Discoveries from Russia World Cinema

The film tells the story of an Old Clown who is brought back to life by the faith and kindness of a young girl.

An expelled journalism student, trying to make sense of his life, carefully documents his summer, as well as the story of the disappearance and death of the founders of one of the first startups on the Russian Internet.

The year is 2157. Maxim Kammerer, the pilot of the Free Search Group, makes an emergency landing on an unexplored planet, where he is captured by the aborigine Zef and handed over to the authorities. The local social system resembles a militaristic dictatorship of the 20th century. The power belongs to anonymous rulers — Unknown Fathers, they erect Towers all over the country, which propaganda calls anti-ballistic.

A few rich and glamorous people are flying to Nice, but instead of South France they land in the heart of the Sibir.

A haunting, violent tale of a youth lost in an uncaring world, Bullet Collector is visual, nightmarish masterpiece. A shy 14-year-old boy, disconnected from home life and school, and sent to a hellish reform school, eventually lashes out on the injustices of his life.

An anonymous man wanders through decomposing, fog-enshrouded catacombs and encounters a series of “the degraded and the humiliated,” including a holy prostitute and a Kafkaesque bureaucrat.

Director Pavel Ruminov wanted to break up with his girlfriend. But she had a different opinion on the matter and refused to leave the flat, insisting their story was not over yet.

The old man refuses to leave his native village, abandoned by other residents long time ago. To stand up to the local authorities, who have their own plans for the beautiful mountain land, he lures by deceit his son and grandchildren from Moscow – they must help him turn the village into an eco-touristic place. The family members get a chance to reconnect with their roots, see each other in a new light, and become a close, loving family.

Somewhere deep, deep in Russia there is a town called Marks (named after Karl Marks, founder of Communism theory) where all people are working on toy factory and receiving their wages as toys. News from other cities are arriving on very rare occasion. One morning, Boris, a former boxing who is running from something, wakes up in train and see four letters MAR_S. From his first steps he starts to meet new people as Gregori, young man with a dream who is in love with local librarian, Greta, whose dream is to get out from this god-forgotten town. With each new step, he is meeting new people, but the past is hard to escape

Based on a short story Room number 6 by Chekhov. A doctor taking particular interest in his mental health patients ends up institutionalized himself.

200 years have passed after The Great War. The remnants of humanity live in the perfect One State. Despite an authoritarian system of serial numbers, uniforms, glass houses, and scheduled sex, happiness and harmony reign in the society.

A small child is trapped in a tug-of-war battle between his frivolous, but loving mother and an emotionally abusive neurotic grandmother, who wants to "shelter" her beloved grandson at all cost.

A musician in the deep state of a creative crisis is signed to a rehab program at the highly protected, isolated sanatorium that promises a lifetime warranty for endless inspiration. A bourgeois setting with welcoming stuff slowly creeps into a violent cult that tortures artists in the name of inspiration. The musician's greatest hit becomes his darkest nightmare.

When Santa doesn’t show up at the kindergarten recital, Olga is pushed to play the role. But her son wants to perform only for his mother — not a man in a fake beard. Caught between the show and her child, she must decide whom the celebration is really for.

Boris is called up for military service in a "hot spot". His bride Larissa, soon receives a letter stating that he was missing. A friend of Boris Nikolai, who was secretly in love with Larissa begins aggressively courting her and finally makes a proposal. The girl is forced to accept it. On the eve of her wedding Boris unexpectedly returns. Their feelings for each other are still there, but the young man disappears again ...

The plot is not developed; in the film we see a man (he) and a woman (she) who, in fact, are neither connected nor familiar with each other; they casually met in hospital. "She" (Viktoria Tolstoganova) does not see that she is in danger in connection with her plan to use a tape with illegally made recordings as compromising evidence in court. "He" (Il'ia Shakunov, an actor of the Petersburg TYuZ) is a gay translator who, after the random meeting with her, is pursued by her image which frequently pops up in front of him. As a consequence, his relationship with a young boy no longer satisfies him. Both he and she lose sight of the meaning of life, because of their own inability to see others and to see love, as perception relies on proximity instead of distance.

A veteran of the Chechen War is helped by the ghosts of his two fallen comrades to leave the war behind.

During a nationwide moral panic caused by a recent spike in teenage suicides two federal investigators are sent to a small Russian town to review a cold case involving a suspicious death of a schoolgirl. Initially seeing their task as a mere PR stunt both gradually start to loose their focus as they venture deeper into the paranoid world of conspiracy theories surrounding the case.

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

This beautifully photographed Russian drama set in St. Petersburg centers on Alexander Larin, a Russian native who has spent the last six years living in the US. He went there to escape a relationship before it developed into an unhealthy love triangle between himself, his fiancee Anna, and her lovely daughter Masha. Now a successful businessman, Alexander has returned to bring Masha back with him. Unfortunately, she is already engaged to Mitia, a photographer. Anna, also does not approve of Macha going with Alexander.

