Top 20 movies by ‘Lenfilm’ studio

March 5, 2024, marks the 110th anniversary of ‘Lenfilm’, Russia’s oldest film studio. For a long time, April 30, 1918, was considered it's birthday, when the Bolsheviks established the ‘Petrograd Film Committee’ (the first name of the studio).

However, the first Russian film studio emerged as early as 1914. The charitable Skobelev Committee under the General Staff established a cinematographic department in St. Petersburg, which had a monopoly on documentary footage from World War I. After the revolution and nationalization of private initiatives, it was on its basis that the ‘Petrograd Film Committee’, known today as ‘Lenfilm’ (this name appeared in 1934), was opened.

For more than a century of existence, the studio has produced such iconic movies as ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson’, ‘White Sun of the Desert’ and ‘Heart of a Dog’.

1. ‘Storming the Winter Palace’(dir. Konstantin Derzhavin, 1920)

This movie was made for the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution. And it featured a theatrical production of ‘The Storm of the Winter Palace’, staged by director Nikolai Evreinov. Soviet propaganda showed footage from this movie so often that they began to be perceived as documentaries.

2. ‘Chapaev’ (dirs. Georgy & Sergey Vasilyev, 1934)

This now cult movie about the Civil War won the first prize at the First Moscow Film Festival in 1935. The main characters are Red Army commander Vasily Chapaev, his warrant Petka and Anka the machine-gunner. All of them became folk heroes and hundreds of anecdotes were written about them. It was also one of Joseph Stalin's favorite movies, which he watched, according to rumor, about 30 times.

3. ‘Cinderella’ (dir. Nadezhda Kosheverova, Mikhail Shapiro, 1947)

The screenplay for this fairy-tale movie was written by famous playwright Yevgeny Shvarts, who shone a new light on Charles Perrault's good old story about a girl who loses one of her shoes. Soviet people related well to the storyline about a hard-working girl oppressed by her stepmother (played by legendary actress Faina Ranevskaya). And, at the time, the war-weary country needed a fairy tale-with a happy ending.

4. ‘Striped Trip’ (dir. Vladimir Fetin, 1961)

This eccentric comedy became a box office hit in 1961, with 45.8 million viewers hitting the cinemas that year. According to the plot, a cook named Shuleykin takes a job aboard a Soviet ship leaving the port of a fictitious exotic country. A dozen tigers and lions are also on board, poached to be delivered to zoos in the USSR. To get home, the pretends to be a tamer of wild animals, who suddenly find themselves out of their cages once the journey is underway...

5. ‘Amphibian Man’ (dir. Vladimir Chebotarev & Gennady Kazansky, 1961)

The big screen adaptation of Alexander Belyaev's fantastic novel became a Soviet box office hit in 1962 (65 million viewers) and reminds of the Oscar-winning ‘The Shape of Water’ (2018). A young man (played by the charismatic Vladimir Korenev) has been transplanted with the gills of a shark. He lives in the water and makes friends with dolphins. But, one day, he falls in love with a girl he saves from drowning. He wants to become a human being to be with her. But alas, he can't live without water for long... 

6. ‘Hamlet’ (dir. Grigory Kozintsev, 1964)

Shakespeare's tragedy has always fascinated filmmakers all over the world and Russians are no exception. The role of Hamlet was played by Innokenty Smoktunovsky, considered one of the most outstanding Soviet actors, who was called the first intellectual character actor of Soviet cinema. His performance as the Prince of Denmark is still considered canonical today. The movie was nominated for many prestigious world film awards, but was only awarded the special prize at the Venice Film Festival.

7. ‘White Sun of the Desert’ (dir. Vladimir Motyl, 1969)

The south of Russia, the Caspian Sea. The Civil War has just ended. Red Army soldier Fyodor Sukhov is walking home through the desert to his beloved wife. Suddenly, he comes across some bandits...

This was considered the first Soviet 'Eastern' movie, which authorities initially refused to release in movie theaters, demanding it to be re-shot or have certain scenes cut out. But, it is believed that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, a great fan of the genre of this movie, personally gave permission to release it.

8. ‘Trial on the Road’ (dir. Alexei German, 1971)

Alexei German was a representative of the Leningrad school of directors formed at ‘Lenfilm’ studio. They rejected the canonical socialist realism and strove for maximum authenticity. They often turned to the theme of World War II, rethinking its meaning and tragedy. German's experiments went far: he filmed a movie about a former collaborator, who voluntarily surrendered to the partisans. But, censorship banned it from deing distributed. German was accused of distorting the heroic image of the Soviet people. Only in 1986 did 'Trial on the Road' finally reach a mass audience.

9. ‘Woodpeckers Don't Get Headaches’ (dir. Dinara Asanova, 1974)

A Soviet schoolboy nicknamed ‘Fly’ dreams of playing drums in a jazz ensemble. But, so far, he is a weak and miserable teenager, that gets bullied a lot. Even his older brother, a basketball player, often gives him a hard time. Meanwhile, Fly is in love with his beautiful classmate Ira (who only sees him as a friend) and it seems to him that this teenage nightmare will never end. Director Asanova's debut feature film is one of the first Soviet attempts to understand the "teenage" theme, the complex psychology of children growing up It is also a very atmospheric movie about first love.

