{{Infobox Film
|name            = Russian Ark
|image           =
|caption         = DVD cover
|director        = Alexander Sokurov
|producer        = Jens Meurer
|writer          = Anatoli Nikiforov,<br />Alexander Sokurov
|starring        = Sergei Dontsov
|music           = Sergei Yevtushenko
|cinematography  = Tilman Büttner
|distributor     = Wellspring Media
|released        = 2002
|runtime         = 96 min.
|language        = Russian
|amg_id          = 1:265807
|imdb_id         = 0318034
|}}

'''''Russian Ark''''' (Русский ковчег) is a movie by Russian director Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed using a single 90-minute Steadicam sequence shot.

==Synopsis==

An unnamed narrator, unseen by the audience and voiced by the director, wanders through the Saint Petersburg. The narrator implies that he has died and is a ghost drifting through the palace. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various time periods in the city's three-hundred-year history. He is accompanied by a companion, "the European" (played by Sergei Dreiden), who represents the nineteenth-century traveller the Marquis de Custine, and who is visible to the audience. The fourth wall is repeatedly broken and re-erected; at times the narrator-director and the companion interact freely with the other performers, and at other times, they go completely unnoticed.

The film begins on a winter's day with the arrival by horse drawn carriage of a small party of men and women to a minor side entrance of the Winter Palace. The narrator, whose eyes are always our point of view, meets one member of this party, "the European", and follows him through numerous rooms of the Palace. As each room is entered, we find ourselves in a different period of Russian history, but not in chronological order. 

The film shows, among other things, the spectacular presentation of operas and plays in the era of Tsar Nicholas I is offered a formal apology by the Tsar Nicholas II's children; the formal changing of the Palace Guard; the museum's director whispering the need to make repairs during the rule of Leningrader making his own coffin during the 900-day siege of the city in World War II.  

The climax of the film is a grand ball, featuring music by Glinka, with many hundreds of participants in spectacular period costume, and a full orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, followed by a long final exit with a crowd down the Grand Staircase of the palace.  

The narrator then leaves the building through a side exit and in a digitally enhanced sequence, the building is represented as an ark preserving Russian culture, and floating in the sea.

{{Film|
|immagine= 300px
|didascalia= Scena del film
|titoloitaliano= Arca russa
|titolooriginale= Russkiy Kovcheg
|linguaoriginale= Russo
|nomepaese= Russia
|nomepaese2=Germania
|annoproduzione= 2002
|durata= 96'
|ratio= 1.85:1 (16:9)
|tipocolore= Colore
|tipoaudio= Sonoro
|nomegenere= Storico, Fantastico
|nomeregista= Aleksandr Sokurov
|nomeproduttore= Andrey Deryabin, Jens Meurer, Karsten Stöter
|casaproduzione= Egoli Tossell Film, Fora Film, The Hermitage Bridge Studio
|produttoreesecutivo= Andrew Colton
|nomesoggetto= 
|nomesceneggiatore= Aleksandr Sokurov, Anatoli Nikiforov, Boris Khaimsky, Svetlana Proskurina
|nomeattori= * Alexandr Sokurov: Il viaggiatore nel tempo (voce) 
* Sergei Dontsov: Lo straniero (Il marchese di Custine)
* Mariya Kuznetsova: Caterina la Grande
* Leonid Mozgovoy: La spia
* Mikhail Piotrovsky: Se stesso (Direttore dell'Hermitage)
* David Giorgobiani: Orbeli
* Aleksandr Chaban: Boris Piotrovsky
|nomedoppiatori italiani= 
|nomefotografo= Tilman Büttner
|nomemontaggio= Stefan Ciupek, Sergei Ivanov, Betina Kuntzsch
|nomeeffettispeciali= 
|nomemusicista= Sergei Yevtushenko
|nomescenografo= 
|nomecostumista= Maria Grishanova, Lidiya Kryukova, Tamara Seferyan
|nometruccatore= Zhanna Rodionova
|nomepremi= 
}}
'''''Arca russa''' (Russkiy Kovcheg)'' è un film del 55° Festival di Cannes.

==Trama==

Per tutta la durata del film vediamo attraverso gli occhi di un personaggio non identificato, del quale sentiamo la voce, che si ritrova, come in un sogno, nel palazzo dell'Ermitage di ottocento, il Caterina II, gli zar Nicola I e Nicola II, fino ai visitatori del museo dei giorni nostri. Il viaggio si conclude con una sfarzosa festa al termine della quale una folla di nobili russi si riversa fuori dal palazzo.

==Realizzazione==
Al film hanno lavorato più di 4500 persone, tra cui 867 attori, 3 orchestre e 22 assistenti alla regia. È stato girato in digitale con una videocamera ''Sony HDW-F900'' realizzata appositamente; il video è stato registrato in formato non compresso su un palazzo dell'Ermitage di San Pietroburgo, il 23 dicembre 2001. Sono stati necessari quattro tentativi per riuscire ad effettuare la ripresa, poiché i primi tre sono stati interrotti a causa di errori tecnici.