Andrey's stepbrother Sasha dies, with whom he was destined to meet only once. With a heavy heart, Andrei goes to a funeral and finds himself in an ominous atmosphere of a complete stranger and, in general, a family alien to him. Trying to figure out the strange circumstances of his brother’s death, Andrey re-experiences the events of a seemingly long forgotten and painful past, because it seems that only it can tell where the truth is and what really happened to Sasha - an accident or suicide?

Tsar Ivan The Terrible wounds his son to death after they have a !ight – just like in the famous painting by Repin. To !ix what happened Tsar attempts to travel back to the past using a magic spell book. Yet things don’t go according to the plan, and Tsar gets into our times where he meets the Osipovs family. Nikita Osipov has no luck in his !ield - archeology and is an unfortunate father. He divorced his wife and lost touch with his son and daughter. Now they have to !ind the spell book, so that Tsar has a chance to save his son. Adventure begins!

The main character is an intellectual from Russia, who sees it as his duty to bring an idiot from an mental institution to his house. He can pick someone out, after bribing the boss of the institution, with two bottles of vodka. He chooses Vova, at first sight a silly man, and takes him home. His wife is at first not very happy with this choice. Vova says and does nothing at all. Then he becomes an aggressive man, who terrorises the house and bashes everything to pieces. After she is raped by Vova, the wife gets sexually dependant on the Idiot. Vova isn't interested anymore, when she gets pregnant and doesn't keep the baby. The idiot goes now to the intellectual for his sexual needs. The wife can't take this anymore and forces her man to take a choice: Vova out, or she will go.

Shattering the story of a talented former boxer. He lost his memory. He does not remember what happened yesterday. He can not sleep. Each morning starts with a clean sheet for him. The powers that be decided to use it in my game. As a bargaining chip. He will understand. And revenge. In one day, he needs to catch it.

A group of young treasure hunters are trying to find a powerful artefact buried by Nazis during WWII.

Each of the short stories is based on either one or several stories by a wonderful Russian writer. The heroes are ordinary people “of the people”, contemporaries of Shukshin, all of whose life’s ups and downs are inextricably linked with their country - the Soviet Union of the 60s-70s. The main thing that unites both the works themselves and the films made is a whole gallery of the brightest images and characters, a story about such different destinies and differently meaningful lives, a story in the center of which is invariably Man, with his love, quests, weaknesses and victories.

Young Katya meets a merry company of visiting guys who have a specific entertainment - to organize parties in other people's empty houses. And Katya knows the right place: an old country house on the coast, the owner of which left for a long time. The secluded house, in which the spiritualist salon was at the beginning of the last century, seems to everyone an excellent option. Alarming, even the terrible abandonment of this place does not frighten anyone ... In the midst of the party, someone whom Katya never expected to see appears: the mysterious master of the house ... The man she loved. A man in the grip of otherworldly forces.

The world is going absolutely crazy when the giant meteor is approaching Earth...

From his childhood in Russia to his last days in California, the tumultuous ininerary and bathed in melancholy of the legendary pianist and composer Serguei Rachmaninov. This film is based on the legend that Rachmaninoff received a bouquet of lilacs from an unknown admirer after every performance. He emigrated to the United States, and after an interval, began to receive the mysterious lilacs again.

This is the story of two lonely and somewhat similar humans, although one young and one old. First is a thief loser who breaks into the dark and, as he thinks, abandoned apartment on New Year's Eve. And the second one exactly at this time tries to hung himself because of his feelings of loneliness and uselessness.

In the center of the painting is the story of the artist Troshcheikin, his wife Lyuba, her mother and sister. They live abroad, in a provincial small town populated by compatriots. The unexpected return to the city of a certain Barbashin turns the life of the family upside down. Five years ago, in a fit of jealousy, this man shot at Troshcheikin and his wife, wounded them and, after going to prison for six years, promised to return and finish what he started…

"Bulgakov. The Secret of the Master" examines a mystical connection that proves to be stronger than the author's original vision. The film shows how the immortal novel stopped being an author's text and began to dictate its will to the creator, interfering with his love, relationship with the authorities, and even bringing his fateful end closer. The viewer will see how fiction inexplicably turned into reality, and how the book's prophecies materialized in Bulgakov's own life, prompting the question: who really held the pen – the man or his immortal creation?

The story tells of a series of such meetings, which radically changed the life of a sportswoman.

The family life of Lipa, a taxi company employee, did not work out. Kostya's husband has long lost interest in the "worker bee" and almost does not hide his infidelities. The last straw is the news that Kostya's mistress is expecting a child. Lipa lets her husband go and prepares to start a new life. Unfortunately, after the divorce, Kostya returns again. Having pushed around in rented apartments, he intends to settle down with Linden in an apartment with his mistress. Will the good Linden Tree be able to resist human meanness and find its lost happiness?

She loved her sons more than anything in the world and did everything in her power to put them on their feet. Is it possible to understand why she kicked one of them out? Why did he leave, who knows? Because it was a shame, my heart was torn apart or because I was young? Then Sasha was 16. For twenty years, Alexander has achieved success, he is selflessly passionate about children's theater. His woman is a flamenco dancer. The money for the apartment has been collected, and life promises to get better...

