Discoveries from Russia World Cinema

Minsk, Belarus, 1996. Velya, an aspiring DJ, wants to move to Chicago to make her dreams come true, but bureaucracy, a phone line and the human condition will put obstacles in her way that will be difficult to avoid.

A young and handsome prison guard falls in love with a beautiful lady-prisoner. She makes him hooked on sex and manipulates him into becoming a gang member. He kills and steals under her control.

A genuine satiric comedy, based on real conversations - both amusing and sad - overheard by a journalist in one of the most expensive Moscow restaurants. Hilarious and revealing, this is a film about women who choose between affection and money, film producers that don't really know what they're filming, and weary businessmen who sometimes say screw it, down a shot and leave their mother-in-laws to pay the bill. But most of all, it's about true love that favors noisy kitchen floor over gilded fine-dining halls.

On TV a new reality show, "Pionerlager", has started. Following the results of a casting, five young men and five girls, led by young TV presenter Alice Ten, go to the thrown pioneer camp. The rules state that every week someone would be eliminated from the show. The last one remaining will win the main prize: one million roubles. But suddenly game rules change: the invisible observer declares that it is life, not money, that will be the award for the winner. The maniac hiding behind the mask of a horse, begins a hunt for the participants. Children's horror stories which he once listened to in pioneer camp, revive and become a plot of its own murders.

10-year-old Vladik is a genius of neural networks and a master at getting rid of nannies. When his mother urgently needs to go on a business trip, he has to go to the village to visit his grandfather, whom he has never seen in his life. Vladik dreams of returning to the city and getting into an important IT competition, and his grandfather has no intention of following his lead. Each of them is sure that they can easily outsmart the other, but this meeting will change them both.

A lonely oceanarium worker, 29-year-old Sveta is afraid of close relationships, replaces them with casual one-night stands and lives on autopilot. One day, she is asked to come forward with accusations of harassment against a university professor, Pavel Rudin, with whom the girl once had an affair. But it turns out that Sveta is still in love with Rudin and is ready to defend him at all costs. But to do this, she will have to face her past...

Administrator of a Fitness-Club Kostya thinks that having a woman taller than 180sm by a man's side is a symbol of his prosperity and success. But he can only dream of having a 180sm beauty by his side. One day he decides to go on a date with one of his 180sm tall Fitness-Club members, after calling almost all the women he doesn't get a single acceptation : each of them has her own problems with men. However, accidentally it happens that way that he happens to be on a date with all of his dream ladies...

The film follows two student cinematographers who, as the war approaches Moscow, refuse to be evacuated and instead volunteer to be front-line cameramen capturing the horrors of war and heroism of the soviet soldiers. At the same time, we witness another storyline taking place in the US. After the premiere screening of the already completed documentary “Moscow Strikes Back”, one of the members of the Academy Awards selection committee is trying to persuade his fellow colleagues to establish a new category of Best Documentary in the upcoming Oscars event.

A story about two Moscow young girls one of them is trying to become an architect and other is a beginner singer.

He's an unemployed guy who earns some money by giving lifts to strangers. She's a graphic designer who just got her first job. The film tracks their relationship - and the way it gradually melts away - throughout a year. A subtle, moving portrait of an immature love that breaks down easily.

Young police detective Faina tries to experiment with herself in order to meet her dead love.

The life of 16-year-old Mot is thrown into disarray when his father leaves the family. In protest, Mot brings home a homeless woman and declares that he will live with her.

The employees of a radio station in Moscow are forced to organize the elections campaign for a future governor in one of Russia districts.

Diplomat Volodin is going to work in the States for a responsible job. But, having crossed the ocean, he immediately went over to the Americans. And not empty-handed: he calls the American embassy from a pay phone and gives the appearance of a Soviet intelligence officer. The traitor is sure that he will not be identified “by the phone's strangled voice. There can be no such technology. But, on the instructions of the Chekists, such a technique was developed in Marfino's "sharashka" near Moscow by convict engineers and scientists.

A wife finds her life transformed after a torrid affair in this story of murder. Katia is a rather dull young woman who types manuscripts for Irina, her husband’s mother and successful writer of romance novels. Katia’s husband is a real momma’s boy. They go to Irina’s summer house to work. There Katia encounters the intense and sexy Serguei who creates passionate longings with in her. Overcome she and Serguei engage in vigorous love-making upon a windowsill where Irina sees them. Irina has a weak heart. Quiet Katia, having rediscovered the joys of sex, changes and becomes more assertive and flighty. Serguei quickly loses interest in her. Strange and deadly things begin happening at the summer house which calls the attention of a judge who is extremely familiar with Irina’s writing.

