7 Soviet movies with WINTER atmosphere
1. ‘The Snow Queen’ (1957)
A full-length animated movie based on Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale and a true classic of Soviet animation. ‘The Snow Queen’ carries a boy named Kay off to her ice palace, while his friend, a brave girl named Gerda, selflessly sets out to rescue him.
2. ‘Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka’ (1961)
On Christmas Eve, the wayward bride of village blacksmith Vakula gives him an ultimatum: If he fetches her the very shoes worn by the empress herself, she’ll agree to marry him. To fulfill her wish, Vakula will end up having to ride the devil himself.
3. ‘The Girls’ (1962)
Eighteen-year-old cook Tosya arrives in Siberia to work in a canteen at a construction site. Crunching through the snow in felt boots, she runs to the logging site in the freezing cold just to bring lunch to the handsome Ilya, whom she is in love with.
4. ‘Jack Frost’ (1964)
A fairy tale movie, a Russian folk version of ‘Cinderella’. An evil stepmother doesn’t like her beautiful and kind-hearted step-daughter Nastya and sends her into the forest to freeze. But, a magical ‘Jack Frost’ (Father Frost) finds the girl and saves her… but her adventures only start here!
5. ‘Gentlemen of Fortune’ (1971)
A kindergarten teacher looks exactly like a dangerous repeat-offender thief. Soviet police ask him to play the role of the criminal, in order to infiltrate a gang and uncover the secret, where the stolen golden helmet of Alexander the Great is hidden.
6. ‘The Irony of Fate’ (1976)
On New Year's Eve, a Moscow doctor named Zhenya goes to the ‘banya’ (bathhouse) with friends and gets so drunk that he accidentally flies to Leningrad. Miraculously, there, he finds an exact copy of his own building and even his apartment key fits… The only catch is that it’s the apartment of a charming teacher named Nadya.
7. ‘Wizards’ (1982)
All sorts of mischief is brewing at the ‘Institute of Magic’ just before the New Year. The headmistress is jealous of her fiancé's attention toward a young employee named Alena and casts a spell of a winter heart on her… Enter the brave young Ivan, who comes to the beauty’s rescue. The movie gave Russians the most wintery soundtrack, ‘Three White Horses’.