Research Guides: Russ 270W/IDS 285W: Russian Society and Culture: Film Resources

Film Collections

Klassiki This link opens in a new window
For Access:Register with your Emory email address to receive full access to the collection. Video platform dedicated exclusively to cinema from Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The films are ranging from silent classics through to the Soviet era and into the 2010s. This collection includes both feature films and documentaries. There is a permanent film library plus bi-weekly screenings of contemporary films from the region. The Klassiki platform also includes a journal featuring news, interviews, articles and essays from filmmakers, experts, critics and the Klassiki team to give our members exclusive behind the scenes access to the historical and contemporary landscape of cinema from the region.

Below is a small sample of both Russian films and films from former Soviet republics from Klassiki.

Registration is required to use Klassiki collection. Visit https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/KSK, register with your Emory email address. Wait until you will receive an email from the Klassiki team instructing you how to complete your enrolment. Any problems please email us info@klassiki.online.

You can find more films by searching the Emory Library catalog, and limiting your results to video or visual materials.

Battleship Potemkin (1926)
Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin is recreating a sailor’s rebellion in the Black Sea fleet and the subsequent massacre of civilians of Odessa.
Chapaev (1934)
This biopic of Vasily Chapaev, peasant turned mythical military hero, is perhaps the most canonical film of state-sponsored Socialist Realism.
Asya’s Happiness (1966)
Collective farmer Asya is in love with the father of her unborn child. However, he does not reciprocate, leaving her forced to choose between a loveless marriage to another suitor and single motherhood.
Commissar (1967)
When a Red Army officer is forced to shelter with a Jewish family while seeing her unwanted pregnancy to term, she finds her fierce communist values at odds with their sprawling generosity.
Repentance (1987)
Tengiz Abuladze’s black comic allegory – the first instance of a Soviet filmmaker directly confronting the legacy of Stalin’s purges
Little Vera (1988)
A scandal upon release, this hugely influential eighties cult film captures the anguished cynicism of the “last Soviet generation”
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998)
Moscow, February 1953. General Yuri Klensky is a prominent brain surgeon, living a life of luxury and prestige – until he is accused of being part of a plot to kill Stalin. The story of his arrest, torture, and eventual “freedom” upon Stalin’s own death is told in Alexei German’s inimitably feverish style in this dark, disorienting comedy of paranoia and disillusionment in a society on the brink.
Elena (2011)
An unflinching critique of modern-day inequality, imbued with the director’s signature style and set against Philip Glass’s enthralling score, Elena is a gripping take on a classic noir thriller.

Highlighted Resource: Oxford Bibliographies

Russian Cinema (Oxford Bibliographies)
This annotated bibliography, edited by the noted scholar Birgit Beumers, offers a handy overview of books and journals covering various topics related to Russian and Soviet cinema. This bibliography is an excellent starting point for your research.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

In the library catalog, books, videos and other materials are assigned Library of Congress (LC) subject headings based on their content. Here is a sample list of subject headings related to Soviet cinema. Some of them pertain equally to books and videos. When you view catalog records in Emory University Library Catalog, these subject headings display as active links pointing to other items with the same subject.

This is not an exhaustive list of subject headings pertinent to film studies, but it should give you a sense of commonly used vocabulary and how subject headings are structured.

These subject headings also pertain to films in the library collection. You can filter the results by Resource Type "Video or Visual Material" using the left side navigation tools in Emory University Library Catalog to explore the many hundreds of Soviet films that we have both on DVD and online in the Library collection. Most of them have English subtitles.