Table of contents:

for kids from 0 – infinity

. For Children about U.S.S.R.

.Wonder-pysanka

.The Little Steam Engine from Daisyland – Thomas the Little Tank Engine’s Soviet antipod. Translated into English by me.

.The Moth Translated into English by me.

.The Island (subtitles not needed)

.Crane Feathers – based on a Japanese folk tale (subtitles not needed)

.The Wolf and the Calf. English subtitles

.Moomintrolls (Soviet, 1978)

Puppet animation (the three parts form a feature film):

1. Moomintrolls and all the others (based on Comet in Moominvalley)
2. Moomintroll and the Comet
3. The Road Home

Drawing animation:

1. All because of the Hat: Spring (1980)
2. Summer in Moominvalley (1981)
4. Autumn comes to Moominvalley (1983)

.Cats’ Promenade (subtitles not needed)

.There Once was a Dog – based on a Ukrainian folk tale with English subtitles

.The Tree and the Cat. English subtitles

.A Crow always in Love,1988.

.Winnie the Pooh (Soviet-Russian), part 2

.Ballerina on a Boat (subtitles not needed)

.Heron and Crane by Yuri Norstein 1977. English subtitles.

.Ball of Wool by Nikolai Serebriakov, 1968. English subtitles.

.About Sidorov Vova, 1985. English subtitles.

.Fox and Hare by Yuri Norstein

.Hedgehog in the Fog (based on a Russianfolk tale) By Y. Norstein. English subtitles.

.The House that Jack Built

for kids who can handle serious stuff

.The Dream of a Ridiculous Man based on the story by F. Dostoevsky

.Poor Liza – based on a novella by Nikolay Karamzin (subtitles not needed)

.Glass Harmonica by Andrei Khrjanosvky, music score by Alfred Shnittke, 1968. English subtitles.

.My Green Crocodile by Vadim Kurchevsky, 1966. English subtitles.

.Firing Range by Petrov. Englishsubtitles.

.The Little Steam Engine from Daisyland. English subtitles

Song of a Storm Petrel

This animation film is the unschooling hymn! Maxim Gorki’s cry for freedom in his Song of a Storm Petrel gets beaten, confined, and finally murdered within the stone walls of school. The role of the teacher in this instance is to slam any attempt of the soul to flee the prison-like building. Each time the girl reciting the Song conjures the passions of the storm and the contradictions of darkness and light, joy and tears, the voice of the pedantic teacher brings the birds/spirits back to reality, they slam against the classroom cement and fall back on the ground beaten. The chaos that attempts to liberate the passions of the youth in the end collapse. The final scene is revealing, for, in the debris of shattered dreams and smashed paraphernalia meant to keep the pupils as prisoners of school, appear the characters of the real Alexandre Pushkin and Maxim Gorki – Russia’s classical poets and writers. Their voices let us know that these were the pupils that the punitive teacher destroyed: her final scream is the machine gun that leaves us no hope, as she murders the poets. What could have been the Song of the Storm Petrel falls to the ground, smudged with ink and dirt.