Concrete Playground

With its rich red interiors, the Chauvel seems just the right setting for a Russian Resurrection. The 7th annual film festival is offering up 17 new films plus a World War II retrospective, that includes Andrei Tarkovsky's stunning debut Ivan's Childhood.

Amongst the contemporary crop is the starkly beautiful How I Ended This Summer. Fresh from screening in competition at the Sydney Film Festival, it is the story of two men holed up on an Arctic meteorological station. Superbly shot and cunningly scripted, the film is one of two featuring up and coming Russian heartthrob Grigoriy Dobrygin. The other is Black Lightning, where Dobrygin plays a grad student who inherits a beaten up old car that just happens to fly. Presented by Timur Bekmambetov (the director of Night Watch and Wanted), the film is being heralded as a Russian smash up between Spiderman and Back to the Future.

Flying higher into the cinematic stratosphere is Russia's first 3D animation, and appropriately, it features their late, great technological feat: dogs in space. Belka & Strelka — Space Dogs is an animated tribute to the kooky Soviet mission that launched 50 years ago, and looks set to commemorate the historical event with some good, old fashioned family fun.

This celebration of Russian films is the largest festival that occurs outside the country itself. So be sure to peruse the programme and pick out a film or two to enjoy on these last remaining (though thankfully not Russian) winter nights.