Vadim Mikheyenko

Double Passing (Dvoynoy obgon) is a 1984 Soviet crime movie directed by Aleksandr Gordon. Truckers Viktor and Ivan Petrovich transport a valuable cargo on a highway in uninhabited territory in the South of USSR. A pair of criminals, seasoned "Bug" and young and ill-tempered "Lyon'ka", hijack the truck. Capt. Madzhiev of the road patrol chases the truck while the truckers are hold by criminals and their life is in grave danger.

На край света...

An entertaining show featuring various artists. A wise parrot teaches Maxim Leonidov - the leader of 'Secret', a very popular group at the time - how to become a star.

With a brother dedicated to punk rock stardom at any cost and a drunken father who chases skirt between robotic dancing lessons from the TV, young Senka stands as much chance of nurture as the hero of Truffaut's 400 Blows. The amazing thing about Ogorodnikov's film is that it was made in Russia. Clearly, plenty of Soviet teenies share the nihilistic feelings of their Western counterparts, and the extensive footage of safety-pin chic at concerts perhaps points to a sound export instinct on the director's part. Senka's brother Kostya is under pressure from Howmuch, a very heavy rocker, to steal a synthesiser from the Community Centre, so to protect him Senka steals it himself. The story occupies little more space than the music, but the performances are splendid enough to lodge Senka's predicament in the heart.

This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.