the mascots of a troop of Bolshevik cavalry.

1937

First-Year Student

First-Year Student 1948

5.30

Marina Orlova couldn't even imagine how many adventures are expecting to her in a first grade...

1948

The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper 1942

6.50

Two look-alike boys, one a poor street kid and the other a prince, exchange places to see what the other's life is like.

1942

Wish upon a Pike

Wish upon a Pike 1938

4.20

Adapted from four different Russian folk-tales, this early Soviet fantasy film tells the story of Emelya the Fool, who, fishing one day, catches a talking pike who pleads for his life and in return grants Emelya wishes for a life spared.

1938

Treasure Island

Treasure Island 1937

5.60

An adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" with drastic changes to the plot. A group of English rebels searches for pirate's treasures to buy weapons for the civil war.

1937

Salavat Yulayev

Salavat Yulayev 1941

1

A film about the national hero of the Bashkir people Salavat Yulaev, the leader of the Bashkirs in the peasant uprising led by Yemelyan Pugachev.

1941

A Great Life, Part 2

A Great Life, Part 2 1946

1

This is a dramatic story of the restoration of the mines after the liberation of Donbass from the Nazis during the Second World War.

1946