russia time travel movies

AIR & SPACE MAGAZINE

A brief guide to russian space movies.

In the 60 years since Gagarin, the world’s first spacefaring nation has produced its own equivalents of The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 .

Asif Siddiqi

Russians are proud of their space history. On any given month in Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are anniversaries, retrospectives, and commemorations featuring veterans ready to talk about yet another memoir, exhibition, or “definitive” history book. One part of this growing nostalgia industry is the expanding number of motion pictures based on the nation’s space program. In the Soviet era, there was a long and distinguished tradition of thought-provoking (and occasionally mind-blowing) science fiction movies set in outer space. That lineage traces its roots back to the classic silent movie Aelita (1924) from director Yakov Protazanov, about a proletarian revolution that takes place on Mars. Later notable movies included Andrei Tarkovsky’s influential and meditative classic Solaris (1972) and The Sky Beckons (1959), also known as Battle Beyond the Sun , a movie said to have influenced Western directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick.

In the post-Cold War era and particularly in the past decade or so, the Russian film industry has favored another genre of space-themed moviemaking—docudramas in the style of American blockbusters like The Right Stuff (1983) and Apollo 13 (1995). These new films are semi-fictionalized accounts of key moments in Soviet space history, and like their American counterparts, they traffic in nostalgia for the halcyon days of the space race. Some have very high production values comparable to those of big-budget American releases such as First Man (2018). And they share a similar theme: triumph over adversity.

Not surprisingly, the first big space movie in post-Soviet times was about legendary Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolev. Made by a well-known Russian director, Yuri Kara, Korolev (2007) covers the early life of the designer, focusing particularly on his arrest and incarceration in the Stalinist Gulag in the late 1930s. As one would expect from a movie blessed by Korolev’s daughter Natalya Sergeyevna, this is more of a hagiography than a critical take. But the aesthetic is firmly in the mode of dramatic realism, with graphic and often violent depictions of Korolev’s life in the Gulag.

The acting, especially of the larger ensemble, is high-level, and the scenery is breathtaking—the scenes of Korolev leaving the Gulag camp on foot are spectacular. But the 130-minute film is weighed down by predictability and presentiment. We learn little about Korolev’s real motivations beyond a rote “must conquer space!” And there is almost no nuance in the depiction of an unusual man possessed of a deeply conflicted and complex personality. Kara directed a sequel called Chief (2015) covering Korolev’s years as Chief Designer—the period in which he presided over the successes of Sputnik and the pioneering spaceflights of Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov. But this movie, clearly made with a smaller budget, comes off even worse, more like a made-for-TV special than a theatrical release.

A 2013 biopic about Gagarin, First in Space , is no better. Directed by Pavel Parkhomenko, the movie chronicles the first cosmonaut’s historic flight with flashbacks to his childhood and early life, but suffers from clunky special effects and an odd conclusion: The movie ends abruptly with Gagarin’s return to Earth. The director plays up the tension between Gagarin and his backup Gherman Titov, but even that bit of drama fails to tell us anything of value about Gagarin the person, beyond a kind of surface-level heroism, modesty, and patriotism.

For much better movies based on Soviet space history, I recommend two recent entries, Yuri Bykov and Dmitry Kiselov’s Age of Pioneers (also known as The Spacewalker ) and Klim Shipenko’s Salyut-7 , both released in 2017. Both make use of expensive special effects and dramatic tension to portray two of the most fraught episodes in Soviet space history—the first spacewalk by Leonov in 1965 and the dangerous rescue of the derelict Salyut-7 space station twenty years later. Leonov himself consulted on the Age of Pioneers , and his involvement ensures a certain historical accuracy, even if the story has been embellished. Recently declassified documents on the Voskhod-2 flight show that some of Leonov’s accounts of that mission, such as the difficulty in getting back into his spaceship from the airlock, were exaggerated. Despite these revelations, there’s no doubt that the Voskhod-2 mission was one of the riskiest in the early history of space exploration. The nail-biting second half of Age of Pioneers makes you wonder how the crew ever made it back alive.

I wouldn’t recommend either Age of Pioneers or Salyut-7 for strict adherence to historical fact, but the latter movie does convey beautifully the grandeur, dangers, and terror of space travel. Although not wellknown in the West, the Salyut-7 rescue is unequivocally worthy of motion picture treatment. After a series of successful long-duration missions, Soviet controllers completely lost contact with the station in early 1985. They sent two of the most experienced cosmonauts in the corps, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, to rescue and revive the station. As the movie shows, this was neither easy nor safe. Viewers should be cautioned that many aspects of the mission are fictionalized, including the names of the cosmonauts themselves and a rather absurd plot involving the NASA space shuttle. But in communicating an overall sense of the late-Soviet period space program, this movie does a superb job. We see Soviet space hardware in a way rarely seen on celluloid, and more importantly, we see cosmonauts as fallible human beings. The movie has a similar feel to Alfonso Cuarón’s blockbuster movie Gravity (2013) in that it stretches credibility to tell a moving story. And the direction and acting are so good that you might forgive some of its more egregious deviations from truth.

These recent docudramas are only part of a broader surge of Russian movies dealing with space travel. As Natalija Majsova, a professor of cultural and religious studies at the University of Ljubljana, has noted, this fascination with the cosmos in the past 20 years appears to be due to a “renewed political interest in the achievements of the Soviet era and its nation-building myths, increased resources for film production…[and an] updated marketing and branding strategy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.” Some of these films, such as Paper Soldier (2008) and Dreaming of Space (2005), have tended to appeal to arthouse audiences.

By far the sharpest and most compelling of these is the mockumentary First on the Moon (2005), which pretends to be a modern look back at a long-forgotten (and entirely fake) program initiated by Josef Stalin to send cosmonauts to the moon in the 1930s. Director Aleksei Fedorchenko took great care to recreate the feel of a real documentary, complete with a sober narration and recovered bits of 1930s-era film.

More clever and biting than anything produced in the West, First on the Moon operates as a critique not only of Stalinist culture, but of a slew of real Soviet space documentaries that were heavy on heroism and socialist triumphalism. In leaving open the “mystery” of what happened to Stalin’s moon program, it flips the usual conventions of science fiction by asking us to imagine not an alternate future but an alternate past. In a post-Soviet Russia often gripped by nostalgia for Soviet times, such alternative histories play powerfully to those disaffected and cynical Russians for whom optimistic views of the future might seem naïve. It’s the kind of work that’s impossible to imagine being produced at the time of Gagarin’s flight 60 years ago, when the Soviet space program was full of hope.

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Asif Siddiqi | | READ MORE

Asif Siddiqi is a professor of history at Fordham University in New York and the author of The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Read more at asifsiddiqi.com .

• 9 Soviet Sci Fi Movies...

9 Soviet Sci-Fi Movies You Need to See

Soviet cinematography contributed some real gems to the science fiction genre. From Tarkovsky ’s masterpieces to apocalypse films, through to dark social satire, here’s our round-up of Soviet movies every sci-fi geek should put on their must-see list.

Solaris (1972).

On a quest to find the cause of an epidemic of madness that’s broken out at a space station Solaris, psychologist Kris Kelvin soon has to face his own tragic past, when the ghost of his late wife starts haunting him. Based on the book of the same name by Polish writer Stanisław Lem , Solaris is the Citizen Kane of Soviet sci-fi movies. Andrei Tarkovsky brings together space travel with a heart-wrenching love story and stunning photography to create an undeniable masterpiece.

Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1978)

Stalker (1979)

Another timeless work by the most influential Soviet/Russian director of all time, Tarkovsky’s Stalker is a visually stunning movie that every sci-fi-lover must watch. Based on a book by famous Soviet sci-fi writer duo the Strugatsky brothers, the film is believed to be a prophecy for the Chernobyl catastrophe. Stalker tells a story of three men going through a dark and mysterious area called ‘The Zone’, and just like all Tarkovsky’s films, provides a deep insight into the human soul.

Zero City (1988)

Triggered by the rise of Soviet underground culture, this dark absurdist tragicomedy is believed to be an allegorical script for the USSR collapse. Set in a bizarre universe where nothing is impossible, Zero City contains some dark scenes that will haunt you long after the film has ended.

