Sorry, Mik. I'm a fake; i only know some useful words, but i am intending to learn more as i've got a Russian phrasebook. Too often sport creates enmity, when it should bring nations closer together; i wish Russia well. You are overdue a successful tournament.

Back to films. Have you seen any films by Boris Barnet? I would love to see some, like Okraina/ Outskirts, Devuchka S Korobkoi/ Girl with the Hat Box, The House on Trubnaya Square/ Dom Na Trubnoi, and U Samovo Sinyevo Morya/ By the Bluest of Seas.

Andrei Rublev is one of the most awesome artistic achievements of the 20th century, chosen by the Vatican as the #1 recommended film. And in the summer especially i often think of Mirror/ Zerkalo- the beautiful light through the trees and the river. Tarkovsky should be much more widely known and appreciated, but we live in a world of helter-skelter action films. 