"Actor: Lyudmila Savelyeva"

• War And Peace | DVD | (22/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This 3 DVD six-and-a-half-hour set features the 1968 film and brings all the passion and turbulence of Leo Tolstoy's epic masterpiece dramatically to the screen. The book was written in the nineteenth century and gives a graphic insight in to Russian society at the time and is still considered to be one of the greatest novel ever written. This classic film directed by Sergei Bondarachuk is considered to be the most faithful to the original novel and with a combination of amazing large scale battle scenes and intimate character portrayals this film is many peoples' favourite interpretation of Tolstoy's classic novel... The story follows the fortunes of the aristocratic Bolkonsky and Rostov families as Napoleon's armies sweep through Europe culminating in the French invasion of Russia in 1812. The evil effects of war are a significant theme and war forms the backdrop as it influences the lives of these families and their many associates.

• Sunflower | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The was the first Italian feature film shot in Moscow. It was directed by the renowned Vittorio De Sica and produced by Carlo Ponti. Sophia Loren stars as Giovanna an Italian woman who marries Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) 12 days before the outbreak of World War II. Antonio has no desire to fight in the conflict. He fakes insanity to try to avoid the draft but officials see through the charade. Antonio is sent to the Russian front where the soldiers are plagued by freezing temperatures and short supplies of rations. He is found half-dead in the cold by a Russian peasant girl Mascia (Lyudmila Savelyeva). She takes him in and eventually they marry. Giovanna waits in vain for word on the fate of her husband who is officially declared missing in action. She goes to Russia to try to find him searching records and cemeteries. Finally she discovers first his new wife then him and reluctantly decides not to fight the situation. Returning home to Italy she marries an older factory worker Ettore (Germano Longo) and they have a son (who is played by the real-life son of Ponti and Loren). Antonio still longs for Giovanna and he returns to Italy to discuss a reconciliation with her.