Danila goes to his successful brother, Victor, in Petersburg to start a new life. Unknown to Danila, Victor is a contract killer, but is in hiding after asking for too much money to assassinate a Chechen mob boss. To avoid exposure, Victor convinces Danila to kill the boss instead.
The year is 1917. We are in the Russian countryside. It is the middle of freezing winter. A pale young, newly educated doctor arrives. Having to deal with one medical challenge after another he soon becomes the center of everyone's attention. To soothe the impressions of human suffering he turns to...
While returning to Leningrad from a visit to his brother, Professor Artyom's car breaks down and he finds assistance at an isolated farmhouse occupied by Alexey, his wife, a Vietnamese laborer, and a stranger who wanders around the farm. When his car is repaired, Artyom leaves, drunk on moonshine,...
A Finn preparing a work on the Russian hunting traditions and customs, comes to Russia to collect materials and is invited to take part in a hunting party. His flamboyant companions include an Army general, with more than a passing resemblance to Aleksander Lebed, a police detective, local forest...
Srubov is a part of CHEKA, the secret police Lenin established after the Bolshevik Revolution. They arrest, interview for a minute, try in ten seconds, and execute intellectuals, aristocrats, Jews, clergy, and their families. In the building basement, five people at a time are shot as they stand...
The action is set in 1970 as the Soviet Union (and the entire progressive world) are preparing to celebrate Lenin's centenary. Not to be outdone, the camp commander decides to have the prisoners put on a play about Lenin's life. However, the ensuing preparations turn everything upside down and seem...
Vera Andreyevna and Grigory Petrovich are an elderly couple who have had a long and happy life together. One day in the market Vera Andreyevna runs into an untidy and half-drunk old man whom she recognizes with difficulty. It is Alyosha, who was in the same orphanage with her and who had been her...
Sex, alcohol and violence define the people of a city in defeat in this downbeat drama from writer and director Katya Shagalova. As a teenager, Nastia (Yulia Peresild) was the star of a popular television series, but now her career is in decline and her father, an officer in the Russian army, has...
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...
Drawing heavily from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1971 novella 'Piknik na obochine' ('Roadside Picnic') as well as Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film adaptation ('Stalker'), 'Tretya planeta' tells the story of a father seeking a cure for his ill daughter by venturing into an area known only as "The...
The film tells about the misadventures of an ordinary person who happened to have a suitcase with a lot of money... It turns out that it is not at all easy to find a worthy use for such money, and in the final it turns out a simple truth — “happiness is not in money ...”
The film tells the story of a young Russian in the early 90s, trying to escape the army in a psychiatric clinic. He's released years later, after intensive compulsory treatment. Has a documentary film maker he gets involved in the Chechen conflict, where he meets his own apparent death. He recalls...
Sixteen-year-old Andrei Eremin considered himself a person who did not depend on the opinion of the majority, and was proud of it. And he had few friends. One day his imaginary independence collapsed - he believed slander and committed an act unworthy of a man - he easily believed the gossip spread...
Young soldiers of the Soviet Internal Troops are brutally bullied during their time of Dedovshchina(hazing). The plot unfolds mostly on board of a prisoner transport rail car guarded by a unit of paramilitary conscripts.
Vocational school student, who took upon himself the guilt of another for a large sum of money, finds himself in a very difficult situation. None of his “friends” even tries to come to his aid. He only finds one way out for himself, - a death...
A group of American doctors travel to a war-ravaged hot spot in the Middle East in order to distribute vaccines. They clash with the Russian military presence, the Middle Eastern locals, and ultimately, themselves, as they learn that being American heroes is not so easy as they thought. Before they...
In 1930s Poland Christian boy Ivan goes to live with a Jewish family to learn a trade. He becomes friends with Abraham, the son of the family. However, anti-Semitism is rife in their environment, and they flee to escape an upcoming conflict. Journeying together, they demonstrate their...
