The Barber of Siberia

Infobox Film
name = The Barber of Siberia


image_size =
caption = Original Russian language poster
director = Nikita Mikhalkov
producer = Michel Seydoux
writer = Nikita Mikhalkov,
Rustam Ibragimbekov,
Nikita Mikhalkov,
Rospo Pallenberg
narrator =
starring = Julia Ormond,
Richard Harris,
Oleg Menshikov,
Aleksei Petrenko,
Marina Neyolova,
Vladimir Ilyin,
Daniel Olbrychski
music = Eduard Artemyev
cinematography = Pavel Lebeshev
editing = Enzo Meniconi
distributor =
released = October 30, 1998
runtime = 180 min
country = Russia,
France,
Italy,
Czech Republic
language = Russian,
English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0120125

"The Barber of Siberia" ( _ru. Сибирский цирюльник, Sibirskij Tsirjulnik) is a 1998 Russian film that re-united the Academy Award winning team of director Nikita Mikhalkov and Michel Seydoux.

Plot summary

Jane Callahan, a once beautiful American, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, but who is he? Her memories take us back 20 years to when she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken, an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke's patronage to sponsor his invention, a massive machine to harvest the forests. On her travels, she meets two men who will change her life forever. A handsome young Andrey Tolstoy with whom she shares a fondness of opera, and the powerful General Radlov who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her. Tolstoy and Radlov vie for the love of the woman with whom they are obsessed. She confides a deep secret to Tolstoy, promises to marry him, and together they spend a passionate night of love. But later he overhears Jane denying her interest in him to the General. Distraught, Tolstoy attacks the General who arrests his young rival on false charges and banishes him to Siberia. To 7 years of hard labor and 5 years of isolation.

Jane never gives up hope of finding Tolstoy, her true love. After ten years later, although by now married to McCracken, she returns to Russia to discover where he lives in Siberia. She goes to his home, where she finds that Tolstoy is married and with children. She leaves from there taking with her the secret of her ture love which will forever tie her and her son to the huge mysterious country.

The stars of the film include famous Russian actors such as Oleg Menshikov, Alexei Petrenko, Marat Basharov, Leonid Kuravlev, and Mikhalkov himself (as Tsar Alexander III), and British actress Julia Ormond.

External links

*imdb title|id=0120125|title=Sibirskiy tsiryulnik
* [http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=25 Trailer] and [http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=25 Screenshots]