In a bid to fight piracy, Mosfilm, the leading state-owned film studio, launched an online service Wednesday, set to offer 2,500 classic movies for free or for a small fee.
The service, accessible at http://cinema.mosfilm.ru, is in test mode, scheduled to become fully operational “in a few days.” The site has an English version, making it available to users worldwide.
The current catalogue, set to expand, offers 142 movies produced at Mosfilm over the course of its 85-year history, including Andrei Tarkovsky's “Ivan's Childhood” and “Stalker” and Nikita Mikhalkov's “An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano.”
The movies are screened for free on a daily timetable and can be either watched online for 25 rubles (90 cents) or downloaded for 65 rubles ($2.20) the rest of the time. Only the free screening option is presently available.
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