Vasiliy Shchipitsyn

Russian Jews. Part Two. 1918-1948.

Second part of Documentary project

Three Minutes of Silence

When two spoiled hipsters embark on the rusty trawler for a summer internship, they get much more than what they bargained for. This shabby boat is the floating home of a dozen weary and irritable sailors, whose only priority is making money and not getting killed in the process. Ice-cold waves, incredibly beautiful but severe seascapes, hard labour and tons of stinking fish is the daily menu. The sea is unpredictable, and the upcoming storm is not the main test that awaits the ship’s crew. Their trip to sea, however, turns out to be more serious and more tragic than either of them could have imagined.

The One Who Switches Off the Light

For two months a serial killer has been terrorizing the city of St. Petersburg. Every Wednesday a girl between 9 and 12 years old is the victim. The brutality of the maniac plunges city residents into horror. Parents are afraid of leaving their children alone on the street. The press reinforces the atmosphere of fear and hysteria.

Red Sky, Black Snow

The head of the prison camp is friends with the manager, the head of a criminal gang. An evacuated woman with a child arrives in the city, and the manager falls in love with her.

Burdocks

An eccentric comedy. Love and money have always inspired people to feats, long wanderings and even crimes. It has always been almost impossible to stop such madmen. And what will happen this time — no one knows yet. Only one thing is known — it will happen in Lopukhi, in an ordinary Russian village with ordinary Russian citizens.

Three Seconds

The story is set at the 1972 Munich Olympics where the U.S. team lost the basketball championship for the first time in 36 years. The final moments of the final game have become one of the most controversial events in Olympic history. With play tied, the score table horn sounded during a second free throw attempt that put the U.S. ahead by one. But the Soviets claimed they had called for a time out before the basket and confusion ensued. The clock was set back by three seconds twice in a row and the Russians finally prevailed at the very last. The U.S. protested, but a jury decided in the USSR’s favor and Team USA voted unanimously to refuse its silver medals. The Soviet players have been treated as heroes at home.

The Parent

Struggling for a daughter, hooked on heroin, the father had to get acquainted with the underground life of Saint-Petersburg. He doesn’t trust the police. Together with his friend he unravels the drug dealers network in order to stop the drug addiction that conquered the city in the 90s. Will they have enough powers to make it to the end?

Last Price

A Russian family lives in an Abkhazian town, which was destroyed by the war. They grow hazelnuts for sale and hope to get rich thanks to the sudden "nut fever", the soaring prices of Abkhazian nuts. But a gang appears in the village stealing nuts.

This Summer Will End

A young man named Kesha returns to his village after a long absence. He has completed a prison term but now simply wants to live a quiet, normal life. His younger brother, only 17, has plans for college. However, the brothers’ perspectives on the future shift dramatically when Kesha joins a gold-mining crew.

Peculiarities of the National Hospital

A young German, Werner Müller, turns out to be a volunteer in the neurological department of an ordinary St. Petersburg hospital. A foreigner, overwhelmed by the impulse to help all the sick and needy, has a long and eventful day ahead of him. Every now and then, finding himself in comical situations and making his way through misunderstandings, the volunteer discovers all the facets of the Russian national character.

Decoy

Is secret cooperation with the government a respectable thing?.. This is the question Nikolay should answer for himself.

The Conscience

Petrograd, Soviet Union, 1920s. Boris Letush, devastated by a personal tragedy, feels the need to put his conscience and his principles before the demands of the cruel system he serves, where law and justice are systematically ignored.

Film No. 8

Russia, early 90s. Mariya, the owner of a small video rental store in an abandoned cinema, has her son disappear under strange circumstances. To understand what happened and find her son, Mariya has to cross the path of crime boss Egor Bocharov, make friends with fugitive criminal Dmitriy Shilin, reveal the secret of the ghost living in the cinema and find out how he is connected with the mysterious film number 8.

Love of the Soviet Union

The film is about a generation of brave and beautiful people who did not see the destruction of the revolution and the chaos of the civil war, who dreamed of building a new life in which there would be no place for death, but only incredible love that opens the way for them to great achievements and discoveries. About exploits and glory, betrayal and loyalty of those who were heroes in heaven and on earth. About the time of immense trials that fell on their short but bright lives. About a woman who was the dream and true love of the Soviet Union.