Sergei and Simon have to deliver a suitcase full of heroin to Mikhalych or else they will be killed. There is one minor detail: the only problem-solving technique they are familiar with is a shot in the head.
A loose remake of “12 Angry Men”, “12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must unanimously decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his heartbreaking journey through war in flashbacks.
Torn by personal guilt, Italian General Umberto Nobile reminisces about his 1928 failed Arctic expedition aboard the airship Italia.
Platon Ryabinin, a pianist, is traveling by train to a distant town of Griboedov to visit his father. He gets off to have lunch during a twenty minute stop at Zastupinsk railway station. He meets Vera, a waitress, after he refuses to pay her for the disgusting food he doesn't even touch and misses his train due to police investigation of the incident. His passport is then accidentally taken away from him by Andrei, Vera's fiancé, and his money is stolen as he waits for the next train to Griboedov. Vera learns that Platon is about to get sentenced and sent to prison in the Far East for a car accident he isn't guilty for. During the few days that Platon has to spend in Zastupinsk he and Vera develop feelings for each other...
On a stopover in Moscow, a young writer Volodya makes friends with Kolya, who is returning home from a hard night shift. Just as Kolya is about to take a rest, he is met by his old friend Sasha, who wants help getting a deferral from military service so that he can get married.
Strangers on a train. Late in 1916, a brave and idealistic Russian officer in his 20s comes to his superiors' attention when he stands up to Rasputin at a nightclub. He's asked to carry important papers from Petersburg to Stockholm by train in the dead of winter, a dangerous mission. The first-class carriage may be full of spies, and soon after the train embarks, the man in the next compartment searches Obozow's luggage. A beautiful stranger approaches him, a woman older than he, on a concert tour; a game of cat and mouse ensues with patriotism and emotion sometimes on opposite sides. Can Obozow consummate the affair, reach Stockholm, and maintain his ideals?
A story about Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski, a twentieth-century theatre genius. Owing to his powerful extraordinary talent he managed to stay a true artist and a free spirit within the harsh Soviet system. In the film contemporary theater and film directors (Kirill Serebrennikov, Katie Mitchell, Lev Dodin and others) show how Stanislavski's method affects their everyday work. Each of the directors finds his or her own reflection in the mirror of his genius. In search of an answer to the question whether modern theatre really needs Stanislavski they discover that art lacks its most essential part – the human being.
Following the Russian Civil War, a loyal Red, Shilov, must prove he is at home among strangers as he attempts to recapture a shipment of gold that he was supposed to deliver to Moscow. Needed as a means of buying food for the people, the gold Shilov was entrusted with is stolen, initially by a group of assassins and then by a group of bandits. In tracking the gold’s whereabouts, Shilov’s motives are questioned and he is suspected of treason, in part because his brother was a devoted White. In an effort to clear his name, Shilov locates the gold, but he also discovers rampant greed and corruption.
Epic film about WWII, a sequel to Utomlyonnye solntsem (1994). Evil Stalin is terrorizing people of Russia while the Nazis are advancing. Russian officer Kotov, who miraculously survived the death sentence in Stalin's Purge, is now fighting in the front-lines. His daughter, Nadia, who survived a rape attempt by Nazi soldiers, is now a nurse risking her own life to save others. In the war-torn nation even former enemies are fighting together to defend their land. People stand up united for the sake of victory. Written by Steve Shelokhonov
On a summer day in late 19th century Russia, a group of bourgeois friends and acquaintances gather at a dilapidated country estate.
The final part of Mikhalkov's trilogy about Divisional Commander Kotov finds him returning home during World War II having been betrayed, narrowly escaped execution for treason and nearly reduced to dust in a prison camp. Only to discover that everything has changed and he will have to fight again for his name, for his honor, and for his love.
In the town of Bryakhimov, noble but poor widow Harita Ignatyevna Ogudalova seeks to arrange marriages for her three daughters. She maintains an “open house”, hoping to attract gentlemen well-off enough to marry a dowry-less girl for love.