10. ‘Twenty Days Without War’ (dir. Alexei German, 1977)

Another poignant movie by Alexei German on the World War II theme. A war correspondent goes on an editorial assignment to the rear to consult a movie filmed on his essays. And he falls in love and, for 20 days, forgets about everything, even about the war. The script for the movie was written by Konstantin Simonov, a real-life war correspondent, writer and poet (author of the iconic World War II poem ‘Wait for me and I’ll return’).

11. ‘The Lonely Voice of Man’ (dir. Alexander Sokurov, 1978)

Having returned home from the Civil War, a Red Army soldier cannot get away from its horrors and return to ordinary life. He falls in love with Lyuba, a student, and throws all his energy into taking care of her. This psychological drama (and Alexander Sokurov's first full-length work) was also shelved for a long time and only saw distribution in 1987.

12. ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson’ (dir. Igor Maslennikov, 1979-1986)

This Soviet TV show about the most famous literary detective turned out so successful that actor Vasily Livanov (who plays Sherlock Holmes) was even awarded the ‘Order of the British Empire’. London in the movie was "played" by Leningrad, Tallinn and Riga, while the apartment on Baker Street was created in one of ‘Lenfilm’ studio’s pavilions.

13. ‘Three in a Boat’ (dir. Naum Birman, 1979)

Soviet audiences got a somewhat caricatured image of Victorian gentlemen from this light musical comedy based on Jerome K. Jerome's novel: A bit awkward, good-natured and romantic, wearing striped bathing suits and funny hats. One of the main roles was played by cult actor and sex symbol of that generation, Andrei Mironov.

14. ‘The Blonde Around the Corner’ (dir. Vladimir Bortko, 1984)

Blonde Nadezhda is a real go-getter. She knows where to get things that are in short supply, is well connected and something of a VIP, since she works in a grocery store, which, in the USSR, was almost like being a factory boss.

Having fallen in love with a dreamy astrophysicist, she tries to remodel him, but he can think only of extraterrestrial civilizations. This is one of the last Soviet comedies and a box office hit in its day.

15. ‘My Friend Ivan Lapshin’ (dir. Alexei German, 1984)

One of the most important movies about perestroika was based on Alexei German’s father's novel. In the movie, the director tried to convey the atmosphere of the 1930s and show a true hardscrabble portrait of the everyday life of that time.

In the plot, the chief of criminal police of a small town lives in a cramped communal apartment, catches a gang, unrequitedly falls in love with an actress and finds himself caught in a love triangle with an old friend.

16. ‘Winter Cherry’ (dir. Igor Maslennikov, 1985)

This life-like melodrama about unspent love and loneliness was so beloved by Soviet audiences that director Igor Maslennikov, author of the abovementioned ‘Sherlock Holmes’ TV series, made two more sequels (and announced a fourth, but the project was frozen). It was one of the first Soviet perestroika movie to contain an erotic scene.

17. ‘Heart of a Dog’ (dir. Vladimir Bortko, 1988)

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel was banned for a long time in the USSR for being too satirical on the Soviet social order. But, during perestroika, it was finally published and it had such a deafening effect on the public that it was immediately adapted to the screen. Starring Yevgeny Yevstigneev, it became a cult movie and is an endless source of memes and quotes.

18. ‘Peculiarities of the National Hunt’ (dir. Alexander Rogozhkin, 1995)

A young Finnish man persuades a Russian friend to take him on a real Russian hunt. Not thinking long, the guy brings the foreigner to a company of hunters, among whom is his familiar general. To the Finn's shock, the Russians start drinking heavily, steaming in the bath and, it seems, have even forgot about hunting... 

This hilarious comedy propelled Finnish actor Ville Haapasalo to become a real star in Russia after the release. The movie became so popular that several sequels were made.

19. ‘Moloch’ (dir. Alexander Sokurov, 1999)

Outstanding director Alexander Sokurov is concerned with the question of the nature of power and has devoted five of his films to it. ‘Moloch’, the first in this series, shows a day in the private life of Adolf Hitler. The Führer is vacationing with Eva Braun in his cottage in the Alps, where he is visited by Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda and Martin Bormann. Co-produced with France, Germany, Italy and Japan, the movie was filmed in Germany and won many international awards.

20. ‘Hard to Be a God’ (dir. Alexey German, 2013)

Alexei German thought about the screen adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers' 1963 science fiction novel in the late 1960s, but only managed to realize his idea in the early 2000s. The movie became his last work. His son, director Alexei German Jr. had to complete the production and the premiere was held after his father’s death. The action takes place on another planet in the distant future, but the social order of humanoids more reminiscent of the earthly Middle Ages. A group of scientists from Earth observe the monks of an Order seize power.