News

Rustam Ibragimbekov, the renowned Soviet-era writer behind films including 1994 Oscar winner Burnt by the Sun and the 1970 classic White Sun of the Desert, died in Moscow on Friday, according to multiple reports. He was 83.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan Ssr on February 5th 1939, Ibragimbekov penned more than 50 films throughout his career, including Guard Me, My Talisman (1986), Close to Eden (1991), The Barber of Siberia (1998), East/West (1999), Broken Bridges (1999) and Nomad: The Warrior (2005), breaking out with the action-comedy White Sun of the Desert, which he and Valentin Ezhov wrote for director Vladimir Motyl.

He co-wrote the historical drama Burnt by the Sun with director Nikita Mikhalkov and watched that film claim the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix on its path to the Oscars.

Ibragimbekov was also a director, producer and playwright who helmed the films Aila (1998), Telefon doveriya (2001) and A Trap for the Ghost, (2011), along with a segment of 1977’s Günlarin bir günü.

White Sun of the Desert

Written by Valentin Ezhov, Rustam Ibragimbekov, Mark Zakharov

Directed by Vladimir Motyl

Soviet Union, 1969

The glimmering cupola on a fondly named Borscht Western chapel, Vladimir Motyl’s 1969 film White Sun of the Desert is a telling contrast to its compatriot Spaghetti Westerns, as it chronicles a few peculiar events of civil war on the Caspian Sea through the eyes of Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov (Anatoli Kuznetsov). The film quickly became an unofficial national treasure, though its statements are offered through the hushed humour of sometimes farcical, often philosophical, performance.

This is a tale of one man stranded on the cusp between a war and his home, his capers peppered by the letters he faithfully scribes to his wife. It is no incidental matter that Fyodor Sukhov’s memories hold a staunch grip on the alabaster skin and scarlet cloth that swathes Katerina Matveyevna (Galina Luchai).

With her voluptuous figure,...

A Festival of Russian films is being organized at the Russian Culture Centre, Mumbai by the Federation of Film Societies of India (Ffsi). The films will be screened on every Monday and Friday of September at 6.00 p.m.

Festival of Action-Disaster Films

Sept 2:

Film: The Air Crew

Director: Alexander Mitta

Duration: 144 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 5:

Film: The Cold Summer Of 1953

Director: Alexander Proshkin

Duration: 96 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 9:

Film: The White Sun Of The Desert

Director: Vladimir Motyl

Duration: 85 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 12:

Film: The Island

Director: Pavel Lungin

Duration: 110 min. / Subtitle: English

Festival of Children’s Films

Sept 16:

Film: Treasure Island

Director: Evgeni Fridman

Duration: 86 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 19:

Film: The Little Mermaid

Director: Vladimir Bychkov

Duration: 81 min. / Subtitle: English

Sept 23:

Film: Musicians From Bremen

Director: Alexander Abolulov

Duration: 85 min. / Subtitle: English

Festival of Andrei Mikhalkov-Koncharlovsky Films

Sept 26:

Film: The Nest Of The Gentry

Duration: 81 min.

Did you already see The Old Donkey (Lao lutou, 2010; Li Riujun)?, folks asked us day in, day out all through Rotterdam, and for most of the festival, the answer was a grumpy, No., thinking, Can't be as good as 13 kleine Esel und der Sonnenhof (1958, d.:Hans Deppe)—production title: 13 alte Esel—and that's already not really good. It wasn't, as we finally found out: Whenever the quietly cheerful donkey was out of the picture and we were forced to deal with the film as such, boredom ruled—another one of dem PRChinese Indies straight from the arthouse-for-Do-Gooders assembly line.

A donkey was also the unannounced star of Huangjiang nüxia (The Swordswoman of Huangjiang, 1930; Chen Kengran), although we're not too supportive about the way he's treated: The eponymous heroine uses it as her means of transport. Harrumph. Yet, in this case we're willing to make an exception, as the swordswoman...