21.	View Larger Image	Repentance Actors: Avtandil Makharadze, Zejnab Botsvadze Director: Tengiz Abuladze
		From Description Three generations of one family pay for the sins of their fathers under the dictatorial rule of Varlam Aravidze, who runs a totalitarian society in which the first to perish are the artists. Years later, the daughter of one victim decides to avenge the death of her parents. ... more Buy from Amazon

22.	View Larger Image	The Miracle Maker - The Story of Jesus Directors: Derek W. Hayes, Stanislav Sokolov
		From Amazon.com This animated feature-length life of Jesus boasts a stellar pedigree. Originally a BBC: Wales production, it showcases the voices of some of Britain's finest actors in any medium: Ralph Fiennes as a brooding and humble Jesus, Miranda Richardson as Mary Magdalene, Richard E. Grant as John the Baptist, and David Thewlis as Judas. The lovely, flute-heavy score is by Oscar winner ... more Buy from Amazon

23.	View Larger Image	East-West Director: Régis Wargnier
		From Amazon.com Like The Thief (1997), which was also nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Regis Wargnier's East-West is a turbulent romance set against the political backdrop of post-World War II Russia. But instead of a man, a woman, and a child, the story revolves around a man, a woman, a child--and another man. Shortly after the war, Alexei (Oleg ... more Buy from Amazon

24.	View Larger Image	House of Fools Actors: Yuliya Vysotskaya, Sultan Islamov, Bryan Adams Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
		From Amazon.com It takes place during the Russian-Chechen war, but House of Fools has the aura of the 1960s about it, specifically the anti-war picture of the King of Hearts variety. Set in a mental hospital near the front lines, the movie poses the age-old question: what happens when the inmates take over the asylum? The doctors have fled from the fighting, so ... more Buy from Amazon

25.	View Larger Image	The Cranes are Flying - Criterion Collection Actors: Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksei Batalov, Vasili Merkuryev Director: Mikheil Kalatozishvili
		From Amazon.com Mikhail Kalatozov's luscious portrait of love and loss during World War II stars almond-eyed beauty Tatyana Samojlova and handsome Aleksei Batalov as moony-eyed young lovers whose innocent romance is shattered by war. When the idealistic boy volunteers for service, his draft-dodging cousin steals the despondent girl by brute force, yet she never gives up on her true love, even when he's ... more Buy from Amazon

26.	View Larger Image	Brother Director: Aleksei Balabanov
		From Amazon.com Just as it did for Hollywood directors during the Depression--the era of Cagney and Raft--the gangster genre in the 1990s allows Russian filmmakers to deal with the political and personal issues of a devastated society, while paying due attention to action and drama. In Brother, Sergei Bodrov Jr. (the son of the director of Prisoner of the Mountains, in which he ... more Buy from Amazon

27.	View Larger Image	Ivan Vasilievich - Back to the Future Director: Leonid Gaidai
		From Description Inventor Shurik has constructed a time machine in his humdrum Moscow apartment. Accidentally the contraption sends the inventor, the apartment house manager, and a thief to the palace of Ivan the Terrible, while the notorious monarch switches places with them in time. Hilarious complications ensue in this giddy mixture of science fiction and comedy. ... more Buy from Amazon

28.	View Larger Image	Prisoner of the Mountains Actors: Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov Jr., Susanna Mekhraliyeva, Dzhemal Sikharulidze Director: Sergei Bodrov
		From Amazon.com There's a beautiful irony in the way that the most specific war tales are often the most universal. Set high in the imposing, isolated Caucasus mountains, where the 20th century meets ancient lifestyles, Sergei Bodrov's drama of the Chechyn war finds two opposing cultures locked in conflict for so long that the reasons seem moot. Young Russian grunt Vanya (Sergei Bodrov ... more Buy from Amazon

29.	View Larger Image	Burnt by the Sun Actors: Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
		From Amazon.com Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov is also the star of this tragic 1994 drama about the last happy season in the life of a Bolshevik hero's family. The year is 1936, and Stalin's purges are in full swing. Despite his reputation and revolutionary record, Sergei Kotov (Mikhalkov) seems to be on the dictator's hit list, as indicated by the insulting arrival of ... more Buy from Amazon

30.	View Larger Image	Que Viva Mexico Directors: Grigori Aleksandrov, Sergei M. Eisenstein
		From Amazon.com Hollywood's loss was Mexico's gain, as this glorious documentary will attest. Having failed to realize several projects in Hollywood, Russian film pioneer Sergei Eisenstein trekked to Mexico with producer Grigory Alexandrov and cameraman Eduard Tisse, and the famous writer Upton Sinclair as beneficiary. Their budget quickly ran out, and the film was never properly completed, but Alexandrov carefully assembled this version ... more Buy from Amazon