The Barber of Siberia

The Barber of Siberia (Сибирский цирюльник, translit. Sibirskiy tsiryulnik) is a 1998 Russian drama film that re-united the Academy Award-winning team of director, writer, producer and actor Nikita Mikhalkov, screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov and producer Michel Seydoux. It was screened out of competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was disqualified for not getting a print lately to Los Angeles as a nominee.

Plot
Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond), a beautiful American lady, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, about a long kept secret. Twenty years ago she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich's patronage to sponsor his invention, a massive machine to harvest the Siberian forests. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young cadet Andrej Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov) with whom she shares a fondness for opera, and the powerful General Radlov who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her. Tolstoy and Radlov, much to the surprise and indignation of the latter, become rivals for Jane's love. She confides a deep secret to Tolstoy, promises to marry him, and together they spend a passionate night of love fathering her child. But later he overhears Jane denying her interest in him to the General, in order to win the general's favour and be granted an audience with the Grand Duke. Distraught, Tolstoy attacks the General who arrests his young rival on false charges and banishes him to Siberia to seven years of hard labor and a further five years of exile.

Cast

 * Julia Ormond as Jane Callahan-McCracken
 * Richard Harris as Douglas McCracken
 * Oleg Menshikov as Andrei Tolstoi / Andrew McCracken
 * Aleksei Petrenko as General Radlov
 * Marina Neyolova as Andrei Tolstoi's mother
 * Vladimir Ilyin as Captain Mokin
 * Daniel Olbrychski as Kopnovsky
 * Anna Mikhalkova as Dunyasha
 * Marat Basharov – Cadet Polievskyy
 * Nikita Tatarenkov as Cadet Alibekov
 * Artyom Mikhalkov as Cadet Buturlin
 * Georgiy Dronov as Cadet Nazarov
 * Avangard Leontyev as Andrei's uncle
 * Robert Hardy as Forsten
 * Elizabeth Spriggs as the countess Perepyolkina
 * Nikita Mikhalkov as Tsar Alexander III

Music

 * Chopin – Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2. Jane plays the piece while General Radlov proposes to her.
 * Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 II Adagio. This is the movement that Jane's son plays to convince his drill sergeant that "Mozart was a great composer".