Lyudmila Gurchenko

My Good Dad

Shukshin's Stories

Each of the short stories is based on either one or several stories by a wonderful Russian writer. The heroes are ordinary people “of the people”, contemporaries of Shukshin, all of whose life’s ups and downs are inextricably linked with their country - the Soviet Union of the 60s-70s. The main thing that unites both the works themselves and the films made is a whole gallery of the brightest images and characters, a story about such different destinies and differently meaningful lives, a story in the center of which is invariably Man, with his love, quests, weaknesses and victories.

What Is to Be Done?

TV adaptation of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's novel about Vera Pavlovna, a woman who escapes the control of her family and arranged marriage to seek economic independence.

Open Book

The protagonist of the film is a female microbiologist and inventor of penicillin. The discovery of this life-saving drug was preceded by many years of scientific research, which Dr. Lebedev conducted in his laboratory in a small provincial town at the beginning of the century... Tanya, a girl from the neighborhood, accidentally finds herself in the doctor's house, where she first encounters the mysterious world of science...

Inhuman

Criminals kidnapped the son of the chairwoman of the city administration. Feelings of helplessness and fear follow. A series of checks, mocking calls, humiliating requests for help to colleagues in the "shadow business" goes on and on.

Vivat, Naval Cadets!

1744. Russian Empire. Being childless, but at the same time wanting to finally consolidate on the Russian throne of his - "Peter's" line of the Romanov dynasty, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna decides to marry his nephew Karl Peter Ulrich, brought from Prussia, called in Russia "Peter Fyodorovich" to some noble, but preferably not very rich and not very willful European "princess". Elizabeth is intrigued by the brave young guardsman and his intercession for Yaguzhinskaya, and she gives Belov "an assignment of national importance" - to secretly bring his important guests to Russia from Prussia. The ubiquitous vice-chancellor Bestuzhev learns about it. He summons Alexei Korsak, Belov's friend who will keep Alexander company on his trip to Prussia, and instructs him to become a spy on Belov, threatening Korsak with "exile to the galleys" and "Siberia" for his wife and young son if he refuses.

Love and Pigeons

One of the most favorite Soviet comedies, a screen version of the play of the same name by Vladimir Gurkin. Each of us knows the story of Vasily, who went to the resort, succumbed to the charms of a femme fatale Raisa Zakharovna, but could not withstand two weeks of urban life, and returned to his family, where he waited for love and pigeons.

Station for Two

Platon Ryabinin, a pianist, is traveling by train to a distant town of Griboedov to visit his father. He gets off to have lunch during a twenty minute stop at Zastupinsk railway station. He meets Vera, a waitress, after he refuses to pay her for the disgusting food he doesn't even touch and misses his train due to police investigation of the incident. His passport is then accidentally taken away from him by Andrei, Vera's fiancé, and his money is stolen as he waits for the next train to Griboedov. Vera learns that Platon is about to get sentenced and sent to prison in the Far East for a car accident he isn't guilty for. During the few days that Platon has to spend in Zastupinsk he and Vera develop feelings for each other...

Carnival Night

It is the New Year's Eve and the employees of an Economics Institute are ready with their annual New Year's entertainment program. It includes a lot of dancing and singing, jazz band performance and even magic tricks. Suddenly, an announcement is made that a new director has been elected and that he is arriving shortly. Comrade Ogurtsov arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. To him, holiday fun has a different meaning. He imagines speakers reading annual reports to show the Institute's progress over the year, and, perhaps, a bit of serious music, something from the Classics, played by the Veterans' Orchestra. Obviously, no one wants to change the program a few hours before the show, much less to replace it with something so boring! Now everyone has to team up in order to prevent Ogurtsov from getting to the stage. As some of them trap Ogurtsov one way or another, others perform their scheduled pieces and celebrate New Year's Eve.

Siberiade

The story about a very small god-forgotten village in Siberia reflects the history of Russia from the beginning of the century till the early 1980s. Three generations try to find the land of happiness and to give it to the people. One builds the road through taiga to the star over horizon, the second 'build communism' and the third searches for oil.