This collection of translated essays by some of Russia's most astute commentators of film and culture illuminates important aspects of Russian film-making during the 1980s, and provides insight into the successes and shortcomings of Glasnost, as captured in film, for a Western audience.

Part I: Films in a Shifting Landscape: 1. Cinema without cinema Mikhail Yampolsky; 2. Cinema for every day Yuri Bogomolov; 3. The last romantics Alexander Timofeevsky; 4. Jobless prophets Lev Karakhan; 5. Midseasonal anarchists Marina Drozdova; 6. The most avant garde of all parallel ones Sergei Dobrotvorsky; Part II. Glasnost's Top Ten: 7. Repentence: on the road that leads to the truth Tatyana Khloplyankina; 8. Between the circus and the zoo Igor Aleinikov; 9. Is it easy to be young; is it easy to be grown up? Lev Anninsky; 10. Deafening voids Alexander Kiselev; 11. A forgotten tune for the flute, Scherzo - suite - nocturne Alexander Timofeevsky; 12. The cold summer of '53 Mikhail Trofimenkov; 13. Birds of passage Mikhail Trofimenkov; 14. Assa; The tenderest shroud Alexander Timofeevsky; 15. Commissar Maya Turovskaya; 16. Little Vera: forward, singing Tatyana Moskvina; 17. Days of eclipse: out of bounds Victor Bozhovich; 18. The days of eclipse Maya Turovskaya; 19. The world as a mirror for the other world Mikhail Yampolsky; 20. A billion years before the end of cinema Tatyana Moskvina; 21. The needle: a dandy of the postpunk era Marine Drozdova; 22. Taxi blues: forgiveness Pyotr Shepotinnik; 23. Taxi fares, blues fans and film viewers Sergei Lavrentiev; Conclusion; Notes on the Contributors; Directors' Bio-filmography; Filmography; Index.

"Brashinsky and Horton have done it again...the work consists of 23 essays, which are sometimes witty, sometimes trenchant, and always replete with the requisite amount of Eastern European irony...teachers, students, and film buffs will find much of interest here." J. M. Curtis, Choice