Discoveries from Russia World Cinema

A documentary about naturism in St. Petersburg, Russia, with discussions with Russian naturists about how they got involved in naturism and the problems they have faced due to being a naturist.

It's a reflection on whether the Fairy Tale, Dream and Love can survive today and whether they have a place in the modern world. More precisely, in those little worlds into which this world is split, each of which has its own laws, its kings and presidents, like in a toad swamp, its own security and accounting, like in the hole of the Mouse and the Mole. The action of the new fairy tale largely reflects modern reality, there is a lot of humor, satire and a little sadness in it.

Gathered together in a country house, seven friends play an entertaining game, in which participants have to read aloud all of their incoming text messages, and can only answer their calls using loudspeaker mode. They can’t even imagine what stunning surprises about each other they will discover.

The young librarian Ksenia, who until recently was solving her numerous family and financial problems, one day becomes the owner of an inheritance - a huge apartment, a bank account and a new Mercedes, and with it many secrets and mysteries. Ksenia understands that in this life nothing happens just like that... Step by step she is approaching the solution, not realizing that a threat is already hanging over her...

Max is a successful sculptor. He's a confirmed bachelor . He has no end of girls and profitable orders. The usual course of life is disrupted by Max's own right hand. She stops obeying him and behaves like the hand of a spoiled girl. Friends, clients, and fans think Max is crazy. But that's not the reason, the soul of a stranger has taken possession of his hand. Can the hero cope with one left hand?

Eight men, eight stories about the morning after party...

Three stories and language confrontation intertwine at the moment when the Moscow Tatar comes to Tatarstan to persuade an old-fashioned Kazan to sell a house in the center. He has everything for happiness: a miracle wife, an obstinate daughter, an actress sister, a pink goat and many problems. According to the capital’s development, a metro station should be built exactly on the site of the protagonist’s house. But it was not there. It is difficult to agree if you communicate in different languages. In the literal and figurative sense.

Black comedy about the routine of a large corporation, producing chocolate bars. The claustrophobic office space and its dwellers are part of a funny and grotesque picture. The main character, young man from the marketing department, tries to find his stolen car with the help of militia and head of a local gang. He confronts a chaotic life of a small provincial town outside his office, trying to guess its laws. As a result, he fails to fulfill the task of his American boss, and finds his Ford painted and rebuilt as a street-racer's car. Of course, his personal life also changes...

The life of a schoolboy Filipp Dinozavrov is full of failures, but one day he opens a portal to the Mesozoic era.

A young truck driver from a small, nameless Russian town sets off on a spiritual journey that has no actual purpose and no verifiable destination, encountering lonely women and small time crooks along the way.

Moscow, 1986, the heat of Perestroika. Borya is an average clumsy teenager who is miraculously admitted to the legendary Bolshoi Ballet School. The boy is convinced that he will become a ballet dancer like his father, Mikhail Baryshnikov. But is this father real or imaginary?

Little girl Sveta Orlova dreams that her parents will improve their relationship. On New Year's Eve, she makes a wish to Santa Claus, whom she met completely by chance, although in fact it was a swindler dressed in a festive suit - the unlucky swindler Myshkin. Nevertheless, he gives his word of honor to a casual acquaintance that the girl will celebrate the New Year with her parents. Now she expects her wish to come true.

They don't really know each other. She lives in penury. He holds a pawnshop. Poverty makes her marry him, despite she doesn't love him and even despises. After the marriage takes place, the family war begins. Based on a novel 'A Gentle Creature' by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

New film by Klim Kozinsky

A movie which at first seems like a simple life story of an ordinary young man slowly evolves into an extraordinarily told ballade with twofold meaning - sad and optimistic at the same time...

"Ciao, 2021!" - New Year's edition of the Evening Urgant program, aired on Channel One on January 1, 2022. The release parodies the festive concerts of the Italian pop music of the 1980s and the tradition of the Soviet and then Russian "Blue Lights". All participants in the program - presenters and performers - have stylized Italian names and pseudonyms. Communication takes place in Italian and is accompanied by Russian subtitles.

A small provincial town. The inhabitants are bored, apathetic and bitter... Peredonov, a modest high school teacher, dreams about a promotion and moving to the capital. Gradually his dream becomes an obsession. Varvara, his second cousin who dreams about marrying him, writes a promising letter about an invitation to Saint-Petersburg on behalf of the capital's princess. But the teacher's dreams aren't meant to come true: he becomes a victim of his own insanity and kills his friend and the hateful Varvara...

