Russian Resurrection Film Festival's Perth leg starts its twelfth season tonight at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge, Western Australia.
The annual Festival, which runs until November 18, opens with Battalion, a war epic based on the true story of the First Russian Women's Battalion.
A huge box office hit in Russia, it is set in the spring of 1917 at the height of the First World War when a battalion was formed with the idea that women warriors would shame timid soldiers into resuming their combat duties.
Highlights of the Festival include Battle of Sevastopol, the true story of a young Soviet woman who joins the Red Army in 1941 to fight the Nazi invasion; comedy-drama Divorce On A Whim and Sunstroke, the story of a soldier's memory of a long-ago night of passion with a beautiful woman.
Russian Resurrection Film Festival director, Nicholas Maksymow, said the lineup of films this year was particularly strong and would create a deeper understanding of Russia.
“Through a varied and uncompromising presentation of Russian culture, we can provide audiences with the diversity of voices and ideas that are present in Russian cinema and society,” he said.
“Russian cinema is evolving and developing every day.”