One day in the life of Elena Ivanovna in St. Petersburg in search of a man, sex and, maybe, love.

Ivan and Vasilisa had not a life, but a fairy tale. Literally. And they already knew this fairy tale, and they wanted to go there-I don’t-know-when. Here is just one butterfly with its effect waved its wing and arranged a magical reboot. Now, in the entire Far Far Away Kingdom, no one even remembers Ivan's name, including Vasilisa herself. So, in order to get the princess again, Ivan with the Gray Wolf needs to turn the whole cartoon universe over.

The film is based on Gennady Shpalikov’s most intimate story, “The Wharf”. Young Katya, who lives in a small provincial town, is dreaming of a prince charming. And, of course, she can’t help falling in love with a stern skipper played by Yevgeny Sidikhin. Wishing to unravel his mystery, Katya goes to Moscow. One night in the capital will change both the skipper’s and the young heroine’s lives, making them to better understand each other…

The movie is based on the real story of Nika Turbina, once world-famous Soviet child poetess, who got completely forgotten in the 1990s. That's when we meet her: at the age of 27 Nika is full of hopes and doubts regarding her gift. Due to the age restriction, she's got just one shot to enter the Drama School, and that's her only chance to separate from her cherishing and oppressive mother. Acquaintance with a new friend Ivan gives Nika hope for a happy future, but there is still something in her memory that triggers her. Tragically cheerful, painfully confused and desperately believing in love and life after childhood, Nika puts everything on the line to overcome ghosts of the past.

June 21, 1941. Young lieutenant Kolya Pluzhnikov, having received an appointment to a permanent place of service, arrives in Brest. The crowded waiting rooms of the station and the crowd of people weighed down with luggage do not alarm the young man, filled with joyful hopes. Kolya hurries to the location of his unit - the Brest Fortress... The soldier does not have time to enlist in the personnel of the military, and at four in the morning artillery explosions are heard - the war has begun. He was not enlisted in the ranks of the military personnel of the Brest Fortress, but still took part in the first battle in his life, which lasted ten months.

Major Baranov, a professional with a difficult character, for excessive zeal suspended from service and toiling on small jobs. Suddenly, he was offered to participate in the operation to expose a dangerous criminal who escaped from prison. And all would be well, but in the case is too many pitfalls: the major will have to go to a small town, get a teacher in kindergarten, and even conduct an investigation under the leadership of a woman…

Sixteen-year-old Zhenya, whom everyone calls Tin, fully justifies her nickname - she is gesticulating and destroys relationships with everyone around her. She became such after she received a concussion and a leg injury. Now she limps and sees the world far from rosy. Zhenya blames his best (and now former) friend Prikhodka for his injury and directs all his anger and sparkling cynicism at him. But apart from Prikhodko, everyone gets it: parents, older brother, girlfriends and classmates. Everything changes when Zhenya meets the head of the robotics circle, Stanislav Karin, who becomes her mentor. Through interaction with robots, Zhenya learns to communicate with people, enjoys life, and most importantly, forgives and regains an old friend.

Investigator Sergey Shumov has a mystery on his hands. On a platform near a Moscow-Sevastopol train station the police have found a young man without documents and no memory. In near perfect detail, he can recall historical dates, songs of his favorite band, but can't recollect his name or say where he’s from. And frustrating Shumov’s search for answers even further are the young man’s personal belongings that offer not one clue to his identity.

Max falls into the hands of a "happy" horoscope, which he must follow for 30 days, performing all its insane orders to obtain previously unavailable beauty and success. But one day Max's horoscope is replaced...

Eugene is a teenage nerd who lives in a small Russian town. He sits in front of his computer all day long, playing games and surfing the Internet. He decides to run a small porn website and soon as he earns his first money from e-commerce. His life now will never be the same - he is no longer a school nerd. From now on every school boy wants to become his friends and the girls are dreaming of dating him. Developing business Eugene was caught in a dilemma: to live up to the corrupted world standards and find his place in the unideal reality or to rebel against the powerful organization risking his and his family lives.

