Vasya is a 2002 American documentary film written, directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky. The film tells the story of RussianundergroundartistVasily Sitnikov, who was declared insane in early 1940s by the Soviet authorities. A man without a passport, in and out of mental asylums, he was the key and often "larger than life" figure of the nonconformist art movement in the Soviet Union. The movie portrays the struggles of the painter as he meets an American man that wants to buy his work. In 1975 fearing prosecution and another involuntary commitment to a mental asylum he immigrated to Austria and then to the United States. He died virtually unknown in 1987 in NYC.
A number of prominent artists appear in the film, such as Dmitri Plavinsky Vladimir Titov, Kevin Clarke, poet and publisher Konstantyn K. Kuzminsky and art collector Norton Dodge, who has amassed one of the largest collections of Soviet-era art outside the Soviet Union.
Socialist realism was the official cultural doctrine of the Soviet Union that mandated an idealized representation of life under socialism in literature and the visual arts. The doctrine was first proclaimed by the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934 as approved method for Soviet cultural production in all media. In the aftermath of World War II, socialist realism was adopted by the communist states that were politically aligned with the Soviet Union. The primary official objective of socialist realism was "to depict reality in its revolutionary development" although no formal guidelines concerning style or subject matter were provided.
Arkham Asylum is a fictional forensic psychiatric hospital appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in stories featuring Batman. It first appeared in Batman #258, written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv Novick. Located in Gotham City, the asylum houses patients who are criminally insane, as well as select prisoners with unusual medical requirements that are beyond a conventional prison's ability to accommodate. Its high-profile patients are often members of Batman's rogues gallery.
Joseph Peter Pantoliano is an American actor who has played over 150 roles across film, television, and theater. He is best known for portraying Ralph "Ralphie" Cifaretto on the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and Cypher in the sci-fi action film The Matrix (1999).
Ballad of a Soldier, is a 1959 Soviet war romance film directed by Grigory Chukhray and starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko. While set during World War II, Ballad of a Soldier is not primarily a war film. It recounts, within the context of the turmoil of war, various kinds of love: the romantic love of a young couple, the committed love of a married couple, and a mother's love of her child, as a Red Army soldier tries to make it home during a leave, meeting several civilians on his way and falling in love. The film was produced at Mosfilm and won several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film From Any Source and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Gara Abulfaz oghlu Garayev was a prominent Soviet Azerbaijani composer. Garayev wrote nearly 110 musical pieces, including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, solos for piano, cantatas, songs, and marches, and rose to prominence not only in the Azerbaijan SSR, but also in the rest of the Soviet Union and worldwide.
Norton Townshend Dodge was an American economist and educator who amassed one of the largest collections of Soviet-era art outside the Soviet Union.
Rustam Mammad Ibrahim oghlu Ibrahimbeyov was a Soviet and Azerbaijani screenwriter, playwright and producer, well known beyond his home Azerbaijan and the former Soviet Union. He was the chair of the Cinematographers' Union of Azerbaijan and director of the Ibrus Theatre.
Viktor Andriyovych Kravchenko was a Ukrainian-born Soviet defector, known for writing the best-selling book I Chose Freedom, published in 1946, about the realities of life in the Soviet Union.
Savely Viktorovich Kramarov was a Russian–American actor and comedian. He acted in at least 42 Soviet films, and later appeared in several more after his immigration to the United States.
Viktor Pavlovich Pavlov was a Russian stage and film actor.
Vasily Yakovlevich Sitnikov was a Russian painter.
Konstantin Konstantinovich Kuzminsky was a Russian performance poet.
Andrei Zagdansky is an transnational independent documentary filmmaker and producer originally from Ukraine.
Rasim Ojagov was a Soviet-Azerbaijani film director and camera operator, Honoured Art Worker of Chechen-Ingush ASSR (1964), People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1982), laureate of the State Prize of the Azerbaijan SSR.
Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko, also Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko, was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Ukrainian origin. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory.
Promised Heaven is a 1991 Soviet film directed by Eldar Ryazanov. The film is a fantastical social tragicomedy.
Yulian Aleksandrovich Panich was a Soviet and Russian actor, director, and journalist. He was appointed Honored Artist of Russia in 1996.
The Boys from Leningrad is a 1954 Soviet sports comedy film directed by Semyon Timoshenko.
Grigory Davidovich Siyatvinda is a Russian stage and film actor. He has been awarded the Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 2006 and the State Prize of the Russian Federation laureate in 2004.
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