Youth on the March! The Rise of the Soviet New Wave – a film season in collaboration with MUBI, the UK’s leading online film streaming platform, showcases the Soviet New Wave’s most exhilarating films at Regent Street Cinema from May to June 2018.
Tracing the clash of generations from the Thaw to Perestroika, Youth on the March! The Rise of the Soviet New Wave, is a film season collaboration with our friends at Regent Street Cinema and MUBI. Curated by renowned film critic and journalist Konstantin Shavlovsky, the season moves from last minute rebellion in Otar Iosseliani’s gentle classic Falling Leaves (1966) to punk contempt in Little Vera (1988) as a new generation of Soviet directors break free to shock, satirise and play.
Unlike the classic films of the French New Wave, these films are still unknown outside of Russia. Most will be shown for the first time in the UK, certainly for the first time on their original formats.
This Georgian debut by Otar Iosseliani follows Nico, an idealistic young worker who begins work at a state-run wine collective only to struggle with the immoral way the factory is run. Falling Leaves is a complex meditation on factory life, disappearing rural traditions and Georgian history.
A bittersweet comedy following the struggle of a high school history teacher who must choose between his head and his heart: will he abide by the strict rules of the school or give in to his natural warmth of feeling towards his students and beautiful fellow teacher, Natalya?
A little-known masterpiece by Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova, this is the story of a mother’s overbearing love for her son.
Russia’s equivalent of the Breakfast Club, this witty comedy follows teenager Ivan as he rebels against tradition and expectation, surrounded by the exciting new world of Western influence: Adidas, skate-culture, breakdancing and pop music.
Podnieks’ ground-breaking documentary is a portrait of rebellious teenagers growing up under Communist rule in Latvia – thought of as one of the most controversial films of its era.
The film that brought Russian rock music from the underground into the mainstream, this cult crime classic tells a tale of jealousy and violence between a young nurse, her lover – the head of a criminal gang, and an eccentric young musician.
Part Pulp Fiction, part Betty Blue, Naugmanov’s film charts the attempt of enigmatic drifter, Moro, who returns to Almaty to find his ex girlfriend stuck in the underground world of the drugs, mafia and violence.