When three 18-year-old students at a prestigious University - Mika, Kit, and Swift - dig up dirt on their crazy college principal, the hunt for the would-be blackmailers begins. Fleeing from their pursuers, the three amigos find themselves on the women's snowboarding team bus. They have no choice but to put on the team's brightly colored jackets and blend in with the crowd of snowboarding girls. But the clothes alone won't cut it: as diehard practitioners of extreme sports, they are not about to miss their chance to show off their snowboarding skills. The National Women's Snowboarding Team's trainer Svetlana Nikolayevna spots the new talent and invites the "girls" to join the team for the trials in Sochi. The friends jump at the chance of free rides on Olympic-grade tracks and once and for all evading the college principal's goons.

On a visit to Russia, a young princess escapes her handlers for an adventure in the city.

Sequel to feature film adaptation of "Prostokvashino" by K.B.A.

A determined student from Chicago is forced to fulfill the last wish of his ailing grandfather. He has to travel to Odessa, Ukraine, and bring back his grandfather's cat.

The film’s plot is based on a true story about a 10-year-old boy from a village, Ilya,whose father is killed. The criminal remains unpunished. Nobody around this situation is particularly worried, except the child, who arranges a real hunt for the murderer.

A story about a school friends, their adventures, fantasies and first love...

Two veteran meteorologists spend their days on a remote mountain weather station, accompanied by a young boy working as a cook. Their every-day lifestyle, made of creating matchstick models on one side, researching the big-foot myth on the other, and the boy's constant need to find places for hiding is briefly interrupted by a visit from two tourists: husband and his young wife - traveling to visit a cave near the weather station, so they'd mark their five year anniversary. Their arrival is the primer for an unknown series of events that puts an experienced inspector and his young colleague where we find them at the beginning of the movie: on a deserted weather station, where everyone seems to have vanished into thin air. The hank slowly unrolls as viewer discovers the truth behind everything, step by step, until the final loop of a long story line unravels and present him the final surprise.

Victor, tired of his worries and problems, runs away into the forest and begins a new life in his solitary house. But a tragedy struck, Victor suddenly lost his sight during the hunting. Now he has to blindly pass through a forest and not fall into the clutches of predator…

The unknown actor Lesha works as animator and doesn’t see a chance of success. Lesha doesn’t understand how he is worse than a well-known actor of numerous sensational movies. In complete despair, he notices a girl on the roof of a house and rescues her from jumping, without suspecting that this will later present him with a chance of finding a way into big cinema.

An ambitious personal growth coach, author of the Predator Psychology manual, unexpectedly finds himself drawn into a confrontation with a millionaire who wants to demolish the garage complex where he keeps his Jaguar. Now he has to prove in practice to the people who believe in him that he is capable of leading them into battle. Called a predator - be ready to show your teeth. A game without rules begins, where kidnapping, blackmail, forgery ... and a giant St. Bernard are used. Problems snowball into a cascade of comedic emergencies.

Two girls, who used to be in love with the same man, are starting to get texts and other mysterious messages after his death, and the only person, who could’ve possibly sent them, is him. The messages from the gone man send two rivals to the south of the country, when they have two unravel the mystery of their mutual loved one, understand themselves and deal with their own past.

A historical drama about the tragic fate of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, a woman who remained in the shadow of her husband Joseph Stalin. In 1918, 16-year-old Nadezhda married 38-year-old Joseph Stalin, a close friend of the Alliluyev family. The love of Nadezhda and Joseph develops against the backdrop of important historical events - revolutions, wars, arrests, and every year Stalin seizes more and more power. Realizing the terrible essence of her beloved husband, Nadezhda still remains faithful to him. But how long can she withstand this struggle with herself?

A successful film artist plans to go to his hometown for his sister’s wedding, accompanied by a movie star. With his arrival, he is going to humiliate his hated fiancé, the fat man and the slacker Shurik. But a quarrel with the actress ruins not only all his plans, but also radically changes his life. A true story of a selfish macho's reassessment of values.

A married man needs a lot of money and he is trying to get them form a huge bet on horse-riding.

A simple family lives in the Kalmyk village - Baira and her husband Congress. They love each other, they cut and sell sheep together, they keep house, they never part and they don't know any other life. And suddenly the Congress brings a second wife to the house - he promised a neighbor before his death to marry her granddaughter. The granddaughter is a young beauty, and even pregnant. Baira looks at herself in the mirror with despair - she is 40 years old...

Garpastum is a Latin word meaning ball game. Set in 1914 in St. Petersburg, the brothers Andrey and Nikolai are passionate about the matches they play on the streets. They hatch a scheme to buy a playing field. But World War I has already begun and soon their lives and dreams will be shattered.

