Kompozitor Sergei Prokof'ev
(Lidia Stepanova, 1961)

An (unsurprisingly) Sovietised bio-documentary. Prokofiev's return to the USSR is a reaction to the empty sterility of music in the West, while his last years, though sadly constrained by illness, are unblighted by musical politics. Nevertheless, there is some valuable performance footage.

Prokofiev - Portrait of a Soviet Composer
(Ken Russell, for BBC's Monitor series, tx. 18 June 1961)

This short film is more like a drama: there are no interviews, rather excerpts from the composer's writings (and some dated judgements of his life and music), play set to re-enactments of crucial moments - though the BBC forbade Russell from using a lookalike (who might "fool" the audience into thinking it was the real thing!). Clever editing portrays a composer who is, politically and sometimes aesthetically, a fish-out-of-water.

Prokof'ev: Suita Zhizni (Opus 1 and Opus 2)
(Viktor Okuntsov, 1991)

Stylistically unexceptional, this two-part film has some valuable interviews with gratifyingly lengthy musical extracts.

The Prodigal Son
(Andrei Nekrasov, 1991)

This relatively conventional Anglo-Russian TV co-production is good on the early years, but sometimes raises more questions than it answers. (Reviewed by Andrew Grossman, Three Oranges, No. 13 (2007), 30-33).

Prostodushnyi chelovek s serymi glazami
(Andrei Suleikov, 1991)

As well as refreshing interviews with some people who have generally been overlooked, Suleikov's "film-fantasia" arranges the traditional elements to occasionally surreal and nightmarish effect.

Verschlossene Heimat: Prokofjew's Sowjetisches Tagebuch 1927
(Oliver Becker, 1991)

As its title implies, this film concentrates on the 1927 visit to the Soviet Union and the diaries that Prokofiev kept of that time.

Genii. Sergei Prokof'ev
(Andrei Konchalovsky, 2003)

A slightly bitty traversal of Prokofiev's life, with various years captured in a sentence or two.

Coincidentally Yuri Zhurin plays the composer in both the Nekrasov and Becker films