Ischeznuvshaya imperiya (2008)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Karen Shakhnazarov

Writers:

Yevgeni Nikishov (participation)
Sergei Rokotov (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The film's story takes place in Moscow in the 1970s. Its plot unfolds around the love triangle between...

Cast

Aleksandr Lyapin	...	Sergei Narbekov
Lidiya Milyuzina	...	Lyuda Beletskaya
Yegor Baranovsky	...	Stepan Molodtsov
Ivan Kupreyenko	...	Kostya Denisov
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan	...	Sergei's grandfather
Olga Tumajkina	...	Sergei's mother
Vladimir Ilyin	...	Stepan 30 years later
Tatyana Yakovenko	...	Lyuda's mother
Yanina Kalganova	...	Katya
Vasili Shakhnazarov	...	Misha (as Vasya Shakhnazarov)
Yekaterina Kasparova	...	Folklore teacher
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alovuddin Abdullayev		(as A. Abdullayev)
Sergei Badichkin	...	Club manager (as S. Badichkin)
Sergei Barkovsky	...	Dean (as S. Barkovsky)
Richard Bondarev	...	Edik (as R. Bondarev)
Stanislov Eventov	...	Associate professor Grigoryants
Tatyana Klichanovskaya	...	Klava (as T. Klichanovskaya)
Velimir Rusakov	...	Voloknitsky (as V. Rusakov)
Ela Sanko	...	Second - hand bookshop seller (as I. Sanko)
Bronislava Zakharova		(as B. Zakharova)

Also Known As:

Vanished Empire (International: English title) (USA) (new title)
Исчезнувшая империя (Russia)

Runtime:

USA:105 min | Russia:105 min

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Company:

Mosfilm

Engrossing, entertaining

We see few Russian films here in the U.S. and our familiarity with modern day Russian life is limited. Here we get a view of life in the Brezhnev 1970s. "Vanished Empire" reassures us that the Russians are just like everybody else, save for social conditioning and a scarcity of consumer goods. It's convincing characters are warm, animated and full of very familiar foibles. But it is charming how readily family and friends "do" for each other there,enthusiastically.

Yet this is a society so parched for Western-style consumer goods that a used Japanese radio can get a buddy out of police custody, a nice jacket plus gas money can induce a cab driver to take someone to the hinterlands and back.

Sergey, the focal character, is well and charmingly rendered by young Aleksandr Lyapin. Like a lot of 18 year old college boys he is impulsive and easily suggestible. His romance with girlfriend Lyuda is in full bloom but a call from his comrades can make him forget his commitments to the lady. More than once Sergey shows that loyalty to his buddies trumps faithfulness to his lover.

Sergey's inattention to those who love him and his hijinks in school are forgiven, up to a point, because of his youth and charm. But the carefree life and luck of a teenager cannot last. Life becomes serious and the due bill for self-centered presumptions is, inevitably, presented.

The women characters in this film are long suffering. Though not ill-treated physically, they are never valued above male comradeship. Their needs are not thought of, or not taken seriously. Lyuda's treatment by Sergey reminded me of the comment of an American exchange student who had boyfriends in the Soviet 1970s. Asked if she ever considered marrying any of them, she said "No." She said that, in Russia, a woman might be loved but she will never be respected. Jim Smith