Category: International
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Grave of the Fireflies (1988) defines itself as a relentlessly grim film from start to end. The opening scene sees siblings Seita and Setsuko run frantically through Kobe as it is firebombed, and while they make it out alive, they are nevertheless terrified. When Seita learns that their mother died during the attack, he and…
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During the Russian Civil War, Vasily Chapaev organizes a ragtag band of Red Army troops in the impoverished countryside against the White Army. After forming a bond with Furmanov, a commissar from Moscow, the White Army advances against Chapaev’s forces, despite the Red Army’s proficiency with a machine gun. However, Chapaev dies in the crossfire,…
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Burnt by the Sun tells the story of three generations of reckoning with Stalinism in a remote Russian village, as local celebrations of Stalin’s birthday looms over the family. The family is visited by the matriarch Masrusia’s former lover Mitia, who is now working for the secret political police and is tasked with bringing Kotov…
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In Bed and Sofa (1927), Liuda and Kolia live a mostly happy life in Moscow, with the housewife Liuda longing for more out of life, while her husband works as a stonemason. Their usual routine is disrupted when Kolia’s friend Volodia moves into their apartment due to a housing shortage, and Volodia’s kind behavior towards…
