Dmitri Frolov

Directing

Dmitri Frolov

Born 1966-02-27 · Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]

Dmitri Frolov was born in Leningrad in 1966. He graduated from The Institute of Film & Television in 1990. He worked at LENFILM Studios and then for the STV film company as a cameraman, in which capacity he has worked with many independent filmmakers. He began to shoot his own films before the start of perestroika, in the early 1980s. One of his first films, The Battle of Borodino, caused a furore and did much to determine the development of the folkloric trend in cinema. He is one of the leaders of russian movievanguard in postperestroika age. He makes esthetic experiments connecting with return to dumb cinema on new level of movielanguage. His films he shoots exclusively on film company "Svema". Even despite the fact that the film material, said the factory was left far in the Soviet past, and the film is not released, he revives the footage, while continuing to be faithful to the brand selected more child. When asked why, he replied that only "Svema" because of its unpredictability and non-uniformity of the emulsion, is the living material, which is able to convey the thrill of the character of life and even the seemingly inanimate object.

Acting credits

Tango a Nightingale poster
6.0

Romantic fantasy based on "two songs" Marina Tsvetaeva riddled melancholy fleeting meetings and partings long -. A favorite theme times late Silver Age, which came at the beginning of the Great War.

Tango a Nightingale

2002

Dreams of the Past poster
10.0

A film about peace, love and war. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Russia. The film takes place at the end of the summer of 1917, when Russia and the whole world were at a crossroads between two eras. None of the people could even imagine how much his life would change in the very near future. In a strange way, the atmosphere of the film echoes our current reality and what is happening in Russia today. According to the form of visualization, the film belongs to experimental mockumentary cinema. To give greater authenticity to what is happening on the screen, the shooting was carried out on black-and-white negatives of 16 and 35 mm, hand-operated cameras were used and the material was developed in manual spiral tanks. The documentary chronicle of the Kolchak army of 1919 and the White army in the Far East of 1922 is embedded in the finale of the film.

Dreams of the Past

2022

Shatanger Aylok poster
10.0

This film tell us about intricate attitudes in male collectives on navy. The film bore in poetical form with respect for differently minded heroes.

Shatanger Aylok

1993

Borodino poster
10.0

An experimental sitcom, shot in the style of silent films of the early twentieth century. A parody of military-patriotic films. The plot of the film is the battle of the Russian army with Napoleon in 1812.

Borodino

2020

Clownery poster
5.4

The tragicomedy of the absurd, is based on the works of Daniil Kharms (1905-1942). Trying to recreate reality 30s, who came to the flowering of creativity Harms, the director plays the style of filming, acting at that time and enters into the picture, "the aged" sound. Thus, it is possible to achieve maximum reliability of the author's text and sound to help the viewer to immerse themselves in the atmosphere in which he lived and worked classic absurdity. This is - a world of illusions, allusions and associations, reflecting a stream of consciousness of the creator living in an era of silence.

Clownery

1989

A Letter to the Future poster
NR

The saga of Pushkin and the Decembrists, based on a letter by Matvey Muravyov-Apostol, found in Yalutorovsk during the Soviet era.

A Letter to the Future

1982

Winter Will Not Be poster
NR

"There will be no winters" - a film consisting of 14 short novels, each with its own plot and a musical theme. In fact, this is a screen version of the same album of Russian avant-garde singer Leonid Fedorov.

Winter Will Not Be

2021

Stairway to Heaven poster
9.5

This Petersburg you will not see on the covers of glossy magazines and advertising brochures. This city is ghosted and brutal, and it is inhabited by very different, often very gloomy people.

Stairway to Heaven

1996

The Man Mayakovsky poster
NR

A satire on Soviet propaganda based on Mayakovsky's poems.

The Man Mayakovsky

1980

Se our Frolov poster
NR

Experimental documentary film-observation. The hero of the film - russian director experimental cinema Dmitri Frolov

Se our Frolov

1990

Metamorphosis poster
5.6

A film-parable about the eternal movement of mankind from the Stone Age to self-destruction.

Metamorphosis

1988

The Way poster
6.2

Three friends meet in a central cheerful pastime. After strolling along the boulevards, they are in nature. The dark side of the forest reveals the subconscious of each. And none of them are unaware of the existence of the world of the forces that awaken in man hidden until the time of the dark side of their personalities. The metaphor of the film is laid bare hidden from direct view the laws of nature to be reckoned with, are unaware of their presence, man.

The Way

1988

Unknown Parallel Cinema: A Retrospective of Dmitri Frolov poster
NR

On February 19, 2022, a screening of Dmitry Frolov's films with the participation of the director and curator of the Film Laboratory Tikhon Pendyurin took place within the Film Laboratory of the Radio House of St. Petersburg. Dmitry Frolov's lens is aimed deep into time at the deceptive shadows of the Silver Age and surreal images of the pre-revolutionary years. The director transfers to the Soviet film the ideas and dreams of the poets of that era: expressionists, symbolists, mystics and futurists. Frolov's experimental and absurdist cinematography embodies the attitudes of early cinema: to combine theater, literature, music and painting. In his films, the resurrected and hypertrophied Art Nouveau, as if in a camera obscura, reflects the key moments of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Unknown Parallel Cinema: A Retrospective of Dmitri Frolov

2022

Dream poster
7.0

The first Surrealist film perestroika years.