Dead Man’s Letters (1986)

Directed by Tarkovsky’s most dedicated follower, Dead Man’s Letters is arguably the darkest Soviet movie yet. The story follows a small group of survivors in an unknown nuclear war-torn land, as the world is coming to an end. Prepare to see a strikingly realistic portrayal of apocalypse, full of smog covered sky, piles of crumpled rusty metal, and tons of dead bodies.

Kin-Dza-Dza! (1986)

A cult Soviet movie, Kin-Dza-Dza! is a quirky sci-fi satire, pondering imperfections of both communist and capitalist worlds. Set on a far-away planet inhabited by mind-reading aliens, this is a dark absurdist comedy you’d never expect from Soviet cinematography.

The Sky is Calling (1959)

Known to American audiences as The Battle Beyond the Sun , this Soviet film was acquired by Roger Corman and edited for US distribution by Francis Ford Coppola, a young film student at that time. Released to celebrate the launch of Sputnik 1, this film about mission to Mars is believed to have inspired the style of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey .

Per Aspera ad Astra (1981)

Based on the novel by sci-fi writer Kir Bulychev, this movie is also known as Through the Thorns to the Stars or Humanoid Woman . A visually rich intergalactic travel story, Per Aspera ad Astra makes for a great cinematic experience with its spectacular photography, emotion-charged scenes, some of which are pretty scary, and the most beautiful humanoid in history of Soviet science fiction, played by Yelena Metyolkina.

Moscow-Kassiopeia & Teens in the Universe

This Soviet YA sci-fi duology revolves around a space mission to a planet in the Cassiopeia constellation. When a strange distress signal from deep space reaches Earth, the decision is made to send a group of teenagers no older than 14 on a rescue mission, and to train them during the 27-year-long flight so that they reach their destination fully-prepared as adults. Events take a different turn, however, when stowaway student Lobanov accidentally makes the ship transcend light speed and causes them to reach their destination 27 years ahead schedule.

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Screen Rant

The tomorrow war: where the aliens came from (& how long they were on earth).

The Tomorrow War's aliens are a big mystery but the film drops several clues about the Whitespikes. Here's everything known so far about the monsters.

Warning: SPOILERS for The Tomorrow War .

The Tomorrow War depicts a devastating future conflict between humanity and extraterrestrial monsters called the Whitespikes. The film's final act delivered some crucial info about the alien invaders' background and how they arrived on Earth. But even though a team led by biology teacher and former Green Beret Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) destroyed a crashed spaceship containing the monsters, The Tomorrow War leaves behind many open questions about the Whitespikes.

As a sci-fi time travel movie ,  The Tomorrow War operates on two timelines. In 2022, soldiers from the year 2051 emerge to deliver the grim news that mankind was hopelessly losing a war with the Whitespikes. The aliens, who were believed to have stealthily arrived on Earth by avoiding all satellite detection, suddenly appeared in Russia in 2048. The creatures swarmed outward across the continents while rapidly reproducing thanks to their Queen, which is stronger and more impervious to harm than the male footsoldiers. With their tough hides, strength, prehensile limbs, and the ability to use spikes as projectiles, the Whitespikes decimated the human race. Within 3 years, the Earth's population was reduced to a mere 500,000 survivors. The Whitespikes used humans for food and while they are ferocious pack hunters, they seem to have no interest in technology, money, or other aspects of society. When Dan is drafted to fight in 2051, he discovers that his adult daughter Muri (Yvonne Strahovski), is a Colonel who develops a toxin that can kill the Whitespikes, but she needs her father to bring it back to 2022 and mass produce it to prevent the apocalyptic future.

Related: The Tomorrow War Ending & Alien Origins Explained

After they return to 2022, Dan and his fellow soldier Charlie (Sam Richardson) obtain the help of Martin (Seth Scenall), Forester's volcano-obsessed student. Martin determines that ash on the claws of the Whitespikes is from the 946 A.D. eruption of the Changbai volcano, also known as Paektu Mountain. Known as the Millennium Eruption, it was powerful enough to scatter ash as far as Northern Russia. Dan and Charlie concluded that means the Whitespikes have been on Earth and dormant in the arctic ice of Northern Russia for at least a thousand years as opposed to suddenly arriving in 2048. The Tomorrow War is a parable about climate change and the melting of the arctic ice in 2048 somehow awakened and freed the Whitespikes. Leading a team to Russia, which included Charlie and Dan's estranged father James (J.K. Simmons) , Forester proved his theory correct when they found the Whitespikes' spaceship. Unfortunately, during their efforts to kill the aliens with Muri's toxin, they awakened the Whitespikes and had to fight and kill the Queen.

Dan made two more crucial discoveries in Russia: the Whitespikes crashed on Earth centuries ago and they didn't arrive alone. The Whitespikes were actually cargo being transported by another alien race that appears more humanoid and possess a higher intelligence than the savage, monstrous Whitespikes. Unfortunately, in the chaos that erupted when the Whitespikes awakened and the ship was destroyed, Forester and his team didn't learn anything more about the other aliens who owned the spacecraft. There was also no time to determine where the Whitespikes came from or any way to determine the true name and origins of their race.

Before the Whitespikes' rampage in The Tomorrow War 's final action scene, Charlie and Dan theorized that the other aliens were intergalactic colonists who used the Whitespikes to wipe out the existing inhabitants of a planet. However, it's unknown if the aliens intended to bring the Whitespikes to Earth or if crashing on our homeworld a thousand years ago was an accident. If it's the former, then the Whitespikes fulfilled their purpose in the original timeline, which Dan, James, and Charlie seem to have prevented by killing the Queen and the Whitespikes in 2022. However, there are likely more Whitespikes in outer space and there's no telling if another horde of the monsters will arrive on Earth. There may also be more Whitespikes hidden elsewhere on Earth. If The Tomorrow War 2 happens, hopefully, more answers about the Whitespikes and their origins will be revealed.

Next: The Tomorrow War: Why Will Smith Is Dead In The Future

The Tomorrow War is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

• Classic Movies
• Foreign Movies

The 15 Best Russian Movies of All Time, Ranked

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When you think of countries that have made important contributions to film, you probably think of France, Germany, Japan, and, of course, America. If Russia isn't on your list, think again!

Back in the 1920s, Russian formalism brought a sophistication that revolutionized the way filmmakers viewed the potential of film. Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov sit among the world's best and most original auteurs of all time.

Russian cinéastes pioneered a unique style of filmmaking, one that emphasized exquisite cinematography as well as the use of editing to convey special meaning in scenes.

Here are our picks for the best Russian movies of all time that showcase how influential Russian cinema has truly been.

15. The Island (2006)

Directed by Pavel Lungin

Starring Pyotr Mamonov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Dmitriy Dyuzhev

Drama (1h 52m)

7.8 on IMDb — 63% on RT

Set during World War II, Anatoly (played by Pyotr Mamonov) is caught by Germans as they board his ship. They provide him with a choice that'll haunt him forever: shoot his friend or be shot himself.

When Anatoly chooses the former, the decision stays with him for the rest of his life, and he ends up serving as an Eastern Orthodox monk in order to find forgiveness and atonement.

Directed by Pavel Lungin, The Island is an ambitious story about guilt and salvation that's admittedly overwrought but ultimately heartfelt with an optimistic message.

14. Burnt By the Sun (1994)

Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

Starring Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Oleg Menshikov

Drama, War (2h 15m)

7.8 on IMDb — 81% on RT

Paranoia is a powerful thing.

In the summer of 1936, Army commander Sergey Petrovich Kotov (played by Nikita Mikhalkov) is on a family vacation with his wife Marusya (played by Ingeborga Dapkunaite) and his daughter Nadya (played by Nadezhda Mikhalkova).

But when Marusya's long-lost love Mitya (played by Oleg Menshikov) turns up on their doorstep, it soon becomes clear that he isn't there by accident. In fact, his intentions are deceitfully sinister.

Written and directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, Burnt By the Sun takes place during the Great Terror when no one was safe from being accused of crimes against the State without cause, reason, or evidence.

13. Hard to Be a God (2013)

Directed by Aleksey German

Starring Leonid Yarmolnik, Aleksandr Chutko, Yuriy Tsurilo

Drama, Sci-Fi (2h 57m)

6.6 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Based on the science fiction story of the same name by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Hard to Be a God follows the adventures of scientists who are sent to a faraway planet in order to teach a primitive civilization and protect its intellectuals.