Following her divorce, Marina thinks that she’ll never meet love again. Little does she know that one day, she’ll find the love of her life in freediving, one of the most extreme sports in existence, built on diving as deep as possible on a single breath. In the vast, mysterious realm of the sea, Marina not only regains her sense of peace and well being, but also redefines her existence.

To mark the 60 years since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The film is set in a small village in western Russia. It is a story about two days from the life of an ordinary family: a father, a mother and their five-year-old daughter. That’s what Garik Sukachyov says about his film: “On June 22, 1941, a family is celebrating the daughter’s birthday. It is a beautiful sunny day, full of joy and merriment. For the girl, it is filled with important events and adventure – her birthday is celebrated by the whole village, not just by her family. And no one yet knows that tomorrow her father will leave for his work in a district center and come back a few hours later in a home guard uniform only to say goodbye to his family. And that at the moment of their leave-taking the Germans already will be entering the village. And that they will be shot by the river, on the same bank where only yesterday the carefree, happy family was sunbathing and having fun…”

Strana Glukhikh is about an unusual relationship between two women, one of them a deaf-mute dancer and the other on the run from the mafia. Yaya, the deaf girl, offers to hide Rita whose boyfriend, Alyosha owes gambling debts to the mafia, but in return she wants her to leave the young man and run off with her to an imaginary paradise where material values do not exist.

Three short stories about Faith, Hope and Love. Three time periods of our country through the eyes of one firm. Three stories about people who tried to run their business against the background of changes in Russia.

Two young teachers In a home for deaf-mute and blind children decide to see if the children they are in charge of are capable of falling in love, but their experiments have unfortunate consequences.

When a 7-year-old son of the well-known businessman is kidnapped, he has no idea what awaits him! It turns out that the mysterious kidnapper does not need any ransom, but has only one claim: during the next day father must decide who will die of the two: his child or himself...

This film is not about Oleg Yankovsky in the usual sense: not a biography of a great actor, not a review of roles. And not the sharp facts from his personal life. Although it's all in the film: a dramatic fate, unknown pages of biography. Like any great actor, he possessed a secret - he did not tell both in the movies and in life. But his main gift was not even acting. Yankovsky was talented at making people fall in love with him. I wanted to look at him again and again: that's why they loved him and still love him.

A prominent statesman orders the secret services to assassinate a certain banker who is planning to run for president. The perfect hitman must be extracted from the zone where he is serving time for murder and must remain silent. The guy has been serving 15 years for the accidental death of a drunken general during a hunting trip. He is also known by the nickname "The Mute." You couldn't come up with a better candidate. But the perfect hitman goes out of control.

A group Russian soldiers is send to an outpost to guard the area. They pass the day patroulling the area, while being shot at from the forest. They never know if the civillions are hostile or friendly to them.

The continuations of the adventures of Bobrov family all members of which suddenly became superheroes...

The misanthrope Alexander Christoforov, nicknamed "Alec", is a hopeless loser. The actor, who was celebrated in the Soviet era as the hero of "Eugene Onegin", is carving out a depressing existence as a bad paid figure of a ridicule historical show. Despised by his ex-wife, alienated from his son, Alec has totally screwed up his life. But when diagnosed with a mortal illness, he sets off on a ludicrous tour de force at the end of which a piece of eternity surprisingly awaits him - A comedy with a happy end.

One day, Artyom, a Moscow schoolboy who is passionate about computer games and the latest technologies, discovers the magical world of the circus. Despite his mother's prohibitions, the boy once again sacrifices sleep for sitting in front of the monitor and becomes the hero of a computer game. Now Artyom and his classmates will have to complete an exciting quest, face the intrigues of a virtual circus, save gymnast Agatha and escape from the evil magician-trickster Fortunatus themselves. Real life will also present the young heroes with a number of challenges that the children will have to cope with without the help of their parents.…

Vera lives solely on the problems of her family: her eternally ill husband Kostya and her fifteen-year-old son Romka. In fact, Vera is happy with everything, until her husband's first love suddenly appears on the horizon - the beautiful Lyudmila and her daughter Yulya. There is nothing special about the latter, but, as luck would have it, it is this girl that Romka is interested in. Now she is seriously thinking about divorce and exchanging an apartment, trying to force her son to move away from Yulka.

A journalist finds himself in a dire criminal situation. Some would resort to violence, but he picks up a pen and masterfully extricates himself from the predicament, turning the entire city upside down in the process.

