Discoveries from Russia World Cinema

In a search of a peaceful retreat, a writer will find something both achingly familiar and long forgotten.

This film tells about people whose hands create the main components of life on the planet every day. And it’s not just the material basis of our world made of metal, concrete or wood, but it’s also something that gives meaning to our lives, inspires and gives hope. The film’s characters — a locksmith and a fisherman, a steelworker and a farmer, a furniture maker and an anesthesiologist — are followed by the film’s Director, who suddenly turns from an observer into a creator.

How do insects and bugs live? Both good and bad. They even tried to fly away from people into space, so people got them.

Kerel is the name of a young singer making her first steps on the professional stage. Aital is a simple village guy who composes songs. Fate brought them together for a short Yakut summer, and they fell in love with each other. It would seem that nothing can interfere with their happiness. But suddenly these relationships disrupt the plans of others and loved ones, because Kerel is incredibly beautiful, and Aital has been absolutely blind since childhood

A man is increasingly unnerved by a mysterious portrait. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, the film is thought to have run about 45 minutes long, but only an 8 minute fragment is known to have survived.

The film is based on real events. The action takes place during one of the meetings of the Commission for Pardons. A petition from a young man, who killed two people, is being reviewed, one of whom was the son of an influential person. At the same time, in the correctional facility where he is serving his sentence, a hostage situation unfolds (another real case, supported by documentary footage included in the film). In such an environment—one of psychological pressure—the members of the Commission must make the right decision...

A satirical story about a world where adult children continue to drink their mothers' milk. The mother of the main character Olya, tired of such a life, decides to deceive her daughter and declares that the milk has disappeared. Olya spends time with her mother and, getting closer to her, looks for ways to get the milk back.

A film about how we imagine and portray death. Our heroes are the most diverse people who have been asked to go through all the stages of death, from dying to existence “on the other side.” This study of fear and laughter - the two main reactions of man to the approach of death. Death as a collective (what will happen to everyone) and individual (what will happen to you). What is special about the attitude to death in Russia? Do we know enough about this most important event in life - death? The film creates a kind of catalog, a "herbarium" of human reactions, fears and hopes that there is life after death.

A successful lawyer drives recklessly and runs down a young man. He wants to escape punishment, so decides to drive the boy to a hospital and try to negotiate a deal. Their trip becomes a real test for the lawyer's consciousness.

A love story of Masha - a scientist, teacher and a mother of a high school student.

Drama of the rivalry between two sisters who love the same man.

A performance by the Alexandrinsky Theatre based on the eponymous play by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The production is based on the stage version by Vsevolod Meyerhold and M. Korenyev (GOSTIM, 1926), directed by Valery Fokin.

Short horror film.

Based on Gustav Kadelburg's farce The Road to Hell.

Once Ivan went to a Georgian restaurant ...

The animated film is based on a poem by the Ossetian poet Kosta Khetagurova. In a joking form, it tells how the hero of the film outwitted his very bad habit and life in the village improved.

Rock is music for young people. Nick Rock-n-Roll, the protagonist of the film, doesn’t agree with it all. He’s 48 years old and as during his youth he still feels music deeply and looking for something special, unusual, which is out of stereotypes and mainstream. This film is about immersion in a world of new independent rock-music in Russia. Dipping into it Nick Rock-n-Roll remembers his own life, analyzing the nature of his passionate love to rock. His eternal search allows Nick not to feel his age that’s why it is necessary for him always to slake his thirst. Features four independent bands: Bosch's With You, Last Tanks in Paris (П.Т.В.П.), Deti Picasso, Salvador

A young detective in the Northern Russian region of Yakutia is dealing with a seemingly simple murder case. The investigation becomes a dangerous journey into the world of illegal mining and gold trafficking in which life has no value.

The example of a Mars rover overcoming difficulties on the red planet inspires a boy confined to a wheelchair.

We are talking about the events of twenty-five years ago. The young Leningrad boys then went to the mythical country of Shambhala, rumored to be lost among the dazzling peaks of Tibet, somewhere between India and China. The guys wanted to see the country they had heard so much about and believed in. Perhaps it was a search for new ideas and priorities, cleansed of the myths of the past decades.

This is a documentary about the similarities of old people and children and, for different reasons, how they see the world in the same way and believe in miracles. Each of these "children" needs love and attention.

It takes 20 minutes on foot to get from the town of Nikola-Lenivets to the village of Zvizzhi. Nikola-Lenivets is the site of Arkhstoyaniye, a most fashionable festival of landscape objects. Zviszhi is the place where Val'ka, Lyudka, Zhen'ka and a sixty-year-old "dolly" Natasha live. Natasha lives with Valerka, a guy who served a term for murder because he knows how to fix electric wires. Valerka prefers to pass his nights with Zhen'ka. Val'ka was once Lyudka's kindergarten teacher; now they spend time together in a vegetable garden drinking denatured alcohol. "Fashionable" festival people and "degraded" Zviszhi people never heard about each other. But one day, village people decide to go visit their neighbors during the festival...