Directed by Aleksey German, Hard to Be a God may not be a vast improvement on the source novel, but it still makes for an intriguing film that's beautifully shot and palpably awe-inspiring.

12. Loveless (2017)

Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Starring Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Matvey Novikov

Drama (2h 7m)

7.6 on IMDb — 95% on RT

With Loveless , Andrey Zvyagintsev originally wanted to remake Ingmar Berman's Scenes From a Marriage (1974). What he actually ended up doing was creating one of the best original films of the 2010s.

Loveless follows the separation of two parents—Zhenya (played by Maryana Spivak) and Boris (played by Aleksey Rozin)—who have grown bitter and hostile after an ugly marriage termination.

However, when their son Alyosha (played by Matvey Novikov) goes missing, they're forced to work together. The resulting tale is a thought-provoking observation of a family in crisis.

11. Russian Ark (2002)

Directed by Alexander Sokurov

Starring Sergey Dreyden, Mariya Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy

Drama, Fantasy, History (1h 39m)

7.2 on IMDb — 89% on RT

The burgeoning possibilities of the digital revolution were first taken advantage of by Russian filmmakers. One filmmaker in particular demonstrated the extent to which things could be done.

Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark isn't just exquisitely filmed, nor does it just feature a mesmerizing set design. It's one of the first films to ambitiously make the entire film a one-shot take.

There are no hidden cuts, no camera tricks, no editorial sleights. Russian Ark is pure, innovative filmmaking at its best, and it's widely regarded as a contemporary Russian classic.

10. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Starring Tatyana Samoylova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasiliy Merkurev

Drama, Romance, War (1h 35m)

8.3 on IMDb — 96% on RT

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, The Cranes Are Flying is one of the saddest war films you will ever see.

The film follows the story of Veronika (played by Tatyana Samoylova), who witnesses the total horrors of World War II while waiting for the return of her boyfriend from the front lines.

The Cranes Are Flying is a phenomenal film about loss, grief, and tragedy. It's so well-made and effective that it went on to influence the direction of post-Stalinist Soviet movies.

9. Brother (1997)

Directed by Aleksey Balabanov

Starring Sergey Bodrov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Svetlana Pismischenko

Action, Crime, Drama (1h 39m)

7.8 on IMDb — 100% on RT

Brother is an action crime drama film that's imbued with philosophical questions and existential themes. In a word, brilliant.

The story follows Danila Bagrov (played by Sergey Bodrov), a young man who's just completed his military service and ends up getting involved with the Saint Petersburg mob through his brother.

Unfortunately, this new life of crime takes over and he soon finds that he doesn't even recognize who he is anymore.

8. Man With a Movie Camera (1929)

Directed by Dziga Vertov

Starring Mikhail Kaufman and Elizaveta Svilova

Documentary, Music (1h 8m)

8.4 on IMDb — 98% on RT

Part documentary film and part avant-garde art film masterpiece, Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera completely broke the mold when it came out in 1929.

The content of the film focuses on a normal Russian village living out a normal day. There are no trained actors. It's a true slice of Russian life put to film in the most experimental ways.

Indeed, Man With a Movie Camera wouldn't be compelling if it weren't for Dziga Vertov's new, inventive, and fresh cinematic techniques. Much of modern cinema owes thanks to his developments.

In retrospect, Man With a Movie Camera is one of the most influential and most important documentaries ever made.

7. Andrei Rublev (1966)

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Starring Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko

Biography, Drama, History (3h 25m)

8.1 on IMDb — 95% on RT

Andrei Tarkovsky is going to appear a few times on this list, with his first entry being Andrei Rublev . It's already in a pretty high spot, but one could still argue that it deserves to be even higher.

This lyrical film follows the life of Andrei Rublev (played by Anatoliy Solonitsyn), the real-life Russian icon painter. However, the film is best remembered for its stunning depiction of medieval Russia.

Andrei Rublev is frequently ranked amongst the greatest films ever made, demonstrating how tough the competition is today.

6. Leviathan (2014)

Starring Aleksey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Roman Madyanov

Crime, Drama (2h 20m)

7.6 on IMDb — 97% on RT

Director Andrey Zvyagintsev makes another appearance on this list, this time for the film that made him a household name both in his native Russia and internationally.

Leviathan centers on a fisherman named Kolya (played by Aleksey Serebryakov), who lives in a coastal Russian town that's helmed by a corrupt mayor (played by Roman Madyanov).

When the corrupt bureaucracy tries to claim Kolya's home so the mayor can use the land for his own purposes, Kolya fights back with all of his strength—to harshly realistic results.

Leviathan is ambitious in depth, bleak in tone, and exceptionally resonant, making it a heavy but important watch.

5. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Starring Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov

Drama, History, Thriller (1h 6m)

7.9 on IMDb — 100% on RT

Arguably one of the most important films ever made, Battleship Potemkin is representative of revolution—not just in the world of filmmaking but also in the real world itself.

Soldiers on the warship Potemkin are treated unjustly. They're overworked, malnourished with rotten food, and frivolously struck with cruel punishments. They decide to fight back, which only leads to further oppression in the form of the police.

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, his work on Battleship Potemkin influenced countless auteurs over the years and continues to shape the modern landscape of cinema to this day.

4. Solaris (1972)

Starring Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet

Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi (2h 47m)

8.0 on IMDb — 92% on RT

Andrei Tarkovsky makes his second appearance on this list with the sci-fi classic Solaris , which was largely seen as a response to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

The psychologist Kris Kelvin (played by Donatas Banionis) is sent up to a space station to investigate reports of strange occurrences: a doctor's suspicious death, mental disturbances in the crew, and the growing feeling that all is not as it seems.

Based on the novel of the same name, Solaris does justice to its source material and truly deserves its reputation as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.

3. Stalker (1979)

Starring Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn

Drama, Sci-Fi (2h 42m)

8.1 on IMDb — 100% on RT

Here we have another Tarkovsky film, which also happens to be one of the most influential sci-fi adventure films ever made.

Stalker is set in a distant time and unspecified place, but it's clear that the landscape is post-apocalyptic.

A man who's only known as "the stalker" (played by Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy) leads two clients across the wasteland in search of the mysterious Zone, where they hope to find a room that can supposedly grant one's deepest desires.

Along the way, the stalker recounts some of the events that caused the once-lush planet to become an unforgiving wilderness.

Made on less than $13,000, Stalker blew everyone's socks off when it first came out, and it's still frequently cited as one of the best films of all time. The legacy of this film cannot be understated.

2. Come and See (1985)

Directed by Elem Klimov

Starring Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius

Drama, Thriller, War (2h 22m)

8.4 on IMDb — 90% on RT

Only the best of the best films can top the greatness of aforementioned films like Stalker , Solaris , and Battleship Potemkin . But yes, Come and See has all the greatness to surpass even those films.

In fact, Come and See sat at the very top of Letterboxd's list of Top 250 Narrative Feature Films for years until it was recently usurped and bumped down to second place.

The story follows the horrors of World War II as seen through the eyes of a young boy (played by Aleksey Kravchenko), who's forced to join the Belarusian resistance after German soldiers invade his village.

Directed by Elem Klimov, Come and See employs a unique mixture of hyperrealism and surrealism to present a harrowing narrative that's deeply poetic, existential, and thought-provoking.

1. Mirror (1975)

Starring Margarita Terekhova, Filipp Yankovskiy, Ignat Daniltsev

Biography, Drama (1h 47m)

8.0 on IMDb — 100% on RT

Andrei Tarkovsky appears at the top of our list with a fourth and final movie in Mirror , a film that's so unique and original that it honestly defies any kind of categorization.

Before watching this masterpiece, I was unaware films could even be like this. But that's the power of Mirror , a transcendent piece of cinema that redefined the possibilities of film.

Though there isn't necessarily a plot, Mirror is about love, the passing of time, family, death, memory, childhood, and what it means to be a human being. In short, the film is about everything.

Mirror has frequently been listed in Sight and Sound 's poll of the greatest films of all time . Since it's widely considered to be the magnum opus of the greatest Russian filmmaker, Mirror tops our list as the best Russian movie of all time.

The 15 Best Time Travel Movies Ever Made

Turn back the clock

In Netflix’s “The Adam Project,” a fighter pilot from the future named Adam (Ryan Reynolds) accidentally crash lands in 2022, and has to team up with his 12-year-old former self (Walker Scobell) in order to have a chance at a future victory. But while Adam physically journeys to his own past, other time travel movies have seen objects, communication, and even consciousness skip back and forth along the timeline to affect their stories.