This story takes place in Moscow during 2006. The film is about new generation of kids, called Indigo, who have more mental and spiritual abilities than others. A company of such kids gather together in hidden places. Each of them can do unbelievable things, such as : reading other people thoughts, communicating with animals, breaking computer codes. They are different from ordinary people and they are happy with each other. But some adults want to use their talents for old-time perverted purposes...

A funny romantic comedy about a young actor Slava Belkin who works as Santa during New Year days.

Some time ago three total strangers participated in a cheesecake commercial. A mother, a father and a son were simply having tea at a dinner table, but for the boy from a dysfunctional family the shot where they were eating a cake together became an obsession; he dreams about another “family” gathering at the same table. Alyosha does not care that his “mom”, Natalia, has been married for a long time, and that his “dad”, Mikhail, has a girlfriend.

Film about the order of things: everyone has his own.

An ordinary chocolate factory worker begins to hear the voices of extraterrestrial civilizations, and habitual tenor of her life starts changing rapidly.

Fighter Max Kholodov nicknamed Bull Terrier is a mixed martial arts star. After a serious injury in the ring, his life goes downhill: the road to the title of world champion is closed, and the girl he loves goes to another. To survive a series of failures and find a new meaning in life, Max leaves for the coast. There he must find the strength in himself to return to the ring again and have the main fight of his life.

In a former mining town in North Ossetia, a young woman struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she loves as much as she rejects.

A film about the hard fate of a decommissioned pilot, who not lost the ability to fly, as well as about male solidarity, cemented by national drinking traditions, about two truths - for male and for female, and about the love that will reconcile everyone.

Poetic portrait of a filmmaker. The famous director reflects on creativity and love. His friends and associates take part in the film: artist Vladimir Shinkarev, engineer Vladimir Nikolaev, actress Elena Kramer (Spiridonova), director, film critic Oleg Kovalov, necrorealist directors Yevgeny Yufit, Igor Bezrukov.

Pyotr's jester Ivan Balakirev is caught up in complicated family relations of Russian emperor and palace intrigues of his court.

A forgotten affair leads to a series of crazy events.

A story about the fantastic adventures of modern teenagers, whose life, through the fault of one of them, begins to move in the opposite direction. They will not only have to relive the past days, but also experience events that will later change the lives of their loved ones and themselves. Only the act of the protagonist can turn off the mysterious mechanism that determines the course of time.

A musical and slightly updated version of the old "Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" by Pushkin. The old man and the old woman want an enviable groom for a girl, a "noble and glamorous" handsome man. But Maryushka loves Ivanushka the Fisherman and she will find her happiness only thanks to the Goldfish.

The world famous pianist comes home, to the USSR, to participate in the Tchaikovsky Competition. But the commission does not allow him even to the final round. This event becomes fatal for the hero. The heroine of the second story, a young girl, becomes a widow some time after the wedding. Unable to let go of her husband, she asks him questions in her mind. The content of the long-awaited response is overwhelming.

In the last winter of WWII a group of captive German soldiers is brought to a remote Russian village, where widows, a child and a crippled are the only ones left. This is a military drama about those, who can love and forgive.

An ordinary beer saleswoman Lyubasha accidentally became an advertising star and became famous throughout the country. Advertising agency manager Zhora is proud and happy, her parents are happy, her aunt and uncle are happy, only Lyubasha’s boyfriend Lesha is deeply unhappy, who is jealous of Lyuba for everyone and even for advertising.

Retired General Pelevin has nothing left but a small piece of ancestral land, granted to his forefathers by the royal family long ago. But now even this last possession is under threat — targeted for the construction of an ultra-modern shopping center. Mafia networks, in collusion with a corrupt local prefect, trick the general into going on an overseas tourist trip, and in his absence, they move a city landfill onto his property.

Crimea, 1787. Despite the Manifesto of the Russian Empress Catherine and the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace treaty, which forever united Crimea with Russia, Europe continues to weave intrigues, trying to break this sacred union. In the undercover struggle, all methods were used - from shameless gossip, dark rumors and false articles in newspapers to dirty manipulations with the illegitimate son of the empress sent to Europe for training - Alexei Bobrinsky, a passionate gambler and brawler. This weakness was cleverly exploited by international intriguers. Catherine instructs her faithful friends, the midshipmen, to cut the knot of the conspiracy ... Together with the fathers, their grown-up children, Shurka and Alexandra, go into battle.

The Collector is using his massive collection of curiosities and arts to provoke and manipulate people into a different state of mind. The Collector's daughter is building her own collection, she is having an affair with three guests of her father, and they are about to make some strange discoveries.

Roman Shilo, a known criminal, suddenly must deal with his fourteen years old daughter and not only with her but with her little stepbrother and stepsister as well.

It’s a magical story about the incredible adventures of the young warrior called Koshi. There is only one goal in his life – to defeat the White Shadow, a monster who made him an outcast. But everything changes when Koshi meets a young dryad and circus actress May. By chance the destiny of all fairy creatures ends up in their hands, and now they have to make a tough choice between their own lives and saving the world from Ancient Evil.