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Entertainment One will release the $25 million Russian-produced epic war film Taras Bulba on DVD on July 26.

Bogdan Stupka is Taras Bulba in a new Russian adaption of Gogol's classic novel.

Based on the famed 1835 novel by Nikolai Gogol and adapted for the screen and directed by Russian filmmaker Vladimir Bortko, Taras Bulba is set in the 16th century and tells of Ukraine’s Cossack warriors and their campaign to defend their lands from the advancing armies of Poland.

In the midst of the brutal war, the youngest son (Igor Petrenko) of warrior Ukraine warrior Taras Bulba (Bogdan Stupka) disowns his father and swears allegiance to the enemy. But while on a quest for pride and glory, Taras’ eldest son (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) is captured, prompting Taras to set out on mission for vengeance.

The 2008 film was commissioned by Russian state TV and paid for totally by the Russian Ministry of Culture.

There is no need to bother Leni Riefenstahl and her Triumph des Willens to demonstrate how powerful propaganda can often be, but it's exactly in cases like hers that you often wonder what her legacy would have been, if ridden of all the political ramifications of (some of) her works. That is one of the reasons why today's Mainland Cinema is so vibrant and interesting, even in its most quintessential main melody form: we're often dealing with pretty obvious pieces of cinematic propaganda, works funded by the government and whose foremost purpose is to drive the masses into supporting a certain creed or philosophy. But for every insipid turd like 建国大业 (The Founding of a Republic), you get plenty of eclectic variations on this melody, works which do fulfill their "quota" of bleeding-heart national sentimentalism, but also manage to focus a large portion of their makers' efforts in building a cohesive,...

Toronto -- Veteran Russian director Sergey Solovyev's "Anna Karenina," a film adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel, received its North American premiere Thursday night at the KinoArt Festival in Toronto.

The veteran director and "Karenina" lead Tatyana Drubich were on hand for Toronto's homage to Russian film, which includes two other Solovyev pics, the 80's cult-classic film "Assa" and its long-awaited sequel "Assa 2."

KinoArt founder and executive director Alla-Ani Poliakova said the festival aims to "chronicle the evolution of Russian films, past and present," by bringing that country's feature films, documentaries and shorts to North America.

Also unspooling in Toronto is Vladimir Bortko's $20 million period drama "Taras Bulba" from Russian studo Central Partnership, and a North American premiere for Liza Listova's "Metro," part of a Soviet Empire documentary cycle that in its latest installment chronicles the 1930s Stalin-era construction of the Moscow subway system.

Listova said she used animation,...