A half-fiction half-documentary story about sport and it's importance in everyday life.
Three friends are in the entrance of a luxury home in the heart of the city. They are young, full of strength and energy, they have the talent, skill and thirst for life and ... - well, they have all but one. But money...
When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead in his country house, Dr James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for help to save Sir Henry Baskerville, the only known heir, from the curse that haunts Baskerville family.
The story about a very small god-forgotten village in Siberia reflects the history of Russia from the beginning of the century till the early 1980s. Three generations try to find the land of happiness and to give it to the people. One builds the road through taiga to the star over horizon, the second 'build communism' and the third searches for oil.
Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin Dmitri from Moscow, who charms the women and little Nadia with his games and pianistic bravura. But Kotov isn't fooled: this is the time of Stalin's repression, with telephone calls in the middle of the night spelling doom - and he knows that Dmitri isn't paying a social call...
About the love of Lenin and the Finnish girl Mariot, from whom he had a child, who subsequently disappeared without a trace.
In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side and then the other.
On the eve of his fortieth anniversary Sergei Makarov looks back at his life and learns that he has achieved nothing. He was not able to be happy and to bring happiness to the closest people in his life, neither to his long-suffering wife nor young mistress nor friends nor work... It is about the men who never grew up and could not find themselves in the time of stagnation – gifted, charming, but infantile and lost, they never were able to realize themselves...
The story follows Maria Konovalova who travels from her rural village to visit her daughter Nina in the city. Maria's arrival exposes the stark contrasts between rural and urban lifestyles and reveals deep-seated family tensions. Interestingly, Родня (Rodnya) in Russian sounds very similar to the word Родина (Rodina), which means "Motherland." The film features three generations of women — Maria, her daughter Nina, and her granddaughter Irina — symbolizing three different Russias: one from the past, one modern, and one representing the future.
Third film based on Boris Akunin's "Priklucheniya Erasta Petrovicha Fandorina" series of novels. On a train from St. Petersburg to Moscow general Khrapov was killed and no one else but Erast Petrovich is under suspicion because the killer pretended to be Fandorin. There are initials BG on the handle of the knife Khrapov was stabbed with, the initials belong to a terrorist organization which keeps both capital cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) in fear. This time Fandorin is not the only one trying to solve the crime, general Pozharski, a famous detective takes over the investigation...
An actor who performs for a children's theater lands a leading role in a new production.
Director Nikita Mikhalkov documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking his daughter Anna such questions as "What do you love the most?", "What scares you the most?", "What do you want above anything" and "What do you hate the most?"
In the early 19th century a traveler returns to the remote outpost he’d visited years before, anxious to see the station master’s lovely daughter once again. There the brokenhearted old man tells him the story of the dashing fellow from Petersburg who whisked her away one winter morning.
With World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop, it's an old-fashioned, blood-and-guts narrative, filled with earthly humor and a wealth of colorful characters. The story concerns the fluctuating fortunes of Grigory Melekhov, a young Cossack who is both a hero and a victim of the uprising.
St. Petersburg, mid 19th century: the indolent, middle-aged Oblomov lives in a flat with his older servant, Zakhar. He sleeps much of the day, dreaming of his childhood on his parents' estate. His boyhood companion, Stoltz, now an energetic and successful businessman, adds Oblomov to his circle whenever he's in the city, and Oblomov's life changes when Stoltz introduces him to Olga, lovely and cultured. When Stoltz leaves for several months, Oblomov takes a country house near Olga's, and she determines to change him: to turn him into a man of society, action, and culture. Soon, Olga and Oblomov are in love; but where, in the triangle, does that leave Stoltz?
The school year is over. The former nine-graders begin their summer internship, which proved for the kids to be a real school of grown-up life with its intricate laws. Not everyone stood the test.
A comic drama about a permanently going duel between Traffic Officer and powerful businessman.
This is a story about an amazing person who devotes his life to his students. Vladimir Fenchenko lit the hearts of hundreds of young filmmakers with love for cinema.
