Russia

  • Ali Khamraev – Sad zhelaniy AKA Garden of Desires (1987)

    Ali Khamraev1981-1990DramaRomanceRussia
    Sad zhelaniy (1987)
    Sad zhelaniy (1987)

    Lyrical drama about the last pre-war summer of three sisters who came to her grandmother in the village. The world appears to them is a huge and beautiful “garden of desires”, all eagerly awaiting the birth of Asi, which does not leave a premonition of impending disaster.Read More »

  • Renato Borrayo Serrano – Zhizn Ivanny AKA Life of Ivanna (2021)

    2021-2030DocumentaryRenato Borrayo SerranoRussia
    Zhizn Ivanny (2021)
    Zhizn Ivanny (2021)

    Synopsis
    Ivanna, a 26-year-young Nenets mother of five children, is living in the Arctic region in the northwest Siberia. She lives a traditional nomadic life, driving her herd of reindeer at the tundra like her family did for centuries. But due to the environmental side effects of the climate change most of her reindeers are dying and she know that she will soon be ruined and forced to make a dramatic decision. Her husband, Gena, has already left the family. He moved to the city, hoping to find a job as an oilworker in the Russian oil fields but didn’t succeed and spend his time drinking and fighting. Ivanna is willing to give her marriage a last chance. She will give up her traditional life, leave the tundra, move to the city and get a job at Gazprom. But time has changed, Gena became violent and alcoholic and Ivanna realizes that the civilized city life is not what she expected. But there are no way back, Ivanna will have to take life in her own hands and secure a future for her and her five children. The film follows Ivanna and her family closely for four years through her dramatic lifechanges, from the harsh life at the tundra to the modern life in the Siberian city of Norilsk.Read More »

  • Aleksei Balabanov – Reka AKA River (2002)

    Aleksei Balabanov2001-2010ArthouseDramaRussia
    Reka AKA River (2002)
    Reka AKA River (2002)

    A story of jealous love and betrayal that end up decimating a small group of outcaste lepers who have been banished from participation in Yakut community life.Read More »

  • Aleksei Balabanov – Schastlivye dni AKA Happy Days (1991)

    Aleksei Balabanov1991-2000DramaRussia
    Schastlivye dni (1991)
    Schastlivye dni (1991)

    Synopsis
    The story begins when a young man with a head injury is released from the hospital and begins searching modern-day St. Petersburg for a room or a place to stay.Read More »

  • Andrey Zvyagintsev – Vozvrashchenie AKA The Return (2003)

    2001-2010Andrey ZvyagintsevDramaRussia

    Quote:
    The Russian film “The Return” is a stunning contemporary fable about a divided family in the wilderness – a simple, riveting film that almost achieves greatness.

    In this hypnotic, stark movie, which won the Golden Lion (grand prize) of the last Venice Film Festival, we see a family strangely reunited: a father and his two sons traveling by car through the countryside after a 12-year separation. One of the boys, Andrei (the late Vladimir Garin), is obedient. The other younger son, Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov), is surly and rebellious.Read More »

  • Marina Goldovskaya – A Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011)

    2011-2020DocumentaryMarina GoldovskayaRussia
    A Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011)
    A Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011)

    Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was killed in Moscow in October, 2006. In 2004, she had written: “Society has shown limitless apathy… We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance.” and of her own pessimism: “the ‘optimistic’ forecast… is the death sentence for our grandchildren.” [Putin’s Russia (2004)]Read More »

  • Aleksandr Sokurov – Uzel AKA The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn (1999)

    Aleksandr Sokurov1991-2000DocumentaryRussia
    The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn (2000)
    The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn (2000)

    This is a two-part video portrait of the outstanding Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of famous novels about the Russian revolution and the acclaimed study of the Soviet concentration camps, “The Gulag Archipelago”. Solzhenitsyn is of more interest to the filmmaker for his attitudes, thoughts and present life, than for his legendary past. Rather than interviewing some important person, Sokurov creates a monumental image before our eyes.Read More »

  • Stepan Puchinyan – Iz zhizni nachalnika ugolovnogo rozyska (1983)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaRussiaStepan Puchinyan

    How will the relations of the two neighbors develop, after all, one of them is the head of the criminal investigation department, and the other is a criminal repeat offender.Read More »

  • Natalya Kudryashova – Gerda (2021) (HD)

    2021-2030DramaNatalya KudryashovaRussia

    It seemed to me that on the other side of that forest, I would find a completely different life, the kind I could only dream of.” ~International Cinephile Society

    Synopsis:
    Lera is a young student of sociology by day and moonlights as a dancer in a strip club under the moniker Gerda to make a living. She is taking care of her ill mother while protecting her from the outbursts from her partner, Gerda’s father, who left them for another woman.Read More »

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