Below, we look at 15 of the very best movies centered around time travel, each putting its own unique spin on the concept of characters who, in some way, manage to traverse time. 

“Time After Time” (1979)

While none of the cinematic adaptations of the prolific works of 19th century science-fiction writer HG Wells are on this list, the writer himself is (or at least a fictionalized version of him) in the time hopping murder mystery “Time After Time.” Malcolm McDowell plays Wells, who takes to his newly invented time machine after realizing that notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper (David Warner) is not only someone he considered a friend, but has also used his machine to travel to the future. Feeling partially responsible for the harm Jack will inflict, Wells follows him to the late 1970s, where both men set their sights on bank teller Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen, who also appears later on this list in “Back to the Future III”), although for very different reasons. While viewers may come to “Time After Time” for the time-hopping cat and mouse chase, as Wells races to stop Jack from killing again, they’ll stay for the sweet romance that blooms between Wells and Amy along the way. 

“Terminator” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1984, 1991)

After the second (and arguably superior) film, the “Terminator” franchise gets a bit uneven, but James Cameron’s first two installments still hold up, with one of the coolest premises in the time travel genre. In a war-torn future where humans are locked in a battle with intelligent machines, a cyborg assassin called a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the woman fated to give birth to the eventual hero of mankind. Meanwhile, humans also send back one of their own to protect her. The result is a tense and action-packed adventure that capitalizes on its paradoxical premise by delivering some truly jaw-dropping twists. The sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” sees Sarah’s son, now a teenager, still in danger from time-traveling machines, but this time protected by a reprogrammed Terminator sent back to save him.

“Back to the Future” trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)

Still the gold standard for time travel movies nearly four decades later, the “Back to the Future” trilogy has been the entry point to concepts like temporal paradoxes, causal loops, and the space-time continuum for multiple generations of viewers. While the first movie is commonly considered the best, all three are a ton of fun, due in large part to knockout comedic performances from Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox as Doc, the man who invents time travel, and Marty, the high school student who accidentally uses it to break his own timeline, respectively. “Back to the Future II” sees Marty catastrophically changing his own present by getting greedy to the future, while “Back to the Future III” finds Doc and Marty stranded in the Old West and pressed to figure out a way to escape before Doc’s time runs out. 

“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986)

The Star Trek franchise is no stranger to time travel stories, and there are numerous Star Trek films that would make solid additions to this list. But for our money, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” is the best of them. After an alien probe starts vacuuming up all of Earth’s oceans in 2286 in an attempt to make contact with a then-extinct species, it’s up to Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the starship Enterprise to travel back in time to retrieve a pair of humpback whales from 1986 and save the future. Is the premise a little silly when you spell it out? Yes. But it’s also a ton of fun, giving the original Star Trek cast a chance to stretch their comedic muscles after a few much more dramatic outings, while still delivering the type of earnest, optimistic storytelling that has always defined Star Trek at its best. “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” also stars Catherine Hicks as the 20th century scientist who aids Kirk on his mission, who you may also remember from the other big time travel film of 1986, “Peggy Sue Got Married.” 

“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989)

There are some time travel movies that challenge everything you thought you knew about reality, and then there are movies like “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” We’ll never pretend that this ridiculous romp through history to save the GPAs of a couple high school goofballs (Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) destined to write a song that will save the world is exactly what you’d call smart. Its premise alone would be bound to give Doc Brown a migraine. But there’s something undeniably joyous about watching these two kindhearted and enthusiastic doofuses get to interact with some of the most notable figures from history. Just don’t think too hard about it (Bill and Ted certainly don’t) and enjoy the ride. 

“Groundhog Day” (1993)

One of the most fascinating sub genres of time travel is the time loop story , in which a character gets stuck repeating the same stretch of time over and over. But while many movies have come along to play with this idea, the reigning champion continues to be “Groundhog Day,” which sees Bill Murray as a cantankerous weatherman destined to cover the same Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Groundhog Day festival every day ad infinitum, unless he can figure out a way to stop it. “Groundhog Day” hilariously takes every approach imaginable to the idea of repeating the same day for all eternity, from the macabre to the benevolent and everything in between. It’s a romcom, it’s a drama, it’s a fantasy, and it’s some of Bill Murray‘s best work that will leave you and stitches no matter how many times you watch it.

“12 Monkeys” (1995) 

Sometimes time travel movies have a bit of a wacky idea of what the future might look like, which is definitely the case with “12 Monkeys,” which sees humanity driven underground in the wake of a civilization-ending virus. Bruce Willis plays a low level criminal named James Cole who is presented with the opportunity to wipe his record clean in exchange for traveling to the past and gathering information about the virus. But of course, you can’t just show up in the mid-’90s ranting about being from the future without consequences, and Cole quickly finds himself committed to a mental institution, where he crosses paths with a good-natured psychiatrist (Madeleine Stow) and a fellow patient (Brad Pitt), who finds Cole’s ideas of the future very intriguing. The tone of “12 Monkeys” starts off feeling a little bizarre and off kilter (thanks to director Terry Gilliam), which only increases as the film progresses, helping put the viewer in Cole’s shoes as he begins to question his sense of reality. Like several others on this list, “12 Monkeys” enjoys challenging our perceptions of linear cause-and-effect, having a lot of fun as it tosses Bruce Willis back and forth between a bizarre future and a doomed past, daring us to guess where it’s going.

“Donnie Darko” (2001)

“Do you believe in time travel?“ That’s asked early on in brooding high school drama “Donnie Darko,” although it takes a while for viewers to fully understand why that question is so central to the story. The film follows Donnie, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a moody high schooler who begins seeing visions of a man in a nightmarish bunny costume with warnings about the imminent end of the world. Soon, Donnie starts experiencing premonitions that he uses to guide his actions, kicking off a series of events that invites questions of predetermination, free will, and inevitability. “Donnie Darko” doesn’t feel like a typical time travel film, forgoing the typical tropes of the genre in lieu of an unconventional coming-of-age tale focused far more on teen angst, mental health, and social dynamics than questions of temporal causality and metaphysics. Still, the film is predicated on fascinating ideas about the malleability of time, and although it doesn’t provide all the answers, the questions alone are worth it. 

“Primer” (2004)

No film has ever been less interested in interpreting its scientific jargon for lay people than Shane Carruth’s “Primer,” a film which focuses on a pair of engineers who accidentally invent a time machine in their garage. After initially being overjoyed with their groundbreaking discovery, the pair finds themselves at odds over implications of their invention. Unlike many films about scientific innovation, “Primer” makes zero effort to translate the technical and scientific vernacular used by its characters for the audience; Unless you have PhDs in mechanical engineering and theoretical physics, you’ll just just have to pay attention to context clues and hope for the best. (And if you have to watch the film more than once to figure out what’s going on, that’s okay, too. Most people do.) But whether or not you can fully follow the intricate mechanics of the film’s time travel, the intriguing conflict between the two central characters — one of whom sees time travel as a shortcut to prosperity, while the other views it as a Pandora’s box of potentially disastrous consequences — should be more than enough to keep you invested.

“About Time” (2013)

While many time travel movies tend to deal with world-threatening stakes or adrenaline-fueling adventures, “About Time” is a quieter entry into the genre that simply asks what you might do if you had the ability to revisit any moment in your life. Domhnall Gleeson plays Tim, who finds out on his 21st birthday that the men in his family have the ability to travel back to points in their own past. From then on, Tim uses his ability to undo embarrassing moments, relive fond memories, and find true love with Mary (Rachel McAdams). Although Tim experiences his fair share of thrilling moments in his non-linear life, his journeys through time are much more about learning what gives life meaning, what moments matter, and accepting that there are some types of pain that even time travel can’t circumvent. Bring tissues for this tear-jerker from Richard Curtis, the filmmaker behind “Love, Actually” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)

While “Groundhog Day” trapped Bill Murray in a humdrum small town holiday, “Edge of Tomorrow” finds Tom Cruise stuck in a far more precarious loop when an alien infection gives him the ability to reset back to 24 hours before that infection every time he dies. And he dies a lot, since unfortunately he got infected in the midst of a doomed battle with massive insect-like aliens invading London. Fortunately, along for the ride is Emily Blunt, whose character Rita Vrataski has experienced the same ability, and has some ideas about what to do with it. Featuring awesome creature design, impressive visual effects, and an action-packed storyline that makes great use of its premise, “Edge of Tomorrow” delivers a thrilling blend of sci-fi action and time bending twistyness that, despite having seen the same day dozens of times by the time the movie ends, leaves us yearning for more.

