The Barber of Siberia
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The Barber of Siberia (1998) (Russian: Сибирский цирюльник, Sibirskij Tsirjulnik) re-unites the Academy Award winning team of director Nikita Mikhalkov and one of Europe's leading producers, Michel Seydoux whose 1994 film Burnt by the Sun won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and the coveted Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes.
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 of Siberia. 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.
Jane never gives up hope of finding Tolstoy, her true love. Years later, although by now married to McCracken, she returns to Russia to discover where he lives in Siberia. She goes to his home, a barber's shop, where she finds a spirit and happiness that leave her with the knowledge that the one thing she still has is her secret, which will forever tie her and her son to the huge mysterious country.
The stars of the film include famous Russian actors such as Julia Ormond, Oleg Menshikov, Aleksej Petrenko, Marat Basharov, and Leonid Kuravlev.
