Communism, youth and adulthood in 1960s Russia

Aleksandr Belyavskiy and Evgeniya Uralova in July Rain (1967)

Svoy sredi chuzhikh, chuzhoy sredi svoikh

At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger Among His Own (1974)

At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger Among His Own

Andrei Boltnev, Andrey Mironov, Aleksey Zharkov, and Sasha Isakov in My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)

Aleksey Batalov and Yuriy Tsarev in Nine Days of One Year (1962)

Valentin Popov and Lev Prygunov in I Am Twenty (1965)

Nikolay Gubenko, Stanislav Lyubshin, and Valentin Popov in I Am Twenty (1965)

Valentin Popov and Marianna Vertinskaya in I Am Twenty (1965)

Svetlana Svetlichnaya in I Am Twenty (1965)

Valentin Popov

Nikolay Gubenko

Stanislav Lyubshin

Marlen Khutsiev

Gennady Shpalikov

Following three lifelong friends who return to Moscow after military service, we see their aspirations juxtaposed against everyday life in 1960 Soviet Union.

Mne dvadtsat let

philosophy and quarter-life crisis

I&apos;ve always thought that a lot of films that were made in the Soviet Union got overshadowed by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, not to mention by European films from France, Italy, by Bergman, by Kurosawa and many others from Japan. I feel sad when I think about that, because there are so many great films that were made there that the general film loving public did not and does not get to see. The only two films that may have broken out of this &quot;embargo&quot;, so to speak were The Cranes are Flying and Ballad of a Soldier. Criterion has been doing some good deed and releasing a few of such great films I speak of in the Eclipse Series and I only hope they keep releasing them because there are just too many to list that others must see.

I Am Twenty is one of those films. It was made during the de-Stalinization period, otherwise known as the Krushchev thaw where people had a short period of freedom of speech, which Hutsiev, the film&apos;s director utilized in making of this film, where the story centers on three friends in their 20&apos;s going through a sort of a quarter-life crisis in the Soviet Union, worrying about such things as where to live, means of getting money, and exactly what to do with their lives - which at the time was unheard of - one of the reasons for which Krushchev condemned this film during the end of the thaw (when it was being released) and most certainly which contributed to this film&apos;s censorship.

This undoubtedly is the kind of film that speaks the universal language, which I hope would be an intriguing watch for people who can track this film down and watch it (there are English subtitles for it, I checked)

Shot beautifully, flows poetically, and definitely leaves a mark.

I loved it [07-22-2011, 08:23 PM]

I've always thought that a lot of films that were made in the Soviet Union got overshadowed by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, not to mention by European films from France, Italy, by Bergman, by Kurosawa and many others from Japan. I feel sad when I think about that, because there are so many great films that were made there that the general film loving public did not and does not get to see. The only two films that may have broken out of this "embargo", so to speak were The Cranes are Flying and Ballad of a Soldier. Criterion has been doing some good deed and releasing a few of such great films I speak of in the Eclipse Series and I only hope they keep releasing them because there are just too many to list that others must see.

I Am Twenty is one of those films. It was made during the de-Stalinization period, otherwise known as the Krushchev thaw where people had a short period of freedom of speech, which Hutsiev, the film's director utilized in making of this film, where the story centers on three friends in their 20's going through a sort of a quarter-life crisis in the Soviet Union, worrying about such things as where to live, means of getting money, and exactly what to do with their lives - which at the time was unheard of - one of the reasons for which Krushchev condemned this film during the end of the thaw (when it was being released) and most certainly which contributed to this film's censorship.

This undoubtedly is the kind of film that speaks the universal language, which I hope would be an intriguing watch for people who can track this film down and watch it (there are English subtitles for it, I checked)

Shot beautifully, flows poetically, and definitely leaves a mark.

I loved it [07-22-2011, 08:23 PM]

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Mne dvadtsat let

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