“Interstellar” (2014)

It takes a while before Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” truly reveals itself as a time travel movie, but the pieces are there from the beginning. After learning that the Earth is dying, former pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) gets recruited on a mission to travel to another star system in the hopes of finding a planet to which humanity can flee. The journey takes Cooper and his crew to uncharted regions of space and fascinating new worlds, and along the way, the astronauts are faced with questions of relativity, our perception of time, and faith in the unknown. But it’s not until the final act of the film that it fully addresses the idea of sending something through time, although the seed of that idea is planted much earlier. The film’s approach to time travel is more philosophical than scientific, asking what sorts of things transcend the limits of time, and what they might give us the power to do.

“Predestination” (2014)

If the age old question of the chicken in the egg were a time travel movie, it would be “Predestination, a mind-scrambling exploration of cause-and-effect that will make your brain feel like it just ran a marathon. Sometime in the future, a time agent played by Ethan Hawke is on the hunt for a temporal terrorist responsible for killing hundreds of people throughout the timeline. His investigation leads him to cross paths with a person with their own interesting story to tell, and the way their story intersects with Hawke’s will leave your head spinning. It’s impossible to say much more about “Predestination” without spoiling some of the film’s many surprising twists, but suffice it to say that if you like your time travel challenging and accompanied by a hefty helping of existential wrestling, this is the film for you.

“Your Name” (2016)

Many animated films have delved into the world of time travel, but the Japanese film “Your Name” is perhaps one of the most impressive of the bunch. The story follows a rural teen girl named Mitsuha, who lives in a remote village and yearns for a more exciting life in the city, and Taki, a teenage boy from Tokyo, after the two inexplicably begin waking up some mornings in each other’s bodies. For the first half of the film, the two teens work to navigate their bizarre situation so that their daily lives are disrupted as little as possible, before it eventually becomes clear that not only are they swapping bodies; they’re also swapping times. From there, it becomes a race against the clock as they hurtle towards a cataclysmic event that is in the past for one, and the future for the other. Yet despite the compelling time travel element, it’s Mitsuha’s and Taki’s unlikely relationship with each other that gives the film its heart, and lingers with viewers afterwards. 

“Avengers: Endgame” (2019) 

After the snap heard round the universe at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War,” there was really no place for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to go other than back in time. Once the Avengers figure out that the only way to save the day is to retrieve the all-powerful Infinity Stones from various points in their past, “Avengers: Endgame” becomes a delightful tour through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revisiting plots and places from over a decade’s worth of films in a way that pays off years of careful and expansive world building. It’s a plot that could only work within a long-running franchise, but in addition to being an excellent capper for the first three phases of the MCU, it’s also a satisfying time travel adventure in its own right, nodding to the many time travel films that have come before while also presenting its own unique spin on the genre.

The Greatest Hits Is a High-Concept Remix of Romantic Clichés

Time travel is metaphor for grief — and music is the key to unlocking it — in this lo-fi romantic drama.

Grief is never convenient . It can manifest at the least opportune moments, and can be triggered by the most innocuous things. Whether it be a scent or a song, memory has a way of latching on, bringing up moments that we’d rather suppress.

Harriet (Lucy Boynton) understands that plight better than anyone. It’s been two years since her boyfriend Max ( David Corenswet ) had a fatal car accident — and thanks to some head trauma she sustained in the crash, she often finds herself reliving moments of their relationship, over and over, incapable of moving on.

Unfortunately, that’s not a metaphor: these flashbacks are visceral and real, each triggered by a song she experienced with Max. One takes her back to their meet-cute at a music festival; another transports her to a blissful beach day. On paper, it’s kind of romantic. But in Harriet’s story, orchestrated by writer-director Ned Benson, it’s painfully inconvenient.

The Greatest Hits is not afraid to indulge in some soul-stirring melodrama. It coasts the highs and lows of lost love with its heart on its sleeve, making for a story with an intimate scope. But believe it or not, it’s the sci-fi elements that give this story the grounding realism that it needs. As in a handful of cerebral sci-fi dramas , time travel is a fitting metaphor for grief. It’s also the very thing that keeps his sophomore effort from sinking beneath the weight of its played-out romantic clichés.

Harriet has traced the breadth of her life with Max by the songs they first listened to together, but there’s one moment in her life, one song, that remains unaccounted for. Harriet is still searching for the tune that will help her change the past, potentially saving Max’s life. But she can’t spend all her time combing through their record collection. Sooner or later, she has to rejoin the real world — and with the help of ever-present noise-canceling headphones, she can commute to her job at the library (because it’s quiet, of course) or her group therapy sessions without triggering another flashback.

From the outset, it’s very clear that Harriet is not living. Her condition has turned her from a promising music producer to a hermit, and the apartment she once shared with Max has become a shrine fit for a stalker. Among a careful catalog of songs she’s marked “safe” — from crates upon crates of her record collection — hangs a relationship timeline defined by music. She’s pushed everyone out of her life, her own mother included. The only one that’s stuck around is her gay best friend Morris (Austin Crute), who conveniently pops up whenever Harriet needs a confidence boost.

Boynton delivers an understated, aching performance as Harriet.

Crute’s performance is a definitive highlight, especially when paired with Boynton’s sullen, skittish lead. His effortless charm serves as an indicator of the kind of person Harriet used to be, and the film gains some much-needed levity whenever he’s around. Still, his limited role is one of many frustrating examples of an underbaked plot.

The Greatest Hits might be more enamored with its time-trekking premise than it is with the characters affected by it. That’s especially evident in the bond between Harriet and Max — or more appropriately, Max’s memory. Each flash back to a moment in their relationship is tinged with dread, which definitely works, given the circumstances. But we don’t learn much about Max during these brief exchanges; that’s partially because Harriet is so determined to change his fate. Otherwise, it’s conversations between Harriet and Morris that explain just who Max was when he was alive.

That instinct pushes the character into another vexing sci-fi trope: that of the Dead Wife in a Flashback. It’s interesting to see the gender roles reversed here, especially given Corenswet’s shifting role in the zeitgeist. ( He’s about to be Superman! ) Still, it would have been nice to see him get the chance to embody an actual character, rather than a ghost holding Harriet back.

Harriet’s quest to save her late boyfriend is the crux of the conflict here, but it never gets the substance it deserves.

Things get more interesting with the introduction of David (Justin H. Min), the latest member of Harriet’s support group. He’s grieving the loss of parents, but he clicks with Harriet instantly. With him, our heroine forges new memories attached to familiar tunes (the most endearing being an impromptu jam session to Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird”), and slowly opens herself up to the idea of love. But intimacy is hard when you can’t leave the house without covering your ears. The closer Harriet gets to David, the more the lines between past and future blur. It’s here that The Greatest Hits shifts into a more urgent clip, settling finally into a story you don’t want to look away from.

Min’s chemistry with Boynton carries The Greatest Hits through some of its sillier sci-fi beats, including a confrontation that forces Harriet to prove that she can, in fact, meddle with time. The promise of new love — and the threat of more loss — injects their relationship with real, aching stakes. Any student of romance and sci-fi will likely know how this could end. Benson’s high-concept love story might be unique, but it’s not reinventing the wheel. That’s as much a virtue as it can be a vice, as The Greatest Hits is sampling the classics whenever it can. Nostalgia and novelty live side-by-side here, and it’s that fusion that ultimately delivers a solid exercise in rebirth.

The Greatest Hits is streaming now on Hulu.

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10 Soviet movies that everyone should watch

1. The Cranes Are Flying

A young couple is dating and walking around Moscow, they are happy and going to get married, but suddenly the war starts… They go their separate ways, she stays in Moscow while he is called up. They lose each other and suffer a lot. Will they ever meet again?

This is the only Soviet movie to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and an absolutely heartbreaking wartime drama by talented director Mikhail Kalatozov.

