Dark Eyes (Oci ciornie)

Made jointly by Italy and the Soviet Union in 1987, Nikita Mikhalkov's romantic comedy-drama Dark Eyes (Italian: Oci ciornie; Russian: Ochi chyornye) runs roughly 117 minutes in Italian, Russian and French. The title comes from the well-known Russian song written by Yevhen Hrebinka in 1843. The film was shown in the official competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, where Marcello Mastroianni won the Best Actor prize. Critics responded favorably, and it is also recorded as winning a "Silver Nugget" for best foreign film.

Set in Italy and Russia in the years before the First World War, the story follows a married Italian man who falls for a married Russian woman, and the romance turns into a tale of frustrated love and lost illusions. Marcello Mastroianni and Yelena Safonova take the leading roles, with Silvana Mangano and Marthe Keller also in the cast, alongside Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Tabakov, Vsevolod Larionov, Pina Cei and Roberto Herlitzka.

Mikhalkov wrote the screenplay with Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Aleksandr Adabashyan. It draws on Anton Chekhov's stories, above all The Lady with the Dog, and borrows motifs from The Name-Day Party, The Wife and Anna on the Neck. Rai 1 is credited as the production company.