publication_date mournful unconcern
The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival . The prize was introduced in ___MASK82___ by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry ' s most distinguished prizes . In 1970 , a second Golden Lion was introduced ; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema . Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January ___MASK31___  15 July ___MASK4___ ) was a Russian playwright and short story writer , who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history . His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics . Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg , Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre . Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career : " Medicine is my lawful wife ", he once said , " and literature is my mistress ." Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of ___MASK62___ . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European Russia . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s , widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost ( meaning " openness ") policy reform . The literal meaning of perestroika is  restructuring , referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system . The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (" International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale "), founded in ___MASK18___ , is the oldest film festival in the world and one of the " Big Three " film festivals alongside the Cannes Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival . Heartbreak House : A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes is a play written by George Bernard Shaw , first published in ___MASK16___ and first played at the Garrick Theatre in November ___MASK55___ . According to A . C . Ward , the work argues that " cultured , leisured Europe " was drifting toward destruction , and that " Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to learn their proper business of political navigation ". The " Russian manner " of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov , which Shaw adapts . Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( born ___MASK25___ March ___MASK2___ ) is a former Soviet statesman . He was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union , having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from ___MASK41___ until 1991 , when the party was dissolved . He was the country ' s head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991 ( titled as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989 , as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 , and as President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991 ). The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre , located on Charing Cross Road , in the City of Westminster , named for the stage actor David Garrick . It opened in ___MASK54___ with " The Profligate ", a play by Arthur Wing Pinero , and another Pinero play , " The Notorious Mrs . Ebbsmith ", was an early success at the theatre . In its early years , the Garrick appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama . The theatre later became associated with comedies , including " No Sex Please , We ' re British ", which played for four years from 1982 to ___MASK26___ . The Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in English as CPSU , was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR or Soviet Union ). The CPSU was the sole governing party of the Soviet Union until ___MASK14___ , when the Congress of People ' s Deputies modified the article of the constitution which granted the CPSU a monopoly over the political system . The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks ( the majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ), a revolutionary group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of ___MASK8___ . The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup d ' état and was completely abolished on ___MASK34___ November 1991 on Russian territory . In general , a civilian is " a person who is not a member of the military or of a police or firefighting force ", as defined by Merriam Webster ' s Dictionary . From the perspective of the U . S . Department of Defense , Chapter ___MASK27___ of Title 10 United States Code refers to non - military law enforcement officers as civilians since they are employees rather than enlisted personnel , and also in order to distinguish itself from military police . In military and law enforcement slang , the term " Civies " or " Civvies " are often used to refer civilian population or civilian clothing . Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov , PAR ( born ___MASK87___ June ___MASK7___ ) is a Russian filmmaker . His most significant works include a feature film , " Russian Ark " ( ___MASK65___ ), filmed in a single unedited shot , and " Faust " ( 2011 ), which was honoured with the Golden Lion , the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival . World War I ( WWI or WW1 ), also known as the First World War , or the Great War , was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from ___MASK85___ July ___MASK20___ to ___MASK6___ November 1918 . More than 70 million military personnel , including 60 million Europeans , were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history . Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war ( including the victims of a number of genocides ), a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents ' technological and industrial sophistication , and the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare . It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , and paved the way for major political changes , including revolutions in many of the nations involved . George Bernard Shaw ( 26 July ___MASK96___  2 ___MASK32___ ), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw , was an Irish playwright , critic , and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre , culture , and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond . He wrote more than sixty plays , including major works such as " Man and Superman " ( 1903 ), " Pygmalion " ( 1913 ), and " Saint Joan " ( 1923 ). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory , Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation , and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature . Mournful Unconcern ( Russian :   , translit . Skorbnoye beschuvstviye ) is the third produced film by Alexander Sokurov , completed in 1983 , but the fourth released one , as it was banned by Soviet authorities until perestroika in 1987 . The film , set during World War I , is inspired by Bernard Shaw ' s play Heartbreak House . Professional actors ( Zamansky , Osipenko , Sokolova and others ) were used alongside amateur actors , like in most early Sokurov films , and many of the trademarks of his cinematographic style were already apparent . Russian Ark (" Russkij Kovcheg ") is a ___MASK65___ historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov . It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum using a single 96 - minute Steadicam sequence shot . The film was entered into the ___MASK65___ Cannes Film Festival .