American Bet

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of the two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.

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.

During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.

The bureaucratic epos on the dialogues and plots of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin "The History of a Town". In a metaphorical and grotesque form, the film conveys the history of Russia from the calling of the Varangians until the end of the 20th century. The film traces the change of the “chiefs” of the county town of Glupov, which differ in varying degrees of tyranny and the corresponding total number of “killed” city residents. The heads of the city easily guess the former heads of the Russian state and the USSR.

Masha, who works for a radio station, and Maxim, a street sweeper with an architectural degree, cross paths with each other when they are at an indecisive point in their lives.

Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.

The world through the eyes of a flower growing on the side of the road. The flower sees how the electric wires are humming, how cars are rushing by, planes are flying by. Accidents happen before his eyes, it rains and the sun shines — all this the flower observes from the side, without interacting with the outside world. But suddenly a car stops on the side of the road, a girl gets out of it. She holds a book with Japanese triplets in her hand and pays attention to the flower...

The story of a hero who grew an apple orchard for people.

On the evening of March 8, a geography teacher is tired of her life, but then a miracle happens.

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 naked facing wooden doors. No one to remember their last words; no martyrs, just anonymous bodies. Daily, the kangaroo court, the executions, the loading of bodies onto wagons. Srubov is cold, distant, sexually dysfunctional, and a deep thinker, hated by former friends and his family. As he tries to reason the nature of revolution and the purpose of CHEKA, he slowly goes mad.

18 directors, 18 novels, 18 short stories about Moscow...

A Russian soldier who spent ten years in captivity in Afghanistan, returns to his home village and shocks all its inhabitants because of his conversion to Islam. During his absence, his father hanged himself, his brother served a prison term and his former fiancée has become a woman of very low morals. The village is the scene of endless drinking while the local boss is selling off the land for dollars to new-rich Russians. Our hero turns out as the only sober and hard-working member of the community. However, his attachment to his new faith soon provokes the hatred and rejection of everyone else, including his own family.

A lonely, defenseless, unsettled man meets a beautiful gypsy woman and falls in love with her. Having left the service, having left home, he sticks to the camp, but even here he finds neither home nor love — only pity. So he remains a "gadjo" for everyone, a stranger.

Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future.

Director Lydia Bobrova pictures the bleak life in the Russian countryside by showing some events in the life of three brothers and their families. The three brothers are different in character, but all suffer from the dreariness of kolchoz life. The title is derived from a nostalgic Russian song. The wild geese have the possibility of moving on to milder climes, a possibility that Russian country people don’t have.

Just a bet in a gamble called life. The cynical rebel is trying his fate over and over again, not considering that this is a dangerous rival. Once the game ends in defeat: the arrogant beauty loses everything at once. A successful journalist turns into a desperate old woman and ends up in a nursing home ...

Eleven comedic vignettes featuring conversations – some important, some less so – held in restaurants over coffee and cigarettes (how quickly time flies – cigarettes are banned in Russia’s restaurants now). The conversations are candid, and even veer into the territory of murder. In the final credits, the director apologizes to Jim Jarmusch, whose work (in the anthology Coffee and Cigarettes, which Jarmusch shot in pieces over many years) Oldenburg-Svintsov is clearly indebted to. Sex, Coffee, Cigarettes’s kinship with Jarmusch’s film extends to the fact that superstars play tiny roles in almost all of the vignettes.

The house of culture “Mir” (from Russian: “Peace”) is being taken over by masked people. People who came to the premiere of the show have to face death. Now they are to pass a dreadful challenge, preserving their dignity and courage. This is a thriller about the struggle against the world evil, terrorism, and a win of the word over weapons. The dramatic and emotional story embraces everything — struggle, confrontation, betrayal, heroic deeds, and love!

"Jester's Night: Seriously Off Nut" tells us a story that happened the day before - The New Year. It is the time when we wait for the wishes to come true. The picture is about our dreams that change with time and, unfortunately, become more pragmatic. The characters dedicate their lives to the career without noticing anything around them even their lovers' worries. Living this day together with characters, a viewer understands that it is never too late to implement in life their dreams. A businessman and a housewife; a cab driver and a man-hater; a secretary and a barbershop; a director and an ordinary tutor - everyone has their own New Year. For someone it is a pleasant fuss and an opportunity to make a secret wish. For others it is an annual tradition to make fun of oneself and to laugh at others during "Jester's Night".

The film is based on real events. The action takes place during one of the meetings of the Commission for Pardons. A petition from a young man, who killed two people, is being reviewed, one of whom was the son of an influential person. At the same time, in the correctional facility where he is serving his sentence, a hostage situation unfolds (another real case, supported by documentary footage included in the film). In such an environment—one of psychological pressure—the members of the Commission must make the right decision...

Early 18th century. Cartographer Jonathan Green undertakes a scientific voyage from Europe to the East. Having passed through Transylvania and crossed the Carpathian Mountains, he finds himself in a small village lost in impassible woods. Nothing but chance and heavy fog could bring him to this cursed place. People who live here do not resemble any other people which the traveler saw before that. The villagers, having dug a deep moat to fend themselves from the rest of the world, share a naive belief that they could save themselves from evil, failing to understand that evil has made its nest in their souls and is waiting for an opportunity to gush out upon the world.

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.

Eight years after his family was murdered he has returned home to bury his past and discover his future.

A story about bravery, self-sacrifice and human dignity put on trial by the merciless power of nature. A young pilot is fired from military air force after disobeying an absurd order. He gets a job as a co-pilot with a civil airline. Being brutally honest and direct, he is not on best terms with his new colleagues. During a flight to Asia his crew receives a distress message from a volcanic island and makes a decision to attempt a rescue mission. Will it be a success? Will they survive the disaster? They have a single chance to find that out: by being a team and sticking up for one another.

A continuation of a funny adventures of a dachshund puppy and four his friends - taxi drivers.

A woman who has lived in Paris for many years comes to Russia to visit her cousin. Both women are middle-aged—they're approaching fifty—and both are in love with a young hairdresser. Soon, a young rival appears. And now the obliging adventurer is forced to "lead" three admirers...

Realizing that Fomenko had escaped from a dull life, his family and friends began to view their relationships with each other differently...

Now the peculiarities of the national hunt are investigated during the winter season.

An unusual story that happened a long time ago in the city of Eulenberg, in a house where a terrible Ghost lived...

Animated actors and vases tell stories from Greek mythology. Part of a 100-film international project on the theme of world culture. (Robert Donn)

Most know Pavel Artemyev as "that curly guy from the group «Roots»". At the age of 19, he won the "Stars Factory-1" together with the boyz-band, traveled all over the country with concerts, won the love of countless fans. But when the 7-year contract was over, Artemiev engaged in what he always wanted - his own music, which he creates with his indie band ARTEMIEV. He is still recognized on the street, but much less often. Once upon a time, fame fell on Artemiev too easily and swiftly, now he is trying to earn it consciously. Answering the questions of radio presenter Alisa Grebenshchikova, schoolchildren, teachers and director Margarita Zakharova, Artemiev talks about his path - from the stars to the thorns, which are more valuable than the stars.