Burnt By the Sun (1995)

(1994, Columbia TriStar, subtitled, unratred, priced for rental) It's the summer of 1936, and Colonel Kotov (Burnt By the Sun writer-director Nikita Mikhalkov), a hero of the Russian Revolution, has retreated to the country with his wife, Marussya (Ingeborga Dapkunaite), and their precocious daughter (Nadya Mikhalkov). When Marussya's childhood love returns without warning, this Oscar-winning movie seems to be telling a simple tale of a woman torn. By the end, this slow, gentle story becomes one of betrayal and espionage, but despite the convoluted plot, the touchingly tender relationship between this father and his child is what lingers long afterward. B