Dream

1987

Cupid's Arrows poster
NR

Reconstruction of silent films: a parody of the salon drama of the early twentieth century.

Cupid's Arrows

1981

Behind the camera

The Two poster
5.5

Two men. Friends? Enemies? Lovers? Brothers? One is nothing, success or failure depends on two.

The Two

2002

ACT poster
6.5

Several fragments of one day in Leningrad in the autumn of 1989, refracted in the imagination of the artist.

ACT

1989

RUMBA poster
5.5

Lumiere's The Arrival Of A Train in Russian.

RUMBA

1999

Above the Lake poster
5.5

Avant-garde homage to pre-revolution Russian silent movies, and to the poet Aleksandr Blok.

Above the Lake

1995

Above the Lake poster
5.5

Avant-garde homage to pre-revolution Russian silent movies, and to the poet Aleksandr Blok.

Above the Lake

1995

Above the Lake poster
5.5

Avant-garde homage to pre-revolution Russian silent movies, and to the poet Aleksandr Blok.

Above the Lake

1995

Adagio poster
10.0

«I often have dreams. Careless dreams. When the sun was shining. It was calm and quiet. And a peaceful sky overhead.» An experimental musical film on the theme of love. Memories of the past excite the imagination and make you evaluate what is happening in the present in a new way.

Adagio

2024

Moonlight People poster
6.4

Two young men and two girls on a moonlit night confess to each other in their strange fantasies and loves that go beyond the usual standards.. The impetus to making the film was the book of the same name by the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, who died 100 years ago. His treatise was devoted to the study of sexuality and its denial in Christianity. The film was made in the style of experimental films of the 1920s with a non-linear narration full of strange surrealistic images. He is black and white and devoid of dialogue. Filmed on film 16 mm of firm "Svema", released in the USSR. This added to his exoticism. The image was put to the music of Alexander Scriabin “The Poem of Ecstasy” (1907).

Moonlight People

2019

Moonlight People poster
6.4

Two young men and two girls on a moonlit night confess to each other in their strange fantasies and loves that go beyond the usual standards.. The impetus to making the film was the book of the same name by the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, who died 100 years ago. His treatise was devoted to the study of sexuality and its denial in Christianity. The film was made in the style of experimental films of the 1920s with a non-linear narration full of strange surrealistic images. He is black and white and devoid of dialogue. Filmed on film 16 mm of firm "Svema", released in the USSR. This added to his exoticism. The image was put to the music of Alexander Scriabin “The Poem of Ecstasy” (1907).

Moonlight People

2019

Phantoms of White Nights poster
5.6

Black people, red dwarfs, idols on bronze steeds, shadow of geniuses and heroes. This is not story about Hades from an ancient history textbook. This is Sankt-Petersburg In mystical literary tradition such as he is. A pomposity, an open space and - deathness. There is no gleam in the sky, Neva looked like poured by a lead, a crude air presses and can not pass through lungs, which are already struck by bacillus Kochii, and there are around ominous frights, threatening to punish for an unknown offence. And even white nights are bad. It looks as if you can meet phantom of a Poet which was tortured at thirtieth years of any of the last centuries. Be careful with monuments. They fond of walk along town quays (as told us Poushkin - he brings luck!). And do not trust this Neva prospectus. City - phantom, evolved from a bog which is refuge of evil spirits. Brilliant St.-Petersburg.

Phantoms of White Nights

1991

Last Love poster
6.0

The plot begins with them and ends with humanity. This author wanted to show continuity: the first love and the supposed last is an indivisible whole of one eternal Love.

Last Love

2017

Last Love poster
6.0

The plot begins with them and ends with humanity. This author wanted to show continuity: the first love and the supposed last is an indivisible whole of one eternal Love.

Last Love

2017

Tango a Nightingale poster
6.0

Romantic fantasy based on "two songs" Marina Tsvetaeva riddled melancholy fleeting meetings and partings long -. A favorite theme times late Silver Age, which came at the beginning of the Great War.

Tango a Nightingale

2002

The Bigmoon Nights poster
4.7

The film "Nights full moon" shows the tendency of moral decay in society. The main character is torn apart by internal contradictions, leading him to the path of Evil. Bans on self-identification - philosophical, existential, sexual, and then permissiveness spawn a monster that is not aware of its true nature and genuine desires. Throughout the film-trilogy, the protagonist goes through a series of temptations that ruin his soul and lead, after all, to a madhouse. In a general sense, the film allegorically shows the tragic path of the Russian lumpen intellectual, lost between the past and the present, not finding the strength to accept and comprehend the unexpected changes that happened in our country twenty years ago. In the global sense - the tragic circle of Russian history.