A sensuous anthology of five short stories directed by young female directors with their own unique vision. Each of the stories in its own way examines different aspects of the life of modern women, plunging into their problems and experiences. The novel "Kindred Spirit" tells about a prostitute's love date with a major, and in "Marjanja" the sisters are looking for ways to come to an understanding. The heroes of the novel "Schrodinger's Paradise" are desperately searching for their Self, and the will of chance comes to their aid. In the "Issue", the main character realizes the falsity of her relationship with her best friend and keenly anticipates the passing of youth, and in the "Observer", the characters meet a real soul mate and find true happiness.

Yana and Ilya met during rehabilitation. According to the rules, they need to stay away from each other if they want to stay sober. But the feelings that flared up between them do not allow them to do this. They broke down, parted, sought happiness with others, but the further they ran away from love, the more they were drawn to each other. The story that Ilya and Yana will live in the film will allow them to finally get out of the vicious circle, give them a chance for recovery and give hope for a happy ending...

Matvey is a young diligent altar boy who dreams of becoming a priest. Agata is a spontaneous, daring artist who is not used to planning ahead. After meeting Matvey and Agata, they realize that their seemingly different worlds are united by the same problems and values. But can they really understand it?

The beginning of the 2000s. New realities, instant adaptation to the proposed circumstances, enchanting careers, unexpected unknown professions... All this could have happened only at the turn of the century, when the Soviet system instantly went out of fashion, replaced by the lightning invasion of the Western world in a grotesque parody. The main character of the film is an inconspicuous girl Nadezhda Strakhova. Nadezhda, oddly enough, is married. Her husband, Vitalik, a provincial, married a childless Nadezhda for the sake of a Moscow residence permit and a typical "Khrushchev" on the outskirts of Moscow. Nadezhda works two jobs to support her small family: in the mornings in the district library and in the evenings in the theater wardrobe. One day her life changes dramatically.

Normal circumstances. Unnatural results.

One of the most popular TV shows ""Heads and Tails"" is on the verge of closure. Many presenters, directors, cameramen have left the project, and those who remain are not in the best shape. The atmosphere in the team has long lost its creative fuse, everyone is dissatisfied with something, and even the family, once ideal, couple of presenters remaining on the project demonstrates a discord in the family. In order to avoid collapse, the producer of the program will have to take a desperate step: Arrange the filming of the program in one of the most closed countries in the world.

A comedy about how two unlucky heroes, one of whom dreamed of becoming a pilot, and the other an actor, accidentally get a chance to fulfill both dreams at once on the set of a new film. However, in the very first scene, they manage to crash a sponsor’s helicopter, which promises them a lot of problems. To compensate for the damage, the friends are forced to go into all seriousness - try to rob the oligarch, make money in kind, and even try to hijack a helicopter from an American air base.

An unofficial sequel to the movie "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession". The events take place on New Year's Eve 1997-1998, 24 years after the events of the movie. According to the plot, the main characters (Shurik, Bunsha, Zina and Ulyana Andreyevna) are going to celebrate New Year's Eve, and the engineer Alexander Sergeyevich Timofeev (Shurik) decides to present his recreated (and modernized) time machine to the guests. Having gone to the XVI century, they find there an aged Georges Miloslavsky, who has been sitting as regent for 25 years instead of Ivan the Terrible, who has run away; the Tsar was so inspired by the profession of Zina and Yakin that he decided to try his hand at filmmaking and went to "Mosfilm" instead of the Tsar's chambers. In an effort to correct the disruption of the course of history, the heroes re-engage the time machine and travel back to the 1970s in search of the Tsar, who dreams of becoming an actor.

An animated short film based on the 1877 short story written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing to live for in the world, and is therefore determined to commit suicide. A chance encounter with a young girl changes his mind.

Alexey Kromov, a former Russian army colonel, is stuck in Paris with a huge sum of money which belong to the former Russian government.

Rita loves her husband Alexei, but he decides to leave her for another woman named Alena. When nothing works, Rita seeks help from a sorcerer and ends up waking in Alena's body.

A journalistic investigation, built not on rumors and assumptions, but on direct evidence, revealing the true mechanisms of podium coronations. Hidden camera footage of negotiations with the owners of the largest national beauty contests and an attempt to answer the question of why these people are not yet in prison. Famous people on the jury are not a guarantee of fair judging. Irrefutable evidence of the corruption of the so-called “stars” who elect the next Miss and Mrs. The collection and subsequent theft of funds for charity is a side business of the owners of fraudulent shows. What actually awaits the titled Misses after purchasing the prize? And what do children's beauty pageants turn out to be like for young participants?