2. Irony of Fate

A symbol of New Year's Eve in Russia. This comedy is shown on TV every December 31. A 37 year old bachelor still living with his mother. He goes to the banya with his friends before New Year and drinks some farewell beers for the outgoing year. He drinks far too much and his friends by mistake put him on a flight to Leningrad, while in Moscow his girlfriend is waiting for him to spend New Year's Eve together…

The movie was a massive box office hit in Soviet cinemas and was watched by 7 million people after its release. People love the brilliant acting, irresistible humor and unforgettable songs based on popular poems. Moreover, the movie dares to poke fun at the typical identikit Soviet cities of the time, typical Soviet apartment buildings, and even typical furniture, so that a man waking up in a stranger’s apartment house doesn't even understand it at first. Everything everywhere is too equal.

3. Office Romance

A romantic comedy and an ode to office plankton (and a very anti-feminist thing). A lonely father of two is working as a lowly manager in a statistical agency. He is a soft and a slightly scruffy man and can only dream that his life will somehow improve. Suddenly an old friend suggests a cunning plan - he should flirt with their female boss, melt her heart and get promoted into the bargain.  But how to flirt with a woman that you are afraid of? Plus a workaholic one that is absolutely unattractive? Well, she appears still to be a lady somewhere deep inside.

It was one of the highest-grossing films of Soviet Union, that also won a State Prize, and another success for director Eldar Ryazanov who also wrote the script. 

A sci-fi based on the Strugatsky Brothers’ novell Roadside Picnic . Stalker is a guide who illegally brings people into the Zone, a dangerous place subject to paranormal activity. There is a secret chamber inside this Zone where all dreams can come true. His 'clients' are a professor and a writer that expect the room will help them end their creative crisis. But what if these peoples' minds are too weak to resist the paranormal powers? Or what if one of them has another secret goal in this expedition?

The movie is one of Andrei Tarkovsky directing masterpieces and frequently joins various different lists of all time ‘best of the best’ movies. It won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

5. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Another anti-feminist movie that actually shows that every woman’s happiness is family, and even if she is a big boss her life can never be complete away from family. A young provincial girl comes to Moscow to study. She is very shy and careful but because of her active friends, she appears at a party full of men and alcohol. A playboy Muscovite seduces her and she becomes pregnant. But he doesn’t want to marry and doesn’t want this baby. She plunges into despair, but ends up to be a really strong, successful woman. And what happens when she meets him again, after several years?

The movie won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1981. Legend has it that Ronald Reigan watched this movie as he wanted to understand Russians better before meeting Mikhail Gorbachev, but it still didn't help him - but maybe it’ll help you!

6. White Bim Black Ear

If you wept all your tears watching Hachiko, prepare for a double dose of handkerchiefs and napkins. This film will just break your heart. A Gordon Setter dog born with the wrong color: he is white and has a black ear. A not so young man adopts Bim and takes him hunting. Bim is happy with his new man and is very devoted to him. But one day the man goes to hospital, and Bim runs to look for him… 

The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1979. The sad melancholy of the film, birch trees and late Soviet aesthetics - all this made for one of the most popular films of all time.

7. Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven (aka Queen of the Gypsies)

A musical drama full of passion. Two young and independent gypsies fall in love with each other but neither wants to lose their freedom, so they don't want to get married. He is a horse thief and has problems with the police and at the same time with the gypsy camp of his beloved. What should these Romeo and Juliet do to stay together... 

The film is based on Maxim Gorky's short stories, which are in their turn based on legends that he heard during his travel across the Caucasus.

The gypsy artists from Moscow’s Romen Theater appear in the film and thanks to them we now have heartbreaking music and songs (and 64 million Soviet citizens watched it and liked it too).

8. Heart of a Dog

A medical professor carries out brave experiments. Now he decides to implant a human brain into a stray dog (and this way saves the dog from the pound and death). And the dog really turns into a human being - albeit a caricature version of a proletarian in the new Soviet state. And even though it has a human brain, it still has a dog’s heart. What will the professor do with his creature?

The iconic movie that became even more popular than the book that inspired it - Bulgakov’s short story of the same name. Quotes from the movie were spread as idioms across the whole nation. Moreover, the movie had a similar effect as a bomb as it was issued just at the same time when the book was allowed to be published after many years of Soviet ban. And for the times of perestroika poking fun at early Soviet years was very unusual and thus absolutely satisfying.

9. War and Peace

In 1805 Russia is on the eve of war with Napoleon’s France. The danger is discussed in high society. Adults are preparing for struggle, while young people stay young: they fall in love, dream, gamble and just want to live. The film depicts the stories of several families throughout the war and breathtaking battle scenes. How many characters remain alive at the end?

This movie won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the best foreign film. And without any doubt this is the best ever screening of the famous Toltoy’s epic novel, and one of the most epic scale Soviet films. 

10. Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (aka Ivan Vasilyevich: Back to the Future)

A young Soviet scientist is driven by the idea of creating a time machine. No one believes in him, but suddenly it works! Accidently he sends his neighbor back to the times of Ivan the Terrible along with a thief who was ‘working over’ another neighbor's apartment. At the same time, the genuine Ivan the Terrible is transported to the Soviet Union… (and likes what he finds in modern Moscow a lot). Will he ever get home? 

The movie is based on a little known play by Bulgakov. In 1973 it was the highest grossing film of the USSR  and it still makes millions of Russians laugh.

Read more: Top 100 Russian and Soviet movies

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This L.A. director made a film in Russia. The Kremlin wasn’t happy. Then came death threats

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Soon after Russian tanks crashed into Ukraine, Michael Lockshin realized he was making a dangerous movie. The director had spent 69 days, and $15 million, filming “The Master and Margarita” in Russia and Croatia, and now he was in Los Angeles beginning postproduction.

Dangerous narratives with Film Director Michael Lockshin

With just one previous feature to his name, Lockshin had been entrusted with a cultural treasure — adapting a complicated modernist novel as beloved to Russians as “The Catcher in the Rye” is to Americans.

He’d co-written the script, focusing on the tragic love story between a writer in Stalinist Russia and his devoted paramour. A veiled chronicle of novelist Mikhail Bulgakov’s relation to a totalitarian Kremlin that banned his work, the Russian-language movie would be a satire, a paean to creative freedom, and a surrealist revenge fantasy that culminates in the burning of Moscow.

Lockshin, who was born in America but raised in Russia, thought he was making a fable about a nightmarish past. Then came the war, and the criminalization of even mild dissent. As Lockshin continued editing the footage in an apartment off La Brea, the film that was emerging seemed to have strikingly timely echoes.

In Vladimir Putin’s increasingly fearful Russia , the film’s fate became uncertain. Would it ever be finished, much less allowed to open? With so many voices silenced, might buying a ticket be a quiet act of rebellion?

Lockshin is burning incense in his living room, on a hill with a view of downtown Los Angeles. He lives with his wife, a graphic designer, and their big dog. He does not want his location advertised, though he knows it would not be difficult for enemies to find him.

“Russia just kind of disintegrated,” says Lockshin, 42, a lanky man with a trim chevron mustache and an unhurried but slightly wary air. “We’re in full-fledged Stalinist purges at the moment — something we couldn’t have imagined. It happened very fast.”

He speaks English with a flawless American accent and Russian with a flawless Moscow accent — a function of his singular childhood and the family drama surrounding it, which he does not particularly want to talk about.

He was famous across the USSR as a boy for reasons beyond his control. In October 1986, when he was 5 years old and growing up in Houston, his father, a biochemist and ardent communist, became convinced the FBI was persecuting him. His father packed up the family — Lockshin, his mom, his two siblings — and defected to the Soviet Union with idealistic visions.

Most defections went in the opposite direction, and Soviet officials treated their arrival as a propaganda bonanza. But ordinary Russians beheld the Lockshins’ bright, hopeful faces on the news with disbelief and derision.

The government installed the family in a four-room apartment in Moscow and gave his father a lab to work in. Michael Lockshin became a Soviet schoolboy. When it was cold and gray, which was often, he fantasized about Texas sunshine.

He mastered Russian quickly and read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in the original. His home was filled with American books and copies of the New Yorker. He watched a VHS tape of “Forrest Gump” again and again. Straddling two cultures, he was conscious of being an outsider.

“I was definitely the only American in my school, probably one of the only Americans in any Russian school,” he says. “I had this kind of crazy world at home, and no one to talk to outside. No one could relate to it.”

