The course begins at the golden era of the Russian cinematography—the 1920s—with the films of the great directors Sergey Eisenstein, Alexander Dovzhenko, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Lev Kuleshov. We proceed with Socialist Realism of the 1930s-1950s to the liberalization of the Thaw period with it's masterpiece The Cranes are Flying. Mature Soviet cinema of the 1970s and '80s produced films by the brilliant Andrei Tarkovsky, as well as by Andrei Konchalovsky and Georgy Daneliya. Beginning of Perestroika and abolishment of censorship were marked by sex and violence exemplified by Little Vera and Taxi Blues. Finally, we will see and discuss contemporary Russian films by Nikita Mikhalkov, Alexey Balabanov, Alexander Sokurov, and others.