Burnt by the Sun (1994)

Original title

Утомлённые солнцем

Directed by

Nikita Mikhalkov

Genre

drama film, war film, historical drama

Country

Russia, France

Runtime

2h 25m

Rated

R

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 206 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Red Army officer vacationing with his wife and daughter in the late 1930s Soviet Union sees his peaceful life disrupted when an old friend of his wife arrives unexpectedly. The visit brings hidden tensions to the surface against the backdrop of Stalin's political purges.

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What happens

Burnt by the Sun (Russian: Утомлённые солнцем, romanized: Utomlyonnye solntsem, lit. 'wearied by the sun') is a 1994 Russian drama film starring, directed, written, and produced by Nikita Mikhalkov and co-written by Azerbaijani screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov. The film depicts the story of a senior Red Army officer, played by Mikhalkov, and his family during the Great Purge of the late 1930s in the Stalinist Soviet Union. While on vacation with his wife, young daughter, and assorted friends and family, things change dramatically for KomDiv Kotov when his wife's old lover, Dmitri, shows up after being away for many years. The film also stars Oleg Menshikov, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė and Mikhalkov's daughter Nadezhda Mikhalkova. Burnt by the Sun was popular in Russia and received positive reviews in the United States. It won the Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and other honours. Burnt by the Sun is one of only four Russian films to have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The other three are War and Peace (1966–1967), Dersu Uzala (1975), and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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