Aleksandr Ptushko
Aleksandr Ptushko (1900-1973) was a pioneering Soviet animation and fantasy film director who began his film career as a director and animator of stop motion short films, and became a director of feature-length films combining live action, stop motion, remarkable special effects, and Russian mythology. With singular artistic inventiveness, Ptushko became a Soviet foil to Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Mario Bava as he created dazzling, bejeweled spectacles, including such groundbreaking films as The Stone Flower, Sadko, Sampo, and Ruslan and Ludmila.
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Ilya Muromets
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko • Drama • With Boris Andreyev, Shukur Burkhanov, Ninel Myshkova • 1956 • 92 minutes
Legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s sweeping, visual F/X-filled epic is one of his most enchanting achievements: a stunning Cinemascope ballad of heroic medieval knights,...
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Ruslan and Ludmila
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko • Drama • With Valeri Kozinets, Natalya Petrova, Vladimir Fyodorov • 1972 • 145 minutes
The final film from Russian fantasy master Aleksandr Ptushko (ILYA MUROMETS, SAMPO), RUSLAN AND LUDMILA was a glorious and magical summation of his career. Based on an epic fairy...
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Sampo
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko • Drama • With Anna Orochko, Urho Somersalmi, Andris Osins • 1959 • 91 minutes
Based on the Finnish national epic "Kalevala," director Aleksandr Ptushko's ravishing, mystical fantasy tells the story of a sinister witch Louhi (Anna Orochko) who covets the Sampo, a ma...
