Film and Russian

Film and Russian is a distinctive and intellectually rewarding combination, bringing together the study of cinema as an art form and cultural medium with the rigorous study of Russian language and the extraordinary literary, artistic, and cinematic tradition it carries. Russian cinema is one of the great cinematic traditions in world film history, from the Soviet montage theorists through to contemporary directors, and studying film and Russian together gives you access to this tradition in its original language as well as the critical tools to analyse it.

At Queen Mary University of London this four-year full-time programme develops both disciplines in parallel. In film you will learn to analyse moving images closely, examining narrative, cinematography, editing, sound, and genre, and to situate films within their historical, social, and political contexts. Theoretical approaches from feminism, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, and cultural studies are among the frameworks you will encounter.

In Russian you will develop linguistic proficiency from wherever your current level allows, reading literature, film criticism, and journalism, and developing the communicative and academic language skills needed to engage seriously with Russian-speaking culture. The two strands are deeply complementary, and you will find that your film analysis deepens your appreciation of Russian cultural and visual traditions, while your Russian studies enrich your film scholarship.

Graduates go on to careers in film criticism, journalism, broadcasting, academic research, cultural organisations, international business, diplomacy, and translation. The combination of film studies skills and Russian language ability is genuinely distinctive and opens opportunities in settings where both are professionally relevant. Many continue to postgraduate study in film, Russian studies, or related disciplines.