The issue of preserving the historic memory of World War Two has become particularly acute in recent years. This memory is cherished in Uzbekistan, yet the modern generation fails to see the true value of the movies produced in those trying times. During the war, our country sheltered a lot of evacuated filmmakers which enabled them to continue their work.  At the premises of the Tashkent Film Studio, quite a number of high-profile films, including “Two Fighters,” “Alexander Parhomenko,” “Girl No 217,” to name a few, were created. The film “Tahir and Zuhra” occupies a rightful place among them. The article reveals the organizational and production structure. The side of making the film, how it was managed in those difficult years to make a picture of a level worthy of being recognized as one of the world's cinema masterpieces.

The article is devoted to the trend of making films about film production which is largely based on the audience's interest. This is chiefly due to the possibility of cinematic immersion in the mysteries of the behind-the-screen processes, the life and work of the film crew. The unknown world on the other side of the screen attracts not only film audiences, but also film historians, providing research material for the study of sociocultural dynamics, both in the general theoretical aspect and in terms of specific documented biographies of cinema figures.

The author argues that mise en abyme was extensively used in cinema as early as the 1920s, making it possible to share the filmmakers’ own attitude to their trade. The provided examples prove that the range of approaches was quite broad. A satirical view was aimed at both prerevolutionary cinema and, accordingly, at modern traditionalists; the innovators of the Soviet montage school were also ridiculed, and, naturally, one could encounter criticism of bourgeois film industry.

The article presents an analysis of the television series “The Penal Battalion”, “The First Circle” and “Liquidation”, covering the wartime and post-war periods in the USSR. The directorial perception of the conflict between a person and the state machine in the context of tragic historical episodes is considered. The idea of the state in the collective consciousness, reflected in three different telenovelas, is analyzed. In the final part of his article, the author comes to the conclusion that the relationship between an individual and the state is one of the leading themes for both the filmmakers and the audience. Such ideas as loyalty to the home country, pride in the fatherland and the people, in the history of the state, the experience of the unity of all citizens are of primary importance for both the characters of the series and the viewers. The creators of the series are obviously faced with the challenge of artistic rethinking the history of our country in compliance with the modern imperatives.

The author considers three decades’ creative evolution in cinema art of contemporary American filmmaker Harmony Korine distinguished by his drive towards innovation and renewal of film language as well as synthesis with techniques of videoart and videogames in order to actively involve a spectator into the process of film perception through immersive sensory experience. The major points of his stylistic codes’ modifications depending on artistic context are accentuated from direct cinema, post-doc, including augmented psychological reality into characterization of personages up to gamecore, which is being transformed as a new phase of Korine’s creation designated as “blinks”. Alongside his principal adherence toward cinema as art Korine, being also a professional painter, synthesizes his method with possibilities based on media technologies.

The article makes an attempt to consider various types of representation of the road in the context of the development of the history of cinema, to determine its place both in the metaphorical aspect and from the point of view of the formation of genre features, primarily such genres as road movie and buddy cinema. In the final part of the article, the author comes to the conclusion that road films, having rejected the commercial adventure potential, adapted the techniques of slow cinema, used it to create false movement and discovered the ability to reflect on man in eternity.

Film director Jafar Panahi has always been interested in exploring women’s life in a fundamentalist society. This article examines the evolution of female character representation throughout his career. The author notes that Panahi’s films about women reflect the main trends in contemporary Iranian cinema, as well as the changes in the socio-cultural atmosphere in the country.

Using “Dancer in the Dark” (dir. Lars von Trier, 2000) as an example, the article investigates the possibilities of transforming film musical. By analyzing the interaction of the artistic means in the movie, the author comes to the conclusion that the director has pushed its boundaries in response to modern challenges and his artistic goals which makes the genre not only serious, but also shocking.

The article addresses one of the main problems of films about musicians, namely, the dramatic and directorial approach to the presenting an artistically authentic, lively image of a musician. A general overview of feature and documentary films about musicians reveals diverse ways of representing individuality and the inner world of a character, as well as identifying a certain personality type. Surveying the images of musicians in a fairly representative number of films, the author proposes a typology based on the protagonist's relationship with music and, through music, with society: creative and innovative (“creators”); performing (“reciters-translators”, “readers-dialogists”, “psychosomatics”, “dictators”, “divas”); intuitive-spiritual (“mediums”). The proposed definitions of the types (subtypes) of musicians are “frameworks” in nature, quite flexible and permeable, since we are dealing with the living individuality, which is subject to change due to the developments of the story and transforms due to internal personal evolution.

The article is devoted to the interpretation of literary characters of A.S. Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin on the screen. Russian cinema has recently been actively using images established in the mass consciousness, based on a sociocultural paradigm formed over the centuries. These screen images are mostly derived from literary sources. Currently, numerous screen adaptations of Russian literary classics have appeared, which, in the context of certain political events and the dramatic transformation of public consciousness, is becoming a significant step in the formation of modern Russian culture. This process certainly requires reflection.

This article examines the features of perception and the role of the viewer in “spherical” cinema and virtual reality by comparing traditional cinema, “spherical” cinema and interactive VR 360 projects, highlighting the unique characteristics of each format. The author explores the viewer’s interaction with the “spherical” space and its impact on the viewer's attention and memory, the technical and production aspects of filming and their influence on the quality of audiovisual content. The research on the impact of “spherical” films on viewers sheds light on the potential of this innovative media format.

The article explores a host of issues related to the features of the optical image in the cinema. The image received by the lens and our visual perception have a lot of similarities, but in many ways they are different. Visual perception is the result of the interaction between our eyes and our brain, which controls the basic parameters of our eyesight and forms a visual image of the observed reality. A lens (lens system) only projects onto a photosensitive material or an electronic matrix an optical image of a certain part of the real space located in front of it. The features of the image, conditioned by the very principles of transmission and refraction of light in optical media as well as by the structural and optical characteristics of the lens make it possible to record an image that differs from direct visual perception.

The article surveys the evolution of Koshchei figure in Russian cinema from Soviet movie fairy tales to the present day. It proves the dependence of the growing sophistication of the character’s distinctive features and the type of the role model on the cultural peculiarities and the demands of times. The author analyzes the significance of Koshchei's death and the change of attitude to it as an important step in adapting the folklore image for modern audiences. In the final part of the article, the author comes to the conclusion that alongside with the complexity of Koshchei's image, the addition of new role models previously uncharacteristic of the character and the possibilities of a different outcome of the story, the process of simplification of plot patterns in the films themselves is noticeable. There is a change from some plot templates (fairy tale) to other ones (film genre templates).

The article analyzes the experience of one of the Russia's regions in the field of cinema. The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is a rare example of a stably functioning regional film industry, where most films are produced in the national language. The republic with a population under 1 million people has 23 film companies, and local films outstrip Hollywood blockbusters in domestic box-office, which makes Yakut cinema worth taking a closer look at. The article aims at bringing to light the key features of the local film distribution from 2018 to 2022, taking into account the modifications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as sanctions. Hence three research objectives can be identified: analyzing domestic theatrical distribution, identifying the constraints on the distribution of Yakut films outside the region, describing the experience of online screening of Yakut films.