Freedom Is Paradise (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: СЭР,

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

for Свобода Это Раи, Svoboda Eto Rai) is a 1989 Soviet Union film

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

Sergei Bodrov Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov ( rus, Серге́й Влади́мирович Бодро́в, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈdrof; born 28 June 1948) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2003 he was the president of the jury at the ...

. It won the Grand Prix des Amériques, the main prize at the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019.Alma-Ata Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, near the border wi ...

Kazakh SSR The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Located in northern Centr ...

. Determined to find the father he has never met, Sascha repeatedly escapes from the institution, only to be caught and returned each time. During one of his attempts, he manages to travel as far as

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

, where he locates the labor camp where his father is imprisoned. The camp commander allows Sascha to spend a single night with his father before he is sent back to the reform school the next morning. The film's title, ''Freedom is Paradise'', refers to the phrase "С.Э.Р." (an abbreviation of the Russian "Свобода — это рай") tattooed on Sascha's hand, a motto shared by many of the prison inmates.

Cast

* Vladimir Kozyrev as Sasha Grigoryev *

Alexander Bureev Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

as Father * Svetlana Gaitan as Klava * Vytautas Tomkus as Prison Camp Chief *

Valeria Prikhodchenko Valeria may refer to: People * Valeria (given name), a female given name * The gens Valeria, a family at Rome * Valeria (ancient Roman women), a name used in ancient Rome for women of the gens Valeria * Saint Valeria (disambiguation), severa ...

Sergei Bodrov Jr. Sergei Sergeyevich Bodrov (; December 27, 1971 – September 20, 2002), also known as Sergei Bodrov Jr., was a Russian actor and screenwriter who had lead roles in the films ''Brother'', '' Prisoner of the Mountains'', ''East/West'' and ''Brother ...

as Juvenile Delinquent *

Igor Kosukhin Igor may refer to: * Igor (given name), an East Slavic given name and a list of people with the name Arts, entertainment, and media *Igor (character), a stock character * Igors (''Discworld''), a fictional humanoid family in the ''Discworld'' ...

(cameo) *

Sergey Shkalikov Sergey may refer to: * Sergey (name), a Russian given name (including a list of people with the name) * Sergey, Switzerland Sergey is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Sergey is f ...

(cameo) *

Luiza Mosendz Luiza is a feminine given name, most commonly found in the Greek, Albanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian languages. People bearing the name Luiza include: * Luiza Almeida (born 1991), Brazilian dressage rider * Luiza Helena de Bairros ...

(cameo)

Awards

; 1989

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019.Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

* ''Wolfgang Staudte Prize'' ; 1990

Nika Award The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars. In 2022 nominees were announced, b ...

* Nominated for ''Best Sound'' (Vyacheslav Karasyov)

Literature

* Adele Marie Barker: ''Consuming Russia. Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev''. Duke University Press, 1999. ISBN 0822323133, p. 352. * Anna M. Lawton: ''Kinoglasnost. Soviet Cinema in Our Time''. CUP Archive, 1992. ISBN 0521388147, pp. 183–184.

References

External links

1989 films Soviet adventure drama films 1980s Russian-language films 1980s Soviet films Russian-language adventure drama films {{1980s-USSR-film-stub