Dovlatov charts six days in the life of a brilliant, ironic writer who saw far beyond the rigid limits of 70s Soviet Russia. Sergei Dovlatov fought to preserve his own talent and decency with poet and writer Joseph Brodsky, while watching his artist friends got crushed by the iron-willed state machinery.
The amazing and tragic life story of the Russian Paralympic judoka Oleg Kretsul. Having lost his sight in a car accident, Kretsul did not give up the sport and was subsequently able to win Olympic gold at the Paralympics in Beijing.
Young female fighter pilots arrive to the frontline. They have different stories and different fates. They are getting older, falling in love and lose their closest ones as well as take their place in the world of men. The air has become their home. However, at war no one knows whose fate is to live and who is doomed to die.
David, a university professor, takes to social media to criticize his city’s administration. But instead of the mayor’s dodgy dealings being investigated, David is himself accused of embezzlement and placed under house arrest. Despite the overbearing surveillance, double-crossing acquaintances, and growing media interest, David remains defiant and will not apologise. With the court case drawing ever nearer, does David have any hope of winning this battle against Goliath?
After four years in prison, Olya decides to start over. And first of all she wants to get her ten-year-old daughter back. However, the overbearing grandma isn't letting her grandchild go without a fight. The family conflict quickly gets out of control and turns into a wild chase. And it definitely won't end well for everyone.
Mukhabbat, an Uzbek immigrant, works at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. Just like the rest of the immigrants at the store, she is forced to work without getting paid and endure mental and physical abuse, until she overcomes her fear one day and takes her fate into her own hands.
Six various novels united in a one movie.
Russia 2017. The world could be on the verge of a great war. People are anxious that things could fall apart. Evolving around an unfinished building, a diverse group of outsiders struggle to find their place in this rapidly changing society, making up the mosaic of existence that is life itself…
Film about the order of things: everyone has his own.
The Humorist is a film about a week in the life of Boris Arkadiev, a fictional Soviet stand-up comedian. Boris is tormented not only by external oppression and censorship but also by his own insecurities that poison all his relationships.
The entire family of a 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass coordinated execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office. From her shelter she watches as life passes her by until the village is liberated from the Nazi. In these inhuman conditions Anna not only survives but keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by the parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness.
1984, Sverdlovsk, USSR. A shy freshman, an entrepreneur, a poet and two charming it-girls navigate life in a student dorm, sharing their griefs and joys, all for one and one for all. Suddenly a horrible accident blows up the life of the dorm when a female student commits suicide. The dorm is a miniature model of the world that encapsulates the full range of human passions, acts of bravery and cowardice, aspirations for virtue and failures, of love, friendship and betrayal.
Korzhik, Caramel and Kompot dream of a bright and unusual New Year celebration, this is their main goal. But when the kitten Lollipop appears, they turn their attention to him and are forced to save Lollipop and his parents. And suddenly the New Year turns out even better than they expected.
Korzhik, Karamelka and Kompot, together with their parents, they go to rest at a seaside resort, where bright events await them, full of cheerful bustle and meeting new friends.
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.
Do you know what goes on in the head of someone who walks past you?
A husband, a wife and another woman. Only three are in the frame.
“Bloodrop” is an experimental short directed by Aleksei Popogrebsky. Originally part of the Experiment 5ive omnibus, hence the black envelope with the picture inside, which had to be the common element of all 5 films.
Lena is 43 and dreams of becoming a mother, often glancing at the calendar with this hope in mind. On “that very day” when things could work out, she is unexpectedly forced to travel miles away from the capital with her husband. However, they have rather different ideas about “that very day”, leaving Lena alone on the deserted winter roads of the Russian province.
This film is a very short story about a former rescue worker returning from Tokyo – a man who is quite successful in his everyday life, and who, after hearing about another earthquake in Japan, dropped everything and went there to help. He is flying back home in an almost empty plane. Indeed, many regular flights have been canceled, and the ones that are still operated do not sell out. He is flying back with a very elderly Japanese man he had just saved – the man is now all alone in the world, his family had died. And the two men somehow clicked. Perhaps because our main character is also lonely. Also flying with them on the plane are those who are no longer here.Those who did not survive the disaster. Together with the characters, their past moves through space – their memories, their world. The world that is no less, but perhaps even more important for them than the reality.
