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Throughout the impressively crafted and increasingly exasperating 135 minutes that make up Kirill Serebrennikov’s postwar Nazi-in-hiding chronicle, The Disappearance of Josef Menegele, the same question keeps coming to mind: Why am I watching this?

Certainly, for those curious to know how the notorious Auschwitz doctor, aka the “Angel of Death,” eked out the final decades of his life in various South American countries, changing homes and identities, farming, scheming and, yes, getting the occasional handjob, the film answers that question many times over. But for those who aren’t Third Reich completists, nor have any interest in historical fantasy that does little beyond embellishing Mengele’s ignoble reputation, this intellectually vacuous exercise can be tough to stomach — despite how well put together the whole thing is.

The Russian-born Serebrennikov is a talented auteur with plenty of style to boot, showcasing his directorial chops in six eclectic features made since 2016. He jumps easily between genres,...

At a wake for the murder of Russian journalist and activist Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in 2006 in the elevator of her apartment block in Moscow, French writer Emmanuel Carrère spotted a familiar silhouette. Though born Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko, by the mid-2000s “Limonov” had lived a dozen lives. A poet, editor, and politician who’d recently finished a two-year stint in prison on terrorism chargers, Limonov was a man who embodied all the contradictions of the 20th century, a greater-than-life iconoclast and extremist whose existence had unraveled as a tumultuous cavalcade of U-turns, aliases, literary aspirations. and political intrigue. He’d been a factory worker in the Ussr; an exile, hobo, butler, and budding novelist in New York; a successful author in Paris; and finally, by the time Carrère came across him, a Bolshevik nostalgist who’d been a vocal supporter of Serbian expansionism during the 1990s Balkan Wars (here...

When Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis and put on a train to a concentration camp, he has every reason to believe that his life is over. It’s 1942 in Nazi-occupied France, and all of his Jewish traveling companions are making peace with their inevitable deaths. When a stranger on the train begs him to trade half of a sandwich for a book of Persian myths, he makes the deal out of mere charity as much as anything else.

That chance encounter that kicks off “Persian Lessons” ends up saving his life, as Gilles is the only passenger spared. As it turns out, the Nazi officer who controls his destiny has been “looking for a Persian.” Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) is already thinking ahead to the end of WWII — the former chef plans to move to Tehran and open a German restaurant in the desert. But before he can do that,...

An open letter against the war in Ukraine has been signed by prominent Russian cinematographers, spearheaded by Fedor Lyass (“Hardcore Henry”).

The signatories include Roman Vasyanov, Mikhail Krichman, Pavel Kapinos (“Hardcore Henry”), Vladislav Opelyants and Pavel Fomintsev (“Unclenching the Fists”).

Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Russian filmmakers and animators have bravely rallied and spoken out against their government’s actions and have called upon the international community for support. In doing so, the signatories have put themselves at risk on both personal and professional levels. Alexander Rodnyansky, the two-time Oscar-nominated producer of “Leviathan,” “Loveless” told Variety last week that he felt “unbearably ashamed” and “incredibly, deeply sad” when news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke.

The letter’s full translated text and list of the signatories are below:

We, Russian cinematographers, demand a stop to military aggression against Ukraine, an immediate ceasefire, and a withdrawal...

Kirill Serebrennikov's Leto (2018) is having its exclusive online premiere on Mubi in the United Kingdom. It is showing from August 16 - September 14, 2019.A constrained, silenced audience claps along to electric guitars and drums that produce distinctively rock and roll tunes. Young men only dare to tap rhythmically with their toes, while the one attempt for fangirls to lift up a love-heart poster is hushed in seconds. As the camera glides past the band into the audience, the lead raises his voice only slightly to deliver the chorus finale: “You’re trash!” Amidst the loud bangs on cymbals and the bass riffs, something both cynical and liberating is taking form on stage: a chronotope, a lifestyle, Soviet rock and roll, a love story. In Leto fact meets fiction in reconstructing a time (1980s) and space (Leningrad) in a nostalgic manner, to tell the story of Russian idol Viktor Tsoi and...

Leningrad, the early 1980s: the Soviet Union’s stranglehold on its citizens continues, glasnost is not even a glimmer in Gorbachev’s eye and it feels as if the Party will never end. The one thing that does seem to be thriving, however, is the city’s underground rock scene, albeit one with a crowd stifled by authoritarian apparatchiks. (A fan tries to hold up a homemade sign for her favorite rock band. A man in a suit shuts down this oh-so-revolutionary action down Asap.) The applause-ometer may never allowed...

Boris Khlebnikov’s Aritmiya (Arrhythmia) took home the Grand Prix at Russia’s main national film festival Kinotavr, which drew to a close Wednesday in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Focused on the breakdown of a marriage between two doctors, the drama will have its international premiere later this month in the official selection of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Rezo Gigineishvili was named best director for Zalozhniki (Hostages), a retro thriller which premiered in the Panorama Special section of this year's Berlinale. The film's director of photography, Vladislav Opelyants, received best cinematography honors.

Kantemir Balagov's Tesnota (Closeness), which premiered...

Bringing a welcome rush of adrenaline to the Berlinale, Georgian director Rezo Gigineishvili’s period hijacking drama Hostages combines arthouse sensitivities, historical gravitas and good ol’ action setpieces to highly satisfying results. While somewhat underdeveloped in narrative arc and emotional reach, it’s nonetheless a work of exceptional craft with that rare crossover appeal.

Based on actual events from 1983, when Soviet citizens were not allowed to travel abroad, the film recounts the life of seven young Georgians leading up to and after the deadly hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 6833. A first taste of the casual bleakness behind the Iron Curtain comes early: as aspiring actor Nika (Irakli Kvirikadze), his bride-to-be Anna (Tina Dalakishvili) and friends are doing what people their age are supposed to do – drinking, smoking, hitting the waves – they’re being closely watched by the police. “Are you worried we might swim to Turkey?” Someone from the clique gets...

The Student, which is translated on screen as “The Disciple” (an interpretation far more fitting, although the Russian word used is also close to “Martyr”) is, if nothing else, an intensely frustrating film. Directed with the subtlety of a shotgun by Kirill Serebrennikov and shot with a formally energetic approach full of vim and vigor by Vladislav Opelyants, it is a film which actually has the force and rigor to take on the thorny subject of religious fundamentalism. But even if it is visually up to the task, The Student is hobbled by its script and hog tied by its characters.

A screed against religion, or to be more precise, the fundamental devotion to a religious text, in this case The Bible, The Student is a film with the potential for great satire and importance, grounded in the decision to show a conviction towards the text not often seen on...