“The True Biography of Nikita Mikhalkov” is the story of one of the most famous Russian directors (and one of the most adored actors by the public), told unbiasedly - that is, not from the words of Mikhalkov himself.
Tenth grader Olya Ryzhkova can't find understanding among the people around her.
A Polish ambassador finds his life falling into ruin following the death of his wife.
Douglas is a foreign entrepreneur, who ventures to Russia in 1885 with dreams of selling a new, experimental steam-driven timber harvester in the wilds of Siberia. Jane is his assistant. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young cadet Andrej Tolstoy with whom she shares a fondness for opera, and the powerful General Radlov who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her.
The film tells about the main stages of the history of the country's largest studio "Mosfilm", about the work of the creative team, introduces the viewer to the outstanding masters of Soviet cinematography, with such unique groups such as the Theater-Studio of Film Actors, with the workshops of the studio.
In 1993, Nikita Mikhalkov made a feature film “Remembering Chekhov”. After the footage was edited, he realized that the film went wrong. thus he made a difficult decision – not to show it to a wide audience. almost 30 years later, in his documentary “the film that went wrong”, the director tries to understand and analyze the reason for that failure. for the first time he will also show scenes from “remembering chekhov” to the audience.
Based on the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel about a young woman who leaves her family to live with her lover whose father dead set on keeping them apart.
A farmer and his wife live in a rural part of Inner Mongolia with their three children. Chinese population control policies prevent them from having any more. The farmer sets out for the nearest town to obtain birth control. He comes upon a Russian truck driver who has ended up in a lake. The farmer takes the man back to his farm, and after initially being appalled, the Russian becomes enchanted with the peaceful life of the countryside and decides to stay. But his presence presages big changes for the peasants.
Emir Kusturica views himself as a rock musician and believes that he became a world-famous filmmaker by pure chance, as he shoots his movies only in between concert tours with the “No Smoking Orchestra” band. At these little pinpoints of time he gets “Palms d’Or” at Cannes, “Golden Lions” in Venice, builds his own villages, a power plant and a piste and regrets not becoming a professional football player. Kusturica’s own living is very much similar to his movies, where shoes are polished with cats, death is treated like a story from tabloid press, and life is a miracle...
Nikita Mikhalkov introduces his favorite paintings by Russian painters of the XIX century. The viewer is presented with a qualified look at the artistic trends and preferences of that period. The series tells about the fate of artists and the heroes of their paintings, the history of creating masterpieces, the overall picture of Russian artistic culture. The text is read by Evgeny Steblov.
A screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. The film portrays the life of Russian landed gentry in the 1840s. After a long travel in Europe, nobleman Lavretsky returns back home. Everything in his estate is so familiar and dear to his heart. On his first visit to his neighbors, the Kalitins, he meets Lisa. He forgets his wife, left in Paris, forgets all his past. He desires only one thing – to always be with Lisa who is so unlike the women he used to know.
The story of a man and a wolf-dog in East Siberia during the early 1900s.
Fragments of all three short stories retrospectively pass before our eyes. The most difficult thing is not to lose the person who came into your life. Everything can be returned, except the people we lost. Preserving a person is the greatest of arts.
Max Sjöman, Architect: "This is the story of my daughter. Her life was short. Short is not purposeless. I brick her picture into the cornerstone of an atomic power station. It is my testament to the future generations. They'll see from that photograph what a healthy child once looked like."
An account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moments of cinema, from Italian neorealism to the masterpieces of Woody Allen.
During the Russian Civil War, the production of a silent melodrama runs into numerous complications.
General Zhuravlev fought on the fronts of World War II, and is now designing spacecraft. Sending a rocket with astronaut Borodin on the flight, he recalls the namesake of the astronaut - a young tankman whom he had the chance to meet on the roads of war ...
