Major changes have affected Russian cinema since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in such areas as production, distribution, ideology and taste. This module...

Major changes have affected Russian cinema since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in such areas as production, distribution, ideology and taste. This module examines the development of post-Soviet cinema, exploring 16 key films made between 1991 and the present. Considering the films in the dual framework of their social and cinematic contexts, the module explores such issues as: the lives of the new rich and of young people in post-Soviet society; the changed roles of men and women; the effect of social and ideological change on conditions in the Russian countryside; and the legacy of post-Soviet conflicts. It also examines post-Soviet treatments of Soviet history, in particular the representation of the perennial subjects of the Stalinist 1930s, the Second World War and the end of the Soviet project. In its exploration of cinematic developments this module considers, among other topics, the flourishing of the ‘Real Russian Cinema’ (nastoiashchoe russkoe kino) during the early 2000s; the development of post-Soviet auteur cinema; the phenomenon of the so-called ‘New Quiet Ones’ (novye tikhie); the emerging impulse towards increasing social engagement; young actors and new stars; and the arrival of new male and female filmmakers, their exploration of genre, form and content and their search to find new formulae for both arthouse and popular cinema. Among the directors whose films will be considered on this module are Aleksei Balabanov, Pavel Chukhrai, Boris Khlebnikov, Bakhtier Khudoinazarov, Sergei Livnev, Sergei Loban, Petr Lutsik, Angelina Nikonova, Aleksei Popogrebskii, Aleksandr Rogozhkin, Vasilii Sigarev, Avdot´ia Smirnova, Aleksandr Sokurov, Valerii Todorovskii, Ivan Vyrypaev and Andrei Zviagintsev.

The module aims to develop a range of productive and comprehension language skills in spoken and written Czech at intermediate level; these skills will relate...