The Guard

Karaul

Soviet Union

1989

96 Min

Color, Black and White

1.37:1

English, Russian

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

CAST Aleksey Buldakov, Sergei Kupriyanov, Aleksei Poluyan, Aleksandr Smirnov, Taras Denisenko, Vasili Domrachyov, Andrei Zertsalov, Renat Ibragimov, Dmitri Iosifov, Valeri Kravchenko, Aleksey Zaytsev

SOUND Nikolai Astakhov

Berlinale (Competition): FIPRESCI Prize, Alfred Bauer Award, Toronto

Synopsis

Set on a Ministry of the Interior prison train which trundles its way across the cold Soviet wastes for weeks at a time. A story of cruelty and violence among the prison guards. –BFI

Director

Alexander Rogozhkin graduated from Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg) State University’s History Department as an art expert and art researcher. In 1971, he began to work as an art designer at Leningrad TV; from 1974 – 1977, here he served as a production designer at “LenFilm” Film Studio, while studying painting and graphics at the Leningrad Pedagogic Institute. In 1982, Rogozhkin graduated from VGIK (Russian State Institute for Cinematography), having completed a director’s workshop with Sergei Gerasimov. Rogozhkin’s filmography includes the comedy “Peculiarities of National Hunt” (1995) and its sequel “Peculiarities of National Fishing” (1998), both certified Russian blockbusters; “Peculiarities of National Hunt” was at the top of the national box-office for several years. In 1998, the film “Checkpoint” proved Rogozhkin’s skill as a master of Russian psychological cinema. In addition to having directed several episodes of the popular Russian TV police serial, “Streets of Broken Lights”… read more