Best movies like Ivan Franko

Historical drama depicting the events leading up to the 1917 October Revolution produced to celebrate the 40th anniversary.

Soviet documentary, historical and biographical film of 1983, directed by Irina Kalinina. In a 30-minute tape shows the selfless work of Anna Ivanovna Zelenova, the director of the Pavlovsky Palace Museum, who devoted her entire life to him, survived with him years of occupation and rebirth from the ashes.

Biographical film about the composer Rimskiy-Korsakov. Belongs to the gallery of costume historical and biographical films of the postwar cinema of the Soviet Union. The film tells about the last two decades in the life of Russian composer.

Road to Life (Russian: Педагогическая поэма, translit. Pedagogicheskaya poema) is a 1955 Soviet drama film directed by Aleksei Maslyukov and Mechislava Mayevskaya and based on the book by Anton Makarenko. It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

Historical epic about the legendary Russian naval commander of the 18th century, admiral Fyodor Ushakov, and his fight for Crimea during the Russo-Turkish War.

A biographical film about the life and work of the outstanding physicist-electrical engineer, inventor of radio communications Alexander Semenovich Popov.

A biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen and her romance with a young Irishman.

Calamity Jane is a tough and rowdy woman in the old West who owns a saloon and gambling joint (and runs a cattle rustling operation as a sideline). One day she hires a pretty but naive young woman to work as a saloon girl, and finds that the girl is bringing out the maternal instincts she never knew she had. Those instincts are put to the test when a US army cavalry troop arrives to clean up the town and the girl and the young lieutenant in charge of the troop fall in love, and Calamity Jane may know something about the lieutenant that the girl doesn't.

The life of Sam Houston, soldier, statesman, patriot and one of the founders of the Republic of Texas, is depicted.

In a life full of triumph and failure, "National Lampoon" co-founder Doug Kenney built a comedy empire, molding pop culture in the 1970s.

The life story of Brazilian football legend, Pele.

As Kenya's Mau Mau uprising tears the country apart, former childhood friends Kimani (Sidney Poitier), a native, and Peter (Rock Hudson), a British colonist, find themselves on opposite sides of the struggle in this provocative drama. Though each is devoted to his cause, both wish for a more moderate path -- but their hopes for a peaceful resolution are thwarted by rage, colonial arrogance and escalating violence on both sides.

Veliky Ustyug at the beginning of the 17th century. Semyon Dezhnyov falls in love with the daughter of a rich merchant — Avdotya, but the groom is poor. The girl's father sets a condition: Dezhnyov must go to Siberia and get rich — only then will he receive consent to marry. Dezhnyov agrees and leaves for Siberia. Although he passes the test, he does not return to Avdotya. He finds a strait "from a warm sea to a cold one": from the mouth of the Kolyma he swims to the Pacific Ocean and opens the strait between the continents.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

Biographical film of the most dramatic period in the life of the famous Ukrainian writer Ostap Vyshnya, who in the 1930s was repressed by the Russian authorities and exiled to Siberia. Faithful wife and assistant Varvara Maslyuchenko shared his fate and followed her husband into exile.

After an inspiring chance encounter with his idol, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer, he attempts to get embedded with the local Somali pirates, only to quickly find himself in over his head.

Mary Linden works for the French Red Cross in Occupied France during World War II and helps allied soldiers who have been shot down to escape to the unoccupied side. Her activities are complicated by her high profile and her daughter's love affair with a German officer. Based on the true story.

Adapted from a book by Robert Lacey, this biographical film chronicles both the private and public life of automobile manufacturer Henry Ford (Cliff Robertson).

A definitive portrait of Princess Diana, marking what would have been her 60th birthday, piecing together her incredible journey from being a teenage Pimlico nursery assistant to finding her voice as the Princess of Wales.

Poetic treatment of the early life of Ukrainian poet and painter Taras Shevchenko. A biopic made on the occasion of his 150th anniversary. It dwells on the first part of the Shevchenko's life leading up to the writing of his rebellious poem "A Dream" (A comedy). The film features the first appearance on the silver screen of the iconic Ukrainian actor Ivan Mykolaichuk (as Taras Shevchenko).