She is absolutely sure she wants a divorce! He doesn’t agree, but doesn’t dare contradict. So they go for a divorce. They’d go to the end, if they weren’t stopped by a ridiculous incident... Why do people part? Where do feeling go in a stream of offences and claims? The film is a reflection about partings and relationships, where there is no good and bad, but people don’t hear each other, even though they are close.

A traffic light. A red signal. A masked guy jumps into the car of a young man. He points a pistol at the driver and shouts: “Go!”. The guy has a bag full of money. When the driver looks around at him, the robber points the pistol at him, and the car gets involved in an accident. After a stop on the roadside a small child starts to cry on the back seat.

This is a story about the tragedy of an entire nation, which was almost destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. The "Children from the Abyss" are people who miraculously survived among the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people. The film contains their memories, documents, and photographs.

The story of a man whose life coincided with the 20th century.

Fitness thriller. Lena wants to get back to her former size, but she finds herself in an invisible mad clash in the name of a healthy lifestyle.

Phillipp's panic fear to look like his dad-failure and to repeat dad's steps of life provoke internal riot against the whole humanity and release on a cold streets

The story of Jesus' birth and what happened during it.

“Time… Hours… Minutes… Seconds… Time does not exist, we invented it ourselves. This is a beautiful illusion that fills our life with mystical meaning. The whole of human history is a search for a loophole in time, a desire to use Him not against oneself, but for the good." The film shows the expectations of twelve people happening in parallel on a certain day at five o'clock in the evening. A subtle, thought-provoking film about the essence and meaning of time in life. For RADO Switzerland.

Two couples meet in the cafe. A delicate and frank topic that has opened up provokes a quarrel “couple for couple” and within each couple at the same time. It all ends with an attempt to save the evening, save friendship, save relationships. How? It looks like the answer was already known at the beginning of the evening.

The main character passes through difficulties in his love life, coming to the conclusion that happiness with the woman of his life is unattainable.

Vera is a cartoonist. After the death of her husband and son, she moved from Moscow to the small town where she spent her childhood. Vera starts doing animation with children at a local club. Among her students there is a very strange boy with unusual and incomprehensible drawings.

Based on Soviet technicolor melodramas from the 1950s the film recreates the macabre choreographies of poststalinism. Everybody is spying on everybody else. Nobody is sure anymore how their sweetheart looks like.

1945. Young German soldier is hiding from Soviet soldiers in abandoned house. Every day he sees a girl who moved to the house next door until finally he falls in love with her.

On April 8, 1894, a young princess from the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, to the great joy of the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas, finally agrees to convert to Orthodoxy and become his wife. So begins the story of the family of the last Russian emperor. Their letters, diary entries, drawings, photographs and documentary films of the pre-revolutionary years create a kind of family chronicle.

The film is dedicated to the work of the poet Velemir Khlebnikov, a story about Kalmykia, the poet's birthplace, where many of his prophecies are fulfilled.

Kakha and Sergo can't live a day without new problems on their head. But this time it doesn't smell like jokes anymore, it's about life and death. And when fate throws them on different sides of this line, they cease to be friends. What needs to happen for one to be able to forgive the other?

The Leningrad period of V. Putin's life.

Independent documentary created by group of enthusiast from Russia. It covers the topic of Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico and struggle of Mexican indigenous peoples for justice, liberty and democracy.

The police stop Anton Kuznetsov in the yard of his own house and here starts the journey of Antokha MC. One summer, one year or one friendship. Small stations from Vologda to Nizhny Novgorod, from a Russian EDM festival to an architecture exhibition in Kiev. Everything that made dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of people feel inspired with the art of this gawky, always smiling guy with a heavy backpack is not said out loud, but you can still feel it in each frame. Honesty, natural charisma, and kindness make Antokha MC not only the new hero of the music industry, but also a person, who is the main hero of this film.

Based on Alexander Ostrovsky's "The Snow Maiden"

A young man joins a heist group that has previously robbed him.

The Osipovs are a very ordinary family from Ulyanovsk. Father, mother and son. They are no different from thousands and thousands of other families, except that they are happy. They love each other. The sudden illness of the son drives through them with an asphalt roller. Parents are ready for anything, they lose their home, and sometimes their human form, trying to save their child. At some point, even the mother breaks down. But not the father. The most ordinary person. A provincial carpenter.

Max is a famous bodybuilder who dreams of becoming a planet champion; for health reasons, he is forced to retire from sports. His life is going downhill. By chance, he meets with an ambulance doctor Viktor, who once commissioned by the Ministry of Defense developed a unique medicine that allows not only to treat the worst diseases, but also to strengthen all the capabilities of the human body. However, the project was frozen. Victor wants to finish the job. He needs a test subject, and Max is perfect for completing the experiment.

Misha finally decided to confess his love to Lena. But the girl's father interrupts him. He decided to take revenge in the old game with his friend. At stake is a huge jackpot, which can reach Lena, and all changes instantly.