A 1988 documentary film directed by Alexander Sokurov, about the later life and death of Soviet Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was originally intended to mark the 50th birthday of Tarkovsky in 1982, which would have been before his death. Controversy with Soviet authorities about the film's style and content led to significant delays in the production.
A requiem for a Russian peasant woman, Maria Semionovna Voinova. The film is in two chapters. The first chapter consists of an impression of Maria Semionovna, scenes of the colours of summer time: hay–making, bathing in a river, work in the flax fields and a holiday in the Crimea. The second chapter, set nine years later, is in black and white and deals with how Maria Semionovna's life ended. The mood is one of a sad and elegiac narration.
The life and work of the great Russian composer Dmitriy Shostakovich is presented in this documentary through rare images and audios from many archives, at one time censored by the Soviet government. A brief take on his life, from his transition as an early prodigy to a first rate artist, his celebrated compositions and the final years with a declining health.
The manifestation and fireworks on the 1st of May, one of the ritual celebrations of Soviet times, as a gathering of tired participants of a mass scene falling into pieces without the director's orders and without any aims.
The film Our Friend Maxim is devoted to the life and work of actor and National Artist of the USSR Boris Petrovich Chirkov. This film includes excerpts from his Maxim trilogy, and significant focus is placed on Chirkov’s role as a pedagogue and mentor to young actors.
The heroic romance of the profession is in the story about the life of test pilot Yuri Garnaev, who tragically died with his crew while extinguishing forest fires in France in 1967.
A montage of Leningrad newsreel becomes a composite collage made up of documents-shots, divided in 16 parts, presenting the author's point of view on Russia and modern times. In the title, Sokurov appears as 'compiler' and the selection of the documents is just like an artistic process.
Documentary — featuring both interviews and live footage — about underground rock music in Russia, during the last years of the Perestroika.
A rare documentary that shows how Soviet war propaganda presented the events of the Finnish front in 1941–1944. The main emphasis is on the resolution of the war. The film contains plenty of unique footage of the final stages of the Continuation War.
The picture is about the anti-Hitler coalition of the USSR, England and America, which developed as a counterweight to the aggressive policy of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The unique newsreel footage of these years, shot by operators of different warring countries, is connected with today's thoughts of the author about the fate of the post-war world, about the humanitarian losses of both sides and about gaining unstable hopes for the unity of the world in countering evil.
The film, shot in 1979, but allowed to be shown only 10 years later, talks about the traditional hero of Soviet propaganda. It consists of two parallel plots. The first is the classic "newsreel" about the hero of labor, a noble weaver Golubeva. Golubev at the machines, Golubev on the podium. The second line of the film is the life of the Golubeva family. More precisely, the life of her husband and son. Mom is not at home.
Film about Mitki - a creative group of St. Petersburg artists, writers and musicians who joined them, - went on a trip to Europe.
On the banks of the Obvodny Canal in St. Petersburg there are three crazy houses, three Houses of Culture, a spiritual academy, a pub ... This movie is a cut-off of the era, watching our life, and those around us. Thinking about where the line between reality and insanity lies.
About the best discos in the USSR - in Moscow, Riga, Novosibirsk, Dubna, etc., with comments by the Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR Golubtsova G.V., Doctor of Historical Sciences I.V. Bestuzhev-Lada.
Frustration of the German attempt to capture Leningrad, 1941, the besieging of the city.
Made up of footage of a protest manifestation of mothers whose children had been summoned to serve in Soviet military forces and sent to the zones of Transcaucasian conflicts.
In January 1989 the first Message to Man International Film Festival took place in Leningrad. This film, made during the festival, is a record of its events, guests and participants, such as the American director Leo Hurwitz, the Latvian director Ivars Seleckis, and the ballerina Natalya Makarova, among others. It also shows the “engine room” of the festival: the work of the main office and the PROKKa professional cinematographers’ club, guests being greeted and seen off. A charity evening with Natalya Makarova, a memorial service to commemorate the victims of the war and excerpts of documentary films presented at the festival are also featured.
Film-monologue of a young guy, demobilized military service, establishing life "in civilian life". A person recalls how well he served in the army, talks about the present day, about his family, about his son, about working in a factory, about drinking, fishing, friends and acquaintances.