On New Year’s Eve, former rock singer turned respectable housewife Vera Pavlovskaya is preparing to spend the night alone. Her husband, a celebrated film director, claims he’s busy with reshoots—but in truth, he’s run off to his young mistress. Meanwhile, well-known journalist Stefania (or Fanya) faces the prospect of ringing in the holiday with the parents of her sweet but unloved fiancé, Petya. Architect Sergey Skvortsov boards a flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow, eager to reunite with his fiancée Laura. And young librarian Bronislava, also from St. Petersburg, dreams of winning the heart of Oleg—Vera and Sergey’s son—even though he’s happily married. But as New Year’s chaos and confusion take over, none of these plans go quite as expected.

One of New Year's Eve evenings, Alexei makes a marriage proposal to the charming and sweet Katya. The girl in the seventh heaven from happiness. She had been waiting for this for a long time. But their bright future has one serious obstacle - a loving mother. Mom Katya Zoya Andreevna - a woman of a difficult character - takes this proposal as an encroachment on her private property and easily finds a way to upset the relationship of lovers. But her plan crashes.

An almost detective story that could lead to terrible injustice. But good is strong, although sometimes naive. Wise Cricket will not allow "to go out of focus." Do not forget that Christmas is about to enter. And on Christmas night, what miracles do not happen!

In this movie we follow fate not a person but car: first Soviet Lada. It starts with Brezhnev daughter and then gradually moves on parallel to last years of USSR into wild after-perestroika years with bandits and newly born oligarchs.

Lyubanya, a hairdresser who has lost her job, and her eleven-year-old son find themselves in a difficult situation. She tries to borrow money from his girlfriend Simkina. She agrees to help, but only on the condition that Lyubanya will help her regain the man she loved, a certain Valeriy. Lyubanya must "accidentally" get acquainted with him and pretend to be his ideal, and when he falls in love with the "woman of his dreams" — leave him. Then Simkina will appear to "glue" Valeriy's broken heart, and at the same time their broken relationship. Out of desperation, Lyubanya joins in this game, but very quickly realizes that she has fallen in love. The heroine faces the question: how to tell Valeriy the truth about himself and their "casual" acquaintance?

A student is trying to build a career in theater using not his talent but looks and sexuality.

The movie is based on the events in South Ossetia in August 2008, and portraying a brutal Georgian army engaging in ethnic cleansing at the behest of its omnipresent American masters.

This movie is about the life of Marat Ayumov, a former soldier from Kazakhstan who fought in Afghaninstan. The past and present are interwoven in the memories of the protagonist. Throughout the film, in fragmented flashbacks, the hero recollects the time when he, as a soldier, fought in the armed conflict in the mountainous country as he travels to Afghanistan to accompany a young and creative TV crew making a documentary called “Following Alexander the Great”.

Sanya is a trucker who combines his main job with stealing cars. He and his wife Anya are expecting the birth of a child any day now. Suddenly, Sanya receives an urgent order: the hijacking of a "Gelendwagen" (or simply "Gelya"). And for the sake of a comfortable future for his family, he agrees, promising his wife to be in time for childbirth. But everything is not going according to plan, and the case turns into a conflict with a criminal gang of premium car thieves. Now Sanya faces a task of increased complexity: not only to deal with criminals, but also not to be late to the hospital.

Gay teen Nikita is in love with the most popular boy in his school, Alpha. Rebellious Outlaw, to whom anything appears to be permissible, watches on as their relationship develops. Simultaneously, we follow the tragic love story of a transgender dancer Nina and a Soviet general, set in 1985.

The memory of World War II is the only thing that makes a small Russian town alive. Like a great treasure this memory is preserved here in every home and is passed on from generation to generation. Yet exactly this memory prevents people from understanding that despite their own will they are getting involved in a new war.

Things are finally starting to look bright for Ilya, a relatively unknown actor. Starting tomorrow, he will be the voice of Men's Radio. So of course he celebrates the occasion. But the next morning, the newly-crowned radio host finds himself unable to utter a single word. After a wild night out on the town he has completely lost his voice. It's half an hour before he goes on air, prime-time, the contract has already been signed, Ilya is in a state of panic... The only solution is to get an injection in his voice box. According to the doctor on hand, this is the only thing that might save the day.

Russian Lessons sees its two filmmaker-protagonists, Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov, report from different posts on the frontline of the 2008 Russian-Georgian war.