SISTERS
(Sestry)

Sergei Bodrov the elder is one of Russia's top directors; Bodrov Jr. a recognizable actor thanks to roles in two native box-office smashes, the crime dramas "Brother" and "Brother 2." Now the younger Bodrov takes his turn behind the camera for a sharp, smart first feature that also wowed Eurasian audiences the way "The Sopranos" captivated the yanks. Eight-year-old Dina and 13 year-old Sveta, half-sisters, seem to have little in common besides their parentage, as the offspring of a glamorous mother in St. Petersburg. Sveta is a self-reliant girl whose career goal is to be an army sniper in Chechnya. Her father absconded long ago, so she dwells with a grandmother. Dina's dad, mom's second husband, is no mere urban proletariat. He's Alek Mershersky, a prominent mobster, newly-released from jail and fighting to remain kingpin in the St. Petersburg underworld. There's a missing two million that Kostya, Alek's former cohort, now his deadly opponent, would like to possess, and the gangster knows that enemies will try to get to him via kidnapping Dina. Her prized skiing trip cancelled, spoiled Dina is gathered up with an unhappy Sveta and hidden in a ?safehouse,? that proves to be anything but secure from Kostya's henchmen. Hunted and alone, Sveta and Dina try to find their way through a dangerous landscape of untrustworthy police, menacing gypsies and wannabe wiseguys. That's when big sister's keen marksmanship and survival skills prove sugar and spice are not all that little girls are made of, in this thriller of sibling and criminal rivalries. (In Russian with English subtitles)