A variety of award-winning Russian films are being screened in New York, with the Week of Russian Cinema in full swing in the Big Apple.

Among the highlights of the far-reaching film fair are the hit of the Berlin and London film festivals, How I Ended This Summer, and My Joy, screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

“These films are so different they won't be equally enjoyed, but they give you a picture of what is going on in the quite large [Russian] territory. They are the face of contemporary Russian film,” one of Russia's most popular actors, Aleksey Serebryakov was quoted as saying.

He plays the lead in the action adventure The Golden Mean, set and filmed in Cambodia. The film's director, Sergey Debizhev, described his drama, to be screened in New York, as an “adventure of the human mind”, an attempt to “pep up the American public”.

"Wolfy" by Vasily Sigarev

Among the films which could indeed shake up American audiences are My Joy by Sergey Loznitsa and Wolfy by Vasily Sigarev. Both films are dark in their psychological content and cinematic language.

“Hollywood films are often synonymous with a happy ending. Russian films often depict reality to the fullest,” General Director of the Russian Film Week in New York, Vladimir Sinelnikov, said.

A drama by the Siberian playwright-turned-director Vasily Sigarev, “Wolfy” focuses on wicked mother-daughter relationships.

“Sigarev managed to capture an extreme form of human grief and it makes one want to die from the pain of another human being. Will American audience feel the pain of the main character? I think this is why we continue to bring the Russian Film Week to New York. It allows us to see if people from across the globe are able to relate to one another and feel someone else’s grief as if it were their own,” Sinelnikov explained.

Nikita Mikhalkov in "Burnt by the Sun 2"

Nikita Mikhalkov's WWII epic drama, “Burnt by the Sun 2” will also have to stand the test of appraisal in New York.

It is the sequel to the 1994 drama “Burnt by the Sun” which, back in 1994, won an Oscar, as well as the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film received mixed reactions in Russian and European press, criticizing “The Barber of Siberia” director for twisting facts with fiction. However, Mikhalkov made it clear once and for all that he is not vulnerable to criticism, no matter who it comes from.

“Once we establish how each movie is received in the US, we can then answer the question of whether the American public is interested in the contemporary Russian film-making,” the director of the Russian Film Week in New York was quoted as saying.