Czechoslovakia, May 9, 1945. The end of the war has already been announced. Nikolai Savelyev dreams of returning to his hometown and teaching children history again. Suddenly a battle begins - the SS unit is trying to break through to the west. The battery commander chickened out and fled. Savelyev takes command. He receives a serious injury that leads to blindness. He is accompanied to his hometown by nurse Svetlana. Nikolai does not immediately manage to find his place in life...
Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.
Dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Andrei Tarkovsky. The film uses unique materials related to the years Tarkovsky spent in Italy, personal accounts of friends and professionals, the shooting locations of his films, to what degree his works reflects his personal life. The film brings us closer to the man to whom contemporary filmmaking owes so much.
The events of several days spent by the married couple - artist Pavel Alekseevich and his wife Nina - in a small country boarding house. For him, this is an opportunity to collect his thoughts and finally, after many years, write a new picture. The usual life of vacationers is mushroom hikes, boat trips, a costume ball, if not for Nina’s attraction for another man...
Based on the story by Yulian Semyonov "Dunechka and Nikita." One day in the life of a simple Soviet family. Spouses Stepanov's on that day decided to terminate the marriage, for which they need to appear in the people's court. This day is not the most successful for them. They leave their little daughter Dunya to the brother of Nadya Stepanova — Nikita. But for him this is also not a very successful day: recording on the radio, an exam at a theater institute, and even a quarrel with his girlfriend...
The story of the hero of the Soviet Union, Manshuk Mametova, machine-gunner of the 21st Guards Rifle Division of the 3rd shock army of the Kalinin Front, the guards sergeant in charge. The first woman awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for bravery. The film recreates the past and shows a day of combat life Manshuk and her comrades, who took unequal battle with German tanks.
The second part of the Soviet TV adaption.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1981 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was the third installment in the TV series about adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. A potent streak of humour ran through the film as concerns references to traditional British customs and stereotypes, ensuring the film's popularity with several generations of Russophone viewers. Other features of this best entry in the series include excellent exterior shots which closely match the novel's setting in the Dartmoor marshland, as well as an all-star cast: in addition to the famous Livanov -Solomin duo as Holmes and Watson, the film stars the internationally acclaimed actor/director Nikita Mikhalkov as Sir Henry Baskerville and the Russian movie legend Oleg Yankovsky as the villain Stapleton.
Based on the short story of the same name by A.P. Chekhov.
An adaptation of the play by Ukrainian playwright Mykola Gogol, set in Tsarist Russia during the 19th century. A provincial town plagued by bribery, abuse of power, embezzlement, and other corrupt practices. One day, Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky summons the town officials and announces that an inspector is on their way.
The new film about Sergei Bondarchuk is not a traditional description of the life of a famous director and not a biopic timed to coincide with a round date. The creators of the film focus on a unique period in the history of world cinema - the post-war "thaw" euphoria and the time of great hopes, the key character of which was the author of "War and Peace". What was this man and cinematographer who shot both chamber dramas and megalomaniac battle projects? And how did he, the winner of many USSR awards, manage to become a figure of world significance and a link between the two superpowers during the Cold War era?
On the verge of divorce, Max comes to his ex Irina's to pick up his son Dima for the autumn holidays, but then it turns out that the child has run away from home. The worried parents set off in search in the car of family psychologist/Irina's part-time boyfriend Vlad. Learning that Dima ran away to the village to Max's father, Bata, Max recalls, on the drive, how his parents, during their divorce, sent him to the village, about their life together, his first love and childhood friends.
A documentary about the phenomenon of the Brother duology and its place in the country's cultural code. Directors Anna and Grigory Selyanov explore Balabanov's legacy, rare archives, and routes from Moscow to New York to understand how these films united several generations of Russians.
A documentary about the spiritual and personal life of Nikita Mikhalkov. The plot covers 66 years of friendship between him and the author - Nikolaev Burlyaev. The film uses unique archival materials.
A nostalgic look at the birth and death of arthouse film distribution in Russia in the early 2000s. The story of the company Cinema Without Borders and its two founders, Sam Klebanov and Anton Mazurov.