SUNSTROKE

SUNSTROKE (SOLNECHNYY UDAR), 2014
Russia |DCP, Color, 175' | Russian

Director: Nikita Mikhalkov

Based on a short story by 20^th-century Russian writer Ivan Bunin, the film is set during the final days of the Russian Empire. The country’s glamorous past and the tragic events of 1920 are interwoven at a time when the Russia is ravaged by the revolution and the civil war. While the last soldiers of the tsarist era are held prisoner and Moscow awaits its fate, the film transports us into a lieutenant’s recollections. We witness a love affair that he had on a steamboat on the Volga River. Mikhalkov delivers a dreamlike, epic period film with colorful and touching characters.