Twenty-Six Days in the Life of Dostoyevsky was entered on February 16th at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Dostoyevsky's death on February 9th, 1881, and won a "Best Actor" award for Anatoly Solonitsyn as Dostoyevsky. Solonitsyn was a favorite actor in Andrei Tarkovsky's films, and this was to be his penultimate role. This brief imaginary period in the famed Russian writer's life encapsulates one of his darker moments in 1866. At that time he was still a relatively unknown writer whose first widely acclaimed work, Crime and Punishment, was just on the horizon. His life was at a very low ebb as he struggled with debts he could not pay, and as he fought depression over the loss of his wife to tuberculosis, and the death of his brother, who was very close to him. His first literary journal had to be scrapped because of political reasons, and the second venture needed funding.

This, the first Soviet depiction of Peter the Great, set the stage for what would become the post-Revolutionary line concerning the early Romanovs. Rulers like Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great were widely admired for their dedication to Russia and their absolute determination to enhance her position in the world. But praise for the hated later Romanovs conflicted too heavily with the very beliefs that had brought about the Revolution in 1917.

The historical and biographic movie about the glorified Russian naval commander Ushakov. France begins aggressive wars. The Russian and allied troops freeing Italy are headed by A. V. Suvorov. The victory in the fortress of Corfu is ensured by operation of the admiral Ushakov.

About the early years of the life of the philosopher and writer Alexander Herzen, about his first and unrequited love, about the throwing of youth and growing up of a young critic and revolutioner. According to his father, he comes from an ancient Russian family, and his mother was a simple German woman. As an illegitimate son, he was not given the name of his father, Yakovlev. In his youth, he was fond of the ideas of freedom, for which it is not a pity to fight, which even then was close to the ideals of the revolution...

A biographical film about the fate of the great Russian mechanic and creator of aerodynamics Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky.

About the first years of the formation of Soviet power, about the life and work of Feliks Dzerzhinsky in 1918-1925. The film covers the most important episodes of his biography. In July 1918, as a result of a revolt of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, the German ambassador Mirbach was killed. Feliks Dzerzhinsky alone goes to the headquarters of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and Anarchists, he manages to persuade ordinary soldiers and sailors, participants in the rebellion, who are now cracking down on their leaders. In 1921, Dzerzhinsky was aimed at combating homelessness, as a result of which, by 1925, former homeless children, having completed their studies, were sent to the construction of Yugostal, the largest industrial plant in Ukraine.

A third of a series of movies about Kovpak - the partisans chief during WWII.

The life of prolific Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev is portrayed through biographical, on-location flashbacks from his birth place intermingled with live concert performances from the historical Kirov (Mariinsky) Symphony Orchestra, St.Petersburg, conducted by internationally acclaimed maestro Valeriy Gergiev. These unique musical sequences give the dramatized episodes from Prokofiev's life a time-transcending significance and actuality in todays ever-changing Russia.

Fledgling screenwriters retreat to a quiet country manor to work on their script, but a constellation of needy characters produces constant interruptions.

This fascinating documentary reveals the behind the scenes story of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, drawing on rare archive footage and made using eyewitness accounts of participants and historical experts.

Reflective drama of pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician Florence Nightingale

This film is based on the classic novel of the same name by writer Ivan Franko, one of the most famous figures of Ukrainian literature. It is set during the 1200s and the invasion of the medieval Ukrainian-Russian state of Rus' by Chengis Khan's Golden Horde. Due to its having been produced during the Soviet era, the story's aspect of class-conflict between the "heroic" peasantry and the "decadent" noble particularly emphasized here.

The lost film about the peasant rebellion of the 18th century in Ukraine, led by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Honta. The history of the haydamak movement became a trigger for authors to have experiments in the field of film language: shooting against the background of black velvet, focus on the static character of the picture, the sculptural nature of composition mise-en-scène solutions, replacement of dramatic collisions with cinema engravings depicting the historical past.

A British-produced documentary about the bizarre life of Nazi SS officer Otto Rahn, focused on his search for the mystical Holy Grail of Christ.