1. Stalker
Year of Release: 1982
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Actors: Aleksandr Kajdanovsky, Alisa Frejndlikh, Natasha Abramova, Anatoli Solonitsyn
Plot: A man with mental gifts risks imprisonment by going out at night to the "zone" guarded by barb wire and soldiers from an Alien race.
2. Battleship Potemkin ( Bronenosets Potyomkin )
Year of Release: 1925
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama/War
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Actors: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Plot: A Russian naval mutiny occurs, which leads to riots in the streets.
3. Solyaris ( Solaris )
Year of Release: 1972
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Actors: Jüri Järvet, Sos Sargsyan, Tamara Ogorodnikova, Yulian Semyonov
Plot: A planet appears to have been landed upon by the Solyaris space crew when Kelvin is sent to investigate the strange happenings.
4. Mirror, The ( Zerkalo )
Year of Release: 1980
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama/Biography
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Actors: Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya, Alla Demidova
Plot: A Russian man in his 40s is going to die - he reflects back on growing up during WWII, his adolescence and family in a film that mixes flashbacks with historical footage to tell a personal story but also explore the story of Russia itself.
5. Russian Ark ( Russkiy kovcheg )
Year of Release: 2002
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama/Fantasy
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Actors: Sergei Dontsov, Mariya Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy, Mikhail Piotrovsky
Plot: Fantasy following a 19th century French aristocrat - who is quite critical of the Russian way of life - as he travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and interacts with historical figures covering over 200 years of Russian history.
6. Andrey Rublyov ( Andrei Rublev )
Year of Release: 1973
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Actors: Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko, Nikolai Sergeyev
Plot: Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece about the great 15th century Russian icon painter.
7. Come and See ( Idi i smotri )
Year of Release: 1987
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama/War
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Elem Klimov
Actors: Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Vladas Bagdonas
Plot: A boy is unwillingly thrust into the atrocities of war in WWII Byelorussia, fighting for a hopelessly unequipped resistance movement against the ruthless German forces. Witnessing scenes of abject terror and accidentally surviving horrifying situations he loses his innocence and then his mind.
8. Man with a Movie Camera, The ( Chelovek s kino-apparatom )
Year of Release: 1929
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Dziga Vertov
Plot: In this inventive documentary we follow a man documenting a typical day in the Soviet Union... while also documenting the making of that documentary.
9. Ballad of a Soldier ( Ballada o soldate )
Year of Release: 1960
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Grigori Chukhrai
Actors: Vladimir Ivashov, Yevgeni Urbansky, Nikolai Kryuchkov, Zhanna Prokhorenko
Plot: When a Russian private is granted a medal for bravery during WWII, he request that instead of the medal, he be given four-days leave to visit his mother. During these four days we witness the world through the man's eyes, from helping fellow soldiers to falling in love.
10. Kolya ( Kolja )
Year of Release: 1997
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Russian
Genre: Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Jan Sverák
Actors: Zdenek Sverák, Andrei Chalimon, Libuse Safránková, Ondrej Vetchý
Plot: A Czech concert cellist, and consummate ladies man, Franta Louka finds himself out of a job and running up debts. In order to secure cash, he agrees to marry a Russian woman so she can get her papers - but immediately after she runs to the arms of a West German boyfriend, leaving her five-year-old child behind with her grandmother. After she suddenly dies, it falls to Louka to take care of the young boy.