Fluffy the baby mammoth awakens after a thousand-year slumber in the icy desert and sets out to find his mother. They say she can be found in distant and mysterious Africa. But Africa is far away, and getting there is extremely difficult, and the baby mammoth's only companion is a chick named Tupik, who dreams of performing his rap at the "Africa's Got Talent" competition. Together, they must overcome numerous challenges: crossing the ocean on an ice floe, escaping from bloodthirsty crocodiles, defeating treacherous hyenas, performing their music in front of a wide variety of audiences, and, most importantly, learning to be friends and understanding that friendship means responsibility and support.

A continuation of a funny adventures of a dachshund puppy and four his friends - taxi drivers.

A detective investigates the sudden suicide of his father who was one of a responsible for hiding Communist Party money persons.

Platon is completely at home in Moscow life. Successful, charming, and busy, he knows everyone in Moscow, and Moscow knows him. He makes money based on basic instincts. Contacts, connections, money, girls—he had it all. And everything was perfect until he met Lyubov.

A story about a friendship between talented famous musician and eleven years old girl.

Igor Tsaplin wants to be elected for a third term and PR team already familiar to us will help him.

Getting your fiancee's father to like you is not an easy task. The Chinese guy Pen also faces this problem when he goes to Moscow for his love, Ira, without even knowing what a nightmare awaits him.

Shust and his friends commit small-time scams for a living, taking advantage of any opportunity that comes their way. Meeting Ulyanov, the former Soviet Union shot put champion, and his daughter opens Shust's eyes to a completely different way of living. But under his gang's pressure, he uses Ulyanov to plan a heist on a Buryat jade-trading commune.

Lidia Sheveleva, a correspondent for the newspaper "Time, Forward!", becomes a pawn in a big game, having received from an anonymous source compromising materials on Yegor Shubin, head of the legal service of a large holding company. On the assignment of her superiors, she writes a denunciatory article about a despicable thief with "the appearance of an English lord". Justice triumphs - the management of the holding company suspends Shubin from business and gives him a week to try to restore his good name ... But fate likes to joke, and it accidentally collides Sheveleva and Shubin again. At the close acquaintance with Yegor Lydia begins to doubt his guilt, and recent enemies begin their own investigation, despite the dangers and risking their lives.

Valera, a flawless driver with 30 years behind the wheel, loses his job just as his dog Lincoln needs an expensive lifesaving surgery. Desperate for income, he’s approached by a sleek, AI-powered self-driving taxi. To avoid spooking passengers, the car asks Valera to pretend to be its driver and help it achieve a top user rating — in exchange for all the earnings from their rides. For Valera, it’s his dog’s only chance; for the taxi, it’s a fight for its own survival.

Portrait of director Andrey Zvyagintsev against the background of the filming of his film "Loveless".

Young Oksana puts her newly born Denis in a baby box. Sixteen years later she steals him away from a children's home, intent on making amends for her maternal neglect, and to exploit him to earn money in a corrupt legal system.

Katya is a landscape designer. On December 31, she delivers New Year's trees to customers. The last tree from the unfulfilled order could have become Katya's only guest for the New Year, but her mother is determined to introduce her daughter to a young man. To avoid this fate, the girl agrees to meet her uncle, her neighbor from Chicago. From this moment on, the longest day of the outgoing year begins for her: she will pick up the wrong uncle from the airport, meet a man, hide from bandits pursuing her... and on New Year's Eve she will again find herself at her tree, but will she be alone?

The evil witch Mombi and the self-styled girl General Ginger have seized power in the Emerald City of Oz. The Scarecrow, along with his friends, disenchants the daughter of the last legitimate ruler of the Emerald City, Ozma, and fights for justice. And in this they are helped by the girl Dolly from Kansas, the good fairy Glinda and the scientist Woggle bug.

The film tells the story of the tragic events of 1837 that led to the duel and death of the great poet.

Misha and Philip have been friends since childhood, but now Phillip has to move to another city with his parents. As their strong friendship suddenly begins to unravel, what seemed like innocent child's play before now turns into new, unfamiliar feelings.

A farmer who has been bankrupted by bankers goes to Moscow in search for the truth.

A young man drops out of university and goes to the police. He's done nothing wrong he just wants a job. A particular job. Playing the victim in murder reconstructions. Maybe by getting close to death he can manage to cheat on his own.

Veta is a student of the acting department of one of the capital's universities. She does not show great promise, but she firmly believes in her dream - to become the best in her field.