The Bigmoon Nights

1991

The Bigmoon Nights poster
4.7

The film "Nights full moon" shows the tendency of moral decay in society. The main character is torn apart by internal contradictions, leading him to the path of Evil. Bans on self-identification - philosophical, existential, sexual, and then permissiveness spawn a monster that is not aware of its true nature and genuine desires. Throughout the film-trilogy, the protagonist goes through a series of temptations that ruin his soul and lead, after all, to a madhouse. In a general sense, the film allegorically shows the tragic path of the Russian lumpen intellectual, lost between the past and the present, not finding the strength to accept and comprehend the unexpected changes that happened in our country twenty years ago. In the global sense - the tragic circle of Russian history.

The Bigmoon Nights

1991

The Bigmoon Nights poster
4.7

The film "Nights full moon" shows the tendency of moral decay in society. The main character is torn apart by internal contradictions, leading him to the path of Evil. Bans on self-identification - philosophical, existential, sexual, and then permissiveness spawn a monster that is not aware of its true nature and genuine desires. Throughout the film-trilogy, the protagonist goes through a series of temptations that ruin his soul and lead, after all, to a madhouse. In a general sense, the film allegorically shows the tragic path of the Russian lumpen intellectual, lost between the past and the present, not finding the strength to accept and comprehend the unexpected changes that happened in our country twenty years ago. In the global sense - the tragic circle of Russian history.

The Bigmoon Nights

1991

The Little Sotmaid poster
10.0

On a remote almost uninhabited island, there are two gently friendly representatives of the once opposing sides. They have long been accustomed to each other and do not expect any changes in life. And all of a sudden a woman appears on the island!

The Little Sotmaid

1998

Dreams of the Past poster
10.0

A film about peace, love and war. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Russia. The film takes place at the end of the summer of 1917, when Russia and the whole world were at a crossroads between two eras. None of the people could even imagine how much his life would change in the very near future. In a strange way, the atmosphere of the film echoes our current reality and what is happening in Russia today. According to the form of visualization, the film belongs to experimental mockumentary cinema. To give greater authenticity to what is happening on the screen, the shooting was carried out on black-and-white negatives of 16 and 35 mm, hand-operated cameras were used and the material was developed in manual spiral tanks. The documentary chronicle of the Kolchak army of 1919 and the White army in the Far East of 1922 is embedded in the finale of the film.

Dreams of the Past

2022

Dreams of the Past poster
10.0

A film about peace, love and war. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Russia. The film takes place at the end of the summer of 1917, when Russia and the whole world were at a crossroads between two eras. None of the people could even imagine how much his life would change in the very near future. In a strange way, the atmosphere of the film echoes our current reality and what is happening in Russia today. According to the form of visualization, the film belongs to experimental mockumentary cinema. To give greater authenticity to what is happening on the screen, the shooting was carried out on black-and-white negatives of 16 and 35 mm, hand-operated cameras were used and the material was developed in manual spiral tanks. The documentary chronicle of the Kolchak army of 1919 and the White army in the Far East of 1922 is embedded in the finale of the film.

Dreams of the Past

2022

Dreams of the Past poster
10.0

A film about peace, love and war. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Russia. The film takes place at the end of the summer of 1917, when Russia and the whole world were at a crossroads between two eras. None of the people could even imagine how much his life would change in the very near future. In a strange way, the atmosphere of the film echoes our current reality and what is happening in Russia today. According to the form of visualization, the film belongs to experimental mockumentary cinema. To give greater authenticity to what is happening on the screen, the shooting was carried out on black-and-white negatives of 16 and 35 mm, hand-operated cameras were used and the material was developed in manual spiral tanks. The documentary chronicle of the Kolchak army of 1919 and the White army in the Far East of 1922 is embedded in the finale of the film.

Dreams of the Past

2022

Shatanger Aylok poster
10.0

This film tell us about intricate attitudes in male collectives on navy. The film bore in poetical form with respect for differently minded heroes.

Shatanger Aylok

1993

THEATER. Afterword poster
5.5

The film was shot as the final part of the play "Drink the sea, Xanthos" theatre-Studio "NEO" (St. Petersburg 1987-1989). As a result, the performance was changed and the film gained independence. He became an allegory of acting.

THEATER. Afterword

1988

Dinner poster
NR

By knowing oneself, a person knows the whole world. Refusal of self-knowledge distances a person from God. What does a woman seek in a man's world? What passionate and vague dreams control her? The painful search for the Ideal in an imperfect world is realized by a love triangle. While men measure their strength in the fight for a woman, her subconscious has already equalized them in weakness, because next to her Ideal, they are both just insignificant shadows. Perhaps the reason for the collapse is the very existence of an abstract Ideal, which inevitably gives rise to a comparative analysis of the surrounding men, and, as a result, the impossibility of choice. The happiness of motherhood for this woman lies in the absence of a reason for comparison, because the child is certainly pure and beautiful.

Dinner

2025

Borodino poster
10.0

An experimental sitcom, shot in the style of silent films of the early twentieth century. A parody of military-patriotic films. The plot of the film is the battle of the Russian army with Napoleon in 1812.

Borodino

2020