2 Best Movies to Watch by Nadezhda Markina

Staff & contributors

This is an excellent Russian movie about an ambulance unit and the paramedic that leads it. 

His long-time relationship starts suffering from a combination of alcoholism and his devotion to his work, which are also linked together. This is set in a country where ambulances are underfunded and the health-care system is frail. 

As a consequence, the story of Arrhythmia is one of a worker dedicated to saving their patients' lives in a system that seems not to care. This is portrayed in the ambulance's everyday missions, but also in the paramedic's decaying relationship. It's Blue Valentine meets an Andrey Zvyagintsev movie like Elena. Sadly, it might be more realistic than both those movies, and added to the fact that it's Russian, it has stayed severely under-watched since it came out.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Albina Tikhanova, Aleksandr Samoylenko, Aleksandr Yatsenko, Anna Ichetovkina, Anna Kotova, Anton Figurovsky, Boris Dergachev, Eduard Chekmazov, Ekaterina Stulova, Elena Drobysheva, Evgeny Muravich, Igor Brovin, Iliya Kovrizhnykh, Irina Gorbacheva, Konstantin Adaev, Konstantin Zheldin, Maksim Lagashkin, Nadezhda Markina, Nicholay Kovbas, Nikolay Shrayber, Polina Ilyukhina, Polina Volkova, Sergey Nasedkin, Sergey Udovik, Tatyana Rasskazova, Valentina Mazunina, Vladimir Kapustin, Yevgeni Syty

Director: Boris Khlebnikov

, 2011

Realistic, intimate, and compelling, Elena is a movie that makes you think a lot after you finish watching it. It is an inherently Russian movie, however there is something about how the story is told that makes it a universal family drama. A woman from a modest background to which she still has a lot of attachement is married to an old wealthy business man. Upon learning that the man might write her off his will, she feels pushed to get her hands dirty to honor her responsibilities towards her original family. The question of right and wrong when faced with extreme situations is at the heart of this aesthetically slow-burning family drama.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Aleksandr Kazakov, Aleksandr Slastin, Aleksey Maslodudov, Aleksey Rozin, Anastasiya Sapozhnikova, Andrey Smirnov, Anna Gulyarenko, Dmitry Pavlenko, Ekaterina Tarkovskaya, Elena Lyadova, Igor Ogurtsov, Ivan Dobronravov, Ivan Mulin, Larisa Khalafova, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Nadezhda Markina, Oksana Semenova, Olga Lapshina, Vasily Michkov, Vasily Zotov, Yana Lvova, Yaroslav Zhalnin, Yuriy Borisov

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Rating: Not Rated