With Russia back in the news yet again, it’s interesting to note how comparatively few English language movies are set in the country.
Admittedly in TV there’s been an uptick lately, with two recent series on Catherine The Great in youth/middle age, the Andrew Davies version of War & Peace, McMafia and the multi award-winning Chernobyl.
But in terms of film, depictions of Russia are often confined to WWII, Cold War and other (surprise surprise) spy-related themes. Here are a few of the most memorable:
Enemy at the Gates (2001, Amazon Rental/Buy)
File this under ‘could have been better’. Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Stalingrad epic is hampered by a boring love triangle subplot between Red Army comrades Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, and Rachel Weisz as the object of their affection.
The movie is redeemed by some strong action sequences and the presence of the always reliable Ed Harris, who plays Law’s opposing number in the Wehrmacht.
The late Bob Hoskins pops up as Khrushchev, adding another to his list of historical portrayals, which included Churchill, J Edgar Hoover, Noriega, Mussolini, Pope John XIII and Stalin’s other henchman Beria.
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