The USSR, far removed from his father’s fantasies, was entering its death spiral — Homo sovieticus on the verge of extinction. It was the era of glasnost and perestroika. Long-banned books were circulating legally. McDonald’s opened in Pushkin Square.

One day, Lockshin and his classmates marched across the cobblestones of Red Square to Vladimir Lenin’s tomb to pay tribute to the waxy corpse of the country’s most sacred personage. What Lockshin remembers is the sense of mockery and cynicism, not just from classmates but from teachers.

“There was a lot of faking going on — the teachers who had to teach the Lenin stuff,” Lockshin says. “I was always very skeptical of ideology. I was always a little ironic about it.”

In 1991, when Lockshin was 10, the hammer and sickle flag came down and the old Russian tricolor went up.

“Everyone around just was envious of the Western world. As soon as you didn’t have to do any of the communist stuff, no one was sad about it,” he says. “The system was so dysfunctional, and people were so tired of faking it.”

He went on to study psychology at Moscow State University, then traveled the world and began making a name for himself as a director of commercials. One whimsical beer ad featured actor David Duchovny . At that point, Russia was part of the wider world, and Lockshin was free to travel between there and Los Angeles.

He never advertised his childhood. He wanted to distance himself from his family’s peculiar story.

“It was never my calling card. I didn’t want that to be part of my main identity.” There were many times when he wished his family had not left America, but “I wouldn’t be who I am today if that didn’t happen.”

His father, divorced, is now growing old in Moscow, estranged from Lockshin and his other children. Apparently an unreconstructed communist, he was quoted in a Russian-language publication saying of his family: “They went over to the other side of the barricades. I alone remain true to my convictions.”

“The Master and Margarita” went unpublished for a quarter-century after Bulgakov’s death in 1940.

Pervaded by magic and mysticism, Bulgakov’s masterpiece was a far cry from the weary “socialist realism” mandated by an officially atheistic state. The book’s three story lines involve a persecuted writer in 1930s Moscow, a gentlemanly Satan who arrives to visit mischief on the literary scene, and the drama between Pontius Pilate and a Christlike prophet in ancient Jerusalem.

The book’s publication in the 1960s inspired Mick Jagger to write “Sympathy for the Devil.” Inglorious film and TV adaptations appeared, some of them stringently faithful to what became a kind of sacred Russian text.

In 2020, Lockshin’s first full-length feature, “Silver Skates,” a family-friendly film set in 19th century St. Petersburg, was Netflix’s first Russian-language original. With its success, producers asked Lockshin whether he had any ideas about how to bring Bulgakov’s book to the screen.

“It was daunting because it’s one of the best-loved books not only in Russia but around the world,” he says. “It’s sold 100 million copies. When they first approached me, I said, ‘This is just impossible to translate into a movie.’”

But working with his co-writer, Roman Kantor, Lockshin decided to focus on the relationship between the devoted Margarita and the writer known as “the Master.” Foregrounding the love story was not the obvious choice; the Master doesn’t appear until a third of the way into the book.

As Lockshin studied the novel and Bulgakov’s life, it reinforced his sense of the project’s anti-authoritarian message.

“Bulgakov has written this novel kind of about himself and his relation to a totalitarian state, but he had to do it in a veiled way,” Lockshin says. “It was a way to talk about that.”

In Lockshin’s film, government power is terrifying and arbitrary. The Master is denounced by critics, banned from the writers union and consigned to a psychiatric ward. The bereft Margarita becomes a witch with the power of flight and invisibility, which she uses to exact flamboyant vengeance on the writer’s tormentors, while Satan wreaks havoc with the aid of a succubus and a talking cat.

Lockshin created a Moscow that never existed, full of the “monumental megalomaniac architecture” that Stalin had envisioned but never completed. “It’s architecture that makes the individual feel insignificant, an ant in the system,” Lockshin says.

The film climaxes with Moscow’s incineration, the Master’s fantasy of revenge — a scene that is not in the novel but Lockshin believes is a fair extrapolation of Bulgakov’s intentions. Meanwhile, the Christlike prophet declares that “all power is violence against people.”

Lockshin settled in Los Angeles in late 2021, with the filming complete, and he was assembling a first cut in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine . On social media, he posted coverage critical of the war. Russian lawmakers quickly passed a law: 15-year prison terms for pushing narratives counter to the government version.

His Russian producers, relying in part on government money, warned Lockshin to keep quiet. They suggested he cut scenes depicting the Master’s brutalization by the secret police.

“People said, ‘Take out a few scenes, what’s the big deal?’ I was getting a lot of that,” he says. “Just, ‘Let’s get it out there, it’s still powerful.’”

The movie, Lockshin had come to realize, was not about Stalin’s Russia but Putin’s Russia.

“It’s about an artist who stays free inside despite realizing it could lead to his demise,” he says. “I wasn’t willing to compromise anything that took out any of the political scenes. That’s the core of their drama. It’s definitely not just a political movie, but those parts play out in an emotional way.”

The movie was in limbo through 2022, and ultimately his producers backed him. It helped that some of the financing came from a source in the United Kingdom, unbeholden to Putin’s government.

As work continued, Anna Drubich, the music composer, based in Los Angeles, directed an 80-person Russian orchestra over Zoom. “Everyone who knew I was working on ‘The Master and Margarita’ said, ‘This is so important,’” she says. “I think this book appeals to Russian people on different levels. For some it’s a fantasy story about Satan. For some it’s a very deep political statement.”

The film, at 2½ hours, premiered in Russian theaters in late January. It is possible authorities allowed its release because it was much anticipated, and “they couldn’t imagine it was so timely,” Lockshin says.

The first week, Lockshin says, 1.5 million people saw it. The film’s themes struck a responsive chord in a country where dissent had been criminalized and the fear of arbitrary arrest was pervasive.

A Russian-language website based in Latvia called it “the first worthy film adaptation of Bulgakov’s novel,” with “scaldingly relevant” parallels to Putin’s Russia. In Russia itself, where the independent media have all but disappeared, reviews were more oblique. But even the state newspaper, Izvestia, was laudatory.

Still, the backlash was swift. Putin’s propagandists found the American-born director’s antiwar posts and denounced him as a traitor to his adopted country. They called for the film’s banning and the director’s prosecution. Threats arrived. In Stalin’s time, guys like you would be shot.

“I’m called a Russophobe and hater of Russian culture,” Lockshin says.

Lockshin found himself in the position of many creative artists who had fled Russia. He contacted Dmitry Glukhovsky, 44, a popular Russian novelist in exile who denounced the war in Ukraine and was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. He now lives in Europe. Glukhovsky told Lockshin he was probably safe in the United States, though a convenient target for criticism.

“He’s an easy target because he’s an American citizen. He’s independent-minded. They unleashed the dogs against him,” Glukhovsky says. “Seeing this movie is practically an act of civil resistance in a society where you can’t afford any civil resistance.… I would say it is a manifesto.”

Lockshin found another ally in Alexander Rodnyansky, a 62-year-old Ukranian-born producer who was forced to flee his longtime home in Moscow after speaking out against the war. He told Lockshin that there was no hope of appeasing Putin’s pro-war patriots, unless he was willing to beg forgiveness and publicly support the war with a visit to Russian troops. Lockshin said he would never do so.

“That means you are not going to go back to Russia,” Rodnyansky recalls replying. “The good news about this is, you are free.”

Rodnyansky fears the attacks on Lockshin are far from over. “He might easily be declared a foreign national or criminally prosecuted,” he says. “ You can’t imagine how easy it is now.”

Every day, life in Russia seems to serve up eerie echoes of the film. In December, cringing apologies were extracted from Russian celebrities who attended an “almost naked” bacchanal deemed unseemly during wartime. In the movie, the editor of a literary magazine is forced to grovel for publishing a suddenly disfavored play.

After opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison in February, his mother charged that the Russian government was withholding his body until she agreed to a secret burial. In the movie, the Pilate character orders Roman soldiers to hide the body of the executed prophet.

“All these things that seemed to be from the past in the movie became the present,” Lockshin says.

His film now resides in another kind of limbo. To see it in the States is almost impossible; there have been only a few private and college screenings.

Lockshin hopes to find an international distributor, but “nothing has been easy since the war happened.” He expects he would be arrested if he returned to Russia, but “I don’t want to check.”

“The Master and Margarita” is still playing in Russia. In a country where people are forbidden from standing arm in arm at a street protest, they sit shoulder to shoulder in the dark.

He says the film has drawn 5.5 million people to date, making it the top-grossing film in its 18-plus ratings category in Russian history. People email him to say they’ve seen it two or three times.

“Being in a movie theater with like-minded people is important,” he says. “They feel that they’re not alone out there.”

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Christopher Goffard is an author and a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He shared in the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s Bell coverage and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing, in 2007 and 2014. His novel “Snitch Jacket” was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel. His book “You Will See Fire: A Search for Justice in Kenya,” based on his Times series, was published in 2011.

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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Israel 'wasn't left to fend for itself' - yet aid to Ukraine is limited, Zelenskyy says

Follow our Ukraine war live page for all the latest developments and analysis of the conflict. Listen to a Sky News Daily podcast episode on the notion of the UK putting troops on the ground in Ukraine as you scroll.

Friday 19 April 2024 18:32, UK

• Israel wasn't left to fend for itself, Zelenskyy says
• NATO will supply more air defence systems to Ukraine
• Two detained after hammer attack on Navalny aide
• Moscow ramping up pressure on Ukrainian forces
• Major Russian missile attack kills eight
• Kremlin responds to US shift on aid to Ukraine
• Analysis: Russia is exploiting Ukraine's lack of air defences
• Mark Stone: Ukraine funding vote is a curious twist in America's political chaos
• The big picture: What's happening with the war this week?
• Your questions answered: How long will it take for any aid to turn the tide militarily?
• Live reporting by Samuel Osborne

We are pausing our live coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine today.

We'll be back again with more updates.

Here's a round-up of today, which started with the deaths of at least eight people in a major Russian missile attack in central Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more air defences and said: "Russia must be held accountable for its terror, and every missile, every Shahed [drone] must be shot down."

In a speech after a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on the Italian island of Capri, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it is "imperative" Ukraine gets more resources immediately to help it fight Russia.

"It needs more air defences, it needs more munitions, it needs more artillery - allies and partners including the G7 countries are committed to delivering on that," he added.

Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber "for the first time". Russia's defence ministry said the crash appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction.

Two detained in Poland after hammer attack on Navalny aide

Two people were detained in Poland on suspicion of a hammer attack on Leonid Volkov,  the exiled top aide of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Mr Volkov had blamed Vladimir Putin for the attack and he thanked Lithuanian police for working "energetically and persistently" over the past month on his case.

"I am very glad that this work has been effective", he tweeted. "Well, we'll find out the details soon. Can't wait to find out!"

And a Polish man was arrested over allegations of being ready to help Russia's military intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made an emotional appeal to NATO members, saying the current level of foreign aid for Ukraine is "very limited". 

The Ukrainian president said Israel had not been left to fend for itself during Iran's aerial bombardment on Saturday.

During that attack, Western allies had stepped in to help shoot down Iranian drones and missiles. 

"Putin must be brought down to earth and our sky must become safe again... And it depends fully on your choice... [the] choice whether we are indeed allies," Mr Zelenskyy said in his speech.

He said Ukraine needs a minimum of seven Patriot or other high-end air defence systems to counter Russian air strikes. 

Russia has recently intensified its bombardment of Ukraine, and the UN reported civilian deaths had sharply increased in March. 

NATO ministers have decided to supply more air defence systems to Ukraine, the organisation's secretary general has said.

Jens Stoltenberg said several NATO allies had made concrete commitments which he expected to be announced soon.

"In addition to Patriots, there are other weapons that allies can provide, including [French system] SAMP/T and many others, who do not have available systems, have pledged to provide financial support to purchase them for Ukraine," he told reporters in Brussels.

A Russian missile attack has damaged port infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Odessa region, the governor has said.

One person was injured, he added.

This map by the British Ministry of Defence shows the latest update on advances in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The head of the European Union's executive branch has visited Finland's border with Russia to assess the security situation there.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Finland's decision to close its border crossings with Russia over a surge in migrants was a security matter for the whole 27-member bloc to consider.

"We all know how Putin and his allies instrumentalise migrants to test our defences and to try to destabilise us," she said.

"Now Putin is focusing on Finland, and this is no doubt in response to your firm support of Ukraine and your accession to NATO."

Finland shares a 832-mile (1,430km) land border with Russia.

"This is not just about the security of Finland, but it is about the security of the European Union. We are in this together," Ms von der Leyen said after visiting the border in Lappeenranta with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

"We should be more Finnish when it comes to security."

Finland joined NATO in April 2023 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a major blow to President Putin.

Slovaks angered at their government's refusal to give military aid to Ukraine have raised nearly €2m (£1.7m) in a drive to help supply ammunition to Kyiv.

Although ammo supplies are a pressing need for Ukraine after two years of war, Slovakia has refused to join a plan led by the Czech government to buy hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine.

"When I heard about the Czech government's initiative, I was very pleased to hear that all ways are being sought to help Ukraine defend itself against the [Russian] aggressor, because there is no other way," said Otto Simko, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor and journalist who helped spearhead the Slovak crowdfunding campaign.

In a video posted on the crowdfunders' YouTube page he said Russia needed to be expelled from Ukraine so "peace can be spoken of on terms that suit Ukrainian independence".

Slovakia halted state military aid to Kyiv last year, arguing the conflict did not have a military solution.

It is "imperative" Ukraine gets more resources immediately to help it fight off Russia's invasion, the US secretary of state has said after a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies.

"It needs more air defences, it needs more munitions, it needs more artillery - allies and partners including the G7 countries are committed to delivering on that," Antony Blinken added.

Mr Blinken went on to say that if China wants better relations with Europe it cannot continue helping Russia while it attacks Ukraine, adding that Beijing was the primary contributor to Russia's defence industrial base.

He made the remarks after Kyiv's foreign minister said the G7 had identified "specific steps" needed to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Kyiv's foreign minister has said.

Dmytro Kuleba also warned Europe would be engulfed by war if Russia triumphed in its invasion.

"We identified specific steps which Western partners will make to help Ukraine," Mr Kuleba told reporters on the Italian island of Capri, where G7 foreign ministers are meeting.

He said the West had the capacity "to provide Ukraine with all necessary resources as soon as possible to save Europe from a larger war."

Meanwhile, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said the G7 was looking to see if it could use frozen Russian assets held in the West and not just the interest from the funds.

Mr Tajani said there was an established legal basis for using the interest from the frozen funds, but experts were now looking to see if the capital itself could be used to help Ukraine.

The West has frozen some $300bn (£241bn) of sovereign Russian assets, which the UK and US want to be used to pay for the Ukraine war effort - though European Union member states have questioned the legality of such a move.

A Polish man has been arrested over allegations of being ready to help Russia's military intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Polish prosecutors said.

The man, identified only as Pawel K, was accused of being prepared to pass airport security information to Russian agents and was arrested in Poland on Wednesday, the office of Poland's National Prosecutor said in a statement.

The man was seeking contact with Russians directly involved in the war in Ukraine and was expected to pass on detailed information about the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in south-eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine, it said.

The airport is under the control of US troops and serves as a gateway for international military and humanitarian supplies for Ukraine.

If convicted, the man could face up to eight years in prison, the statement said.

It said the arrest was the result of close cooperation with the prosecutors and security services of Ukraine, who tipped them off and provided crucial evidence.

The Kremlin has declined to comment.

It comes after German prosecutors said two German-Russian men had been arrested on suspicion of espionage (see 8.44 post yesterday).

One of them is accused of agreeing to carry out attacks on potential targets including US military facilities in the hopes of sabotaging aid for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops near the frontline in the east of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president joined a paratroopers' medical platoon in the Donetsk region.

"Today - Donetsk region. Visited our defenders who are under treatment," he said on Telegram.

Mr Zelenskyy said he talked with the soldiers and gave them awards, adding: "Thank you for your service and protection of Ukraine! Our country is proud to have such soldiers."

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

• Sam Taylor-Johnson
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• Marisa Abela
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• 44 User reviews
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• 50 Metascore

• Amy Winehouse

• Mitch Winehouse

• Blake Fielder-Civil

• Cynthia Winehouse

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• Trivia Marisa Abela did all the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

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