Games in the Dark

Aleksey Temnikov is a renowned ballet dancer and an acknowledged genius whose career was abruptly cut short after sustaining an injury in the 1990s. Twenty years later, Aleksey discovers that his condition is degenerative and that he will soon lose the ability to walk. Aleksey sets out to choreograph a ballet he envisaged long before but never staged for fear of failure. “What will I leave behind after I am gone?” is a question Aleksey feels he must contend with. However, returning to the world of ballet will not be easy for a man who has made so many enemies over the course of his life.

Based on the novel by Booker Prize Winner Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party is set in August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN?

Konstantin, a songwriter and master guitarist, runs away from numerous problems to the nature reserve Mikhailovskoye. Kostya has long lost any way of income and has almost given up hope to be heard, living by sheer inertia and often drawing on alcohol. His wife and daughter are going to Canada, and in his head he constantly turns around the question: what exactly has gone wrong? How can he put it right? Does anyone need his creative work at all, or has he just talked himself into that? Maybe Konstantin has enough energy to change things, but he strongly doubts that: indeed, why and for whom should he try. Nevertheless, the nature reserve is the right place to collect his thoughts, break the minefield of his own life into sections, and get to work.

By helping to organize the bachelorette party, the man grows closer to the young guest.

Europe, 1709. Russia and Sweden are at war. Two French duelists are exiled by King Louis XIV of France: one to the side of Czar Peter the Great of Russia, the other to the side of King Charles XