Movies: Isaak Dunayevsky

Widely claimed to be Joseph Stalin's favorite movie, this classic musical comedy is a must-see. The action takes place on a steamboat on the iconic Volga River, as two groups of performers travel to Moscow to perform in the Moscow Musical Olympiad....

Merry Fellows was the first Soviet musical comedy. Set in Odessa and Moscow in the 1930s. Shepherd Kostya Potekhin (Utyosov) is mistaken for an international concert star. He falls in love with Anyuta (Orlova) and plays the "star" for her. In a casca...

An American circus performer finds herself the victim of racism after it is revealed that she's the mother of a mixed-race child. In the midst of the public scandal, she finds happiness, love, and refuge in the USSR....

A copying error by a military scribe turns the Russian words "the lieutenants, however" into what looks like "lieutenant Kizhe". The Tsar reads the error, and wants to meet this (non-existent) lieutenant. The courtiers, eager to avoid the wrath of th...

Tanya Morozova, an illiterate but industrious textile factory worker, finds happiness through her education and the Stakhanovite movement. She becomes a shock labourer and ascends through the Party ranks, ultimately being elected as a member of the S...

The movie's opening sequence takes place in 1921, towards the end of Russia's civil war, as the Red Army are vanquishing the last Menshevik forces of the White Guard along the western frontier....

An old man suddenly realizes that both his daughters aren't happy so he decides to help them to find happiness....

The film tells the story of an ordinary guy Anton Kandidov. First he works on agricultural work — transports on boat on Volga watermelons. Noticing how deftly Anton catches and loads watermelons, he is told that he could become a goalkeeper and play ...

In the steppes of the Kuban love is born on two collective farms while wheat is (enthusiastically) gathered. Galina, the energetic chairwoman of one of the two kolkhozes, vies with her male counterpart for the best harvest. At the same time Gordey, h...

A drab woman scientist, working on machine to harness solar energy, and a pert concert singer look-alike being courted to play her in a movie swap identities and find personal growth, professional success, love, and happiness....

Comedy about brothers Vesnushkin, Sasha and Vasya, who are playing for one team in a National Soccer Competition. However, Sasha falls in love with a beautiful girl and loses his confidence just before the final game, so his brother has to take the l...

During the 1920s, many impoverished Jews searching for a better life made their way to Birobidzhan, the Soviet Jewish Autonomous Region on the Chinese border. This melodrama tells the story of a Jewish family's immigration to Birobidzhan and their ex...

Based on the operetta of the same name by Isaak Dunayevsky. The port town of one of the small southern countries. After the Nazi occupiers left, the port's berths were empty, the steamers did not smoke, cargo cranes stood. Fearing retaliation for co...

Information about the upcoming coup d'etat falls into the hands of a TV reporter. At his own risk, he begins an investigation......

A new construction manager, Zaitsev, arrives in a small town. Two of his former comrades from the Red Army work here: Glinka, the director of the paper factory, and Latsis, the head of the timber rafting operation. Zaitsev advocates for the rapid exp...

The film is about the life and work of Grigory Ordzhonikidze Konstantinoviche, an important personality in both the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The film includes speeches by his bereaved friends who attended his funeral. In 1937, after the...

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On the detention of fascist saboteurs and border violators by the collective farmers of Soviet Byelorussia. The main heroine, the actual "daughter of the Motherland", is the chairman of the kolkhoz, and has detained eight trespassers. But the main en...

The daughter of a sailor who died at sea, she lives in a port city with her mother. The shipowner threatens to kick them out of the house if they don't pay for six months or if she doesn't marry him. The handsome sailor and rebel appears in the city,...

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