Boris AKOPOV
Борис АКОПОВ
Boris AKOPOV
Russia, 2019, 90mn 
Colour, fiction
Byk
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Бык

 

 The Bull

 Le Taureau

 
Directed by : Boris AKOPOV (Борис АКОПОВ)
 
Cast
Sergey DVOYNIKOV (Сергей ДВОЙНИКОВ)
Aleksey FILIMONOV (Алексей ФИЛИМОНОВ)
Roman KOLOTUKHIN (Роман КОЛОТУХИН)
Aleksandr LEVIN (Александр ЛЕВИН)
Igor SAVOCHKIN (Игорь САВОЧКИН)
Mariya ZVONARIOVA (Мария ЗВОНАРЁВА)
Yuri BORISOV (Юрий БОРИСОВ) ...Anton Bykov
Stasya MILOSLAVSKAYA (Стася МИЛОСЛАВСКАЯ ) ...Tanya
Athina KONDRASHOVA (Афина КОНДРАШОВА) ...Anya Bykova
Egor KENZHAMETOV (Егор КЕНЖАМЕТОВ) ...Misha Bykov
 
Cinematography : Gleb FILATOV (Глеб ФИЛАТОВ)
Produced by : Vladimir MALYSHEV (Владимир МАЛЫШЕВ ), Fyodor POPOV (Федор ПОПОВ)
Companies : ООО «ПРОДЮСЕРСКИЙ ЦЕНТР «ВГИК-ДЕБЮТ» ПРИ ПОДДЕРЖКЕ МИНИСТЕРСТВА КУЛЬТУРЫ РФ / VGIK-DEBUT
Film revenue in Russia : 0.2804 million dollars
Spectators : 69 981
Release Date in Russia : 22/08/2019
 
Site : IMDb

Awards :
Audience Award Nantes Russian Film Festival, Nantes (France), 2020
First prize Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2019
Best Cinematography Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2019
Best first film Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2019

Plot synopsis
It is the end of the 1990s and Russia is finding it tough to get back on its feet after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The nation is ravaged by economic and moral decay, a fact reflected in the rise of local criminal gangs. A young man nicknamed ‘The Bull’, a gang leader, ends up at the police station after a scuffle with a rival mob. He manages to avoid prison thanks to the intervention of a respected mafia boss, who asks him to pull off a risky job in return. Boris Akopov offers up an exceptionally mature director’s debut; a taut drama with energetic soundtrack, compulsive narrative rhythm and raw performances faithfully capture the hostile spirit of post-Soviet Russia.
Source: russianfilmweekusa.com
 

commentaries
Boris Akopov: The Bull (Byk, 2019), Rita SAFARIANTS, Kinokultura, 2020
«Бык»: Песни на ушельском языке, Василий СТЕПАНОВ, seance.ru, 2019
Critique : The Bull [Le Taureau], Laurence BOYCE, cineuropa.org, 2019
RUSSIA BEYOND : Cinq films russes sortis 2019 que vous devez à tout prix regarder, IOULIA CHAMPOROVA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2019
Six films russes en lice pour les Golden Globes, Ekaterina SINELCHTCHIKOVA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2019
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Nantes Russian Film Festival, Nantes (France), 2020
- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2020
- Russian Resurrection Film Festival, Different cities (Australia), 2019
- Semaine du nouveau cinéma russe au cinéma-aventure, Brussels (Belgium), 2019
- Novy Rusky Film, Prague (Czech Republic), 2019
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2019
- Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival : PÖFF, Tallinn (Estonia), 2019
- Russian Film Week in Paris : Regards de Russie, Paris (France), 2019
- Honfleur Russian Film Festival, Honfleur (France), 2019
- Russian Art Festival, Cannes (France), 2019
- Russische Filmwoche in Berlin, Berlin (Germany), 2019
- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2019
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2019
- "Vyborg" Russian Film Festival (formerly ''A Window to Europe''), Vyborg (Russia), 2019
- GIFF. Geneva International Film Festival, Geneva (Switzerland), 2019

Images