Cult crime comedy 8 ½ $ (1999), directorial debut of Grigori Konstantinopolsky, starring Ivan Okhlobystin and Fyodor Bondarchuk was a satiric take on 1990s Russia. It told the story of a television advertisement director who becomes romantically involved with a gangster's girlfriend. Svetlana Baskova directed the low-budget independently made exploitation shock-horror film The Green Elephant in 1999. Baskova noted that the film was conceived as a protest against the Chechen war. In 2022 the film has been banned in Russia. 2000s The film His Wife's Diary (2000) by Aleksei Uchitel won awards at both Kinotavr and Nika. The biographical film was about the last love affair of writer Ivan Bunin. Uchitel's 2005 film Dreaming of Space won the Golden George at the Moscow Film Festival. Roman Kachanov directed the absurdist comedies Demobbed (2000) and Down House (2001), which were both co-written with actor Ivan Okhlobystin who also starred in the films. Both are considered to be cult films in Russia. FIPRESCI awarded a special mention to the film Demobbed at the 2000 Kinotavr. The Cuckoo by Aleksandr Rogozhkin won multiple awards at the Moscow Film Festival in 2002. The WWII set film starred Finnish actor Ville Haapasalo as a stranded Finnish sniper. Egor Konchalovsky directed Antikiller (2002) starring Gosha Kutsenko as a police officer turned vigilante proved to be a success among Russian audiences. In 2002 Pavel Lungin directed the film Tycoon about a Russian oligarch. Vladimir Mashkov played the Boris Berezovsky inspired lead character. 2002 comedy-drama film In Motion was the directorial debut of Filipp Yankovsky. Feature film debut by Aleksei German Jr. The Last Train (2003) won the Best Picture and International Film Critics' Awards at Thessaloniki. For his film Paper Soldier, Aleksei German Jr. received the Silver Lion Award from the Venice Film Festival in 2008. Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return (2003), a Golden Lion award recipient, shows two brothers' test of life when their father suddenly returns that reaches a deep almost-mystic pitch. The Russian Ark (2003) by Alexander Sokurov, was filmed in a single 96-minute shot in the Russian Hermitage Museum is a dream-like narration that tells about classic Russian culture sailing in the Ark. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Night Watch (2004) by Timur Bekmambetov was one of the first blockbusters made after the collapse of the Soviet film industry. The supernatural thriller starred Konstantin Khabensky and was based on the eponymous