I'm going over to the otherside for a mini-series of contemporary Russian war and historical films. Surprisingly readily available on DVD here in the UK, although often grossly over-marketed as war epics rather than historical dramas, they do at least come with good PQ and subtitles rather than the dub tracks which seem to be used on the US DVD releases. It inevitably means low ratings from the 'critics' on Amazon UK, but the films are often quite enjoyable, particularly if you go in expecting something a little smaller, often with a vivid art-house flair and sometimes featuring horribly unsubtle political point-scoring, often against the Ukraine or Poland.
Alexander Warrior Saint is a rather typical example of the more historical films. Taking a chapter of history lesser known in Russia and completely unknown outside it and interpolating a rather straight forward historical adventure out of it.
This could well have been made to play in schools, rather lacking in the gore or nudity of some of the other modern Russian war films, but it ticks the historical boxes and is well made.
My full review, illustrated in colour -
Aleksandr. Nevskaya bitva.