From the western by the author of 'Cheburashka' to the biopic of a Paralympic champion – here are the best Russian films of 2023.

2023 in Russian cinema will be remembered for the box office records of 'Cheburashka', the release of the first film shot in space, and numerous experiments with a wide range of genres: from erotic thriller to surrealism in the style of David Lynch.

Our editorial team watched almost all the key new releases, even those that did not get a wide release for various reasons, and decided to share our impressions of the most interesting films, in our opinion, and also compiled subjective top lists.

'Rabies'

In February 2023, a taiga western by director Dmitry Dyachenko ('Cheburashka') hit wide screens. The main roles in the film were played by Alexei Serebryakov, Vsevolod Volodin, and Evgeny Tkachuk.

Vitaly Gizatullin

A Wolf Hunt: Review of the Film 'Rabies'

In theaters, a solid taiga western 'Rabies' — a film that successfully mixes a pedagogical poem with elements of Spielberg's 'Jaws' and King's 'Cujo'.

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This is a story about a father who brings his son to a remote taiga village in a last-ditch hope to cure him of drug addiction. At the same time, a rabies epidemic breaks out among wolves in the region, and they begin attacking people.

The lion's share of the film's success is due to the well-crafted script by Alexei Kazakov ('Gorko!', 'Rodnye'), the texture of the harsh taiga region where any person is powerless against wild animals that don't care who you are: a businessman, a gamekeeper, or a policeman. Also, the anxious synthesizer soundtrack and excellently shot action scenes that literally make you sink into your seat when a wolf runs at you.

'Rabies' is an example of clever, brutal, and intelligent genre cinema in the style of Spielberg's 'Jaws' or Stephen King's novel 'Cujo'. Here, whoever is faster survives, and there's simply no time for anything else.

Top 10 films of the year according to Vitaly Gizatullin:

1. Year of Birth
2. Take and Remember
3. Vacation in October
4. Anna's Feelings
5. Centaur
6. Rabies
7. The Bullfinch
8. Youth
9. She's Off
10. Mikulay

'Anna's Feelings'

Are there no feelings in space? Or are there? Alien movies are rarely humanistic; even the recent 'No One Will Save You' by Brian Duffield doesn't show them in the best light, though it makes them a bit 'kinder'. 'Anna's Feelings' is a phantasmagoric film in which a chocolate factory worker (Anna Mikhalkova) coexists with something alien, becoming a mouthpiece for communication between them and humans. Anna Melikyan, the film's director, does not put the idea of extraterrestrial life at the forefront; her characters talk en masse about colonizing Mars, but it is earthly feelings that are in the focus of the camera.

The film's psychologism does not make it boring or drawn out; on the contrary, the high concentration of events and the diversity of the characters' emotions form a multi-level structure. In these metaphors, everyone finds something special for themselves, making 'Anna's Feelings' not just a story about one woman from Perm, but about all of us.

Top 10 films of the year according to Anya Kulakova:

1. Anna's Feelings
2. Centaur
3. Vacation in October
4. Rabies
5. She's Off
6. Aita
7. The Bullfinch
8. A Healthy Person
9. I Take a Step
10. Year of Birth

'Kretsul'

Imagine you've just become the European champion, returned home, married your beloved, and a few days later lost both your wife and your sight, and essentially the meaning of existence. This is exactly the situation judoka Oleg Kretsul found himself in in the 90s, and his story inspired debutant Alexandra Likhacheva to make a bold, frank, and not at all pompous biographical film.

An even bolder move by the director is to focus not on Kretsul's achievements after his disability (though that is not forgotten in the film), but on Oleg's relationship with his best friend Vitaly. He is often called Vitalik because he seems like a carefree joker, but it is this simple guy, who doesn't reach for the stars in sports, finances, or anything else, who becomes the main support for the future Paralympic champion. And the main character here is he — the one who is ready to lend a shoulder to a friend, adjust his life to fit his friend's, and find happiness in that.

Rarely does a film about male friendship boast the emotionality that oozes from the screen while watching. And for this, the heroes and the actors playing them, Nikita Volkov and Sergei Volkov, sometimes don't even need words. This gives unforgettable emotions and a reason to think: do you have such friends in your life?

Roman Kovalev

'Kretsul' – A Film About Strong Male Friendship and Just a Little About Sports

On December 14, 'Kretsul' hits theaters, a biographical film about the life of judoka Oleg Kretsul, who lost his sight but not his champion spirit.

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Top 10 films of the year according to Roman Kovalev:

1. Vacation in October
2. Year of Birth
3. A Healthy Person
4. Kretsul
5. Aita
6. She's Off
7. Rabies
8. White List
9. Fairy Tale
10. Centaur

'One Little Night Secret'

The events of the film take place on New Year's Eve: a fourteen-year-old girl doesn't want to celebrate the New Year with her mother, stepfather, and his children, asks to go to a party with older teenagers, and there (rapidly, due to her age) she falls in love, gets sad, tries to enjoy life, and seeks revenge on the world.

The film would resemble a poetic version of Richard Linklater's 'Dazed and Confused' (especially since Natalia Meshchaninova, like him, amazingly captures natural speech) if not for the titular secret, which only the viewers share with the heroine. It turns a successful teenage drama into a serious social statement, an attempt to process one's own pain as well.

Meshchaninova here seems to reappropriate the largely male-dominated domestic culture. For example, the song 'Lyrics' by Khoy, thematically close to the film, is performed in a female cover (quite unexpectedly), and the main heroine — a girl of the type of future Zvyagintsev's Elena — is shown not at the moment of social explosion, when she usually becomes interesting to directors, but at the moment of breakdown, which is the hardest to capture and the most painful to watch.

Perhaps 'One Little Night Secret' is, in a broad sense, about how normal life with all its attributes (the president's New Year's address, mixed drinks at a party, themed costumes) turns out to be a facade hiding violence, eternal lies, and the disintegration of real social connections. An amazingly sincere and at the same time tender film, and, despite the complex topic, masterfully made within the genre.

Top 10 films of the year according to Ivan Kilyakov:

1. One Little Night Secret
2. Fairy Tale
3. White List
4. A Healthy Person
5. For Us and You
6. Nina
7. Aita
8. Snow, Sister, and Wolverine
9. The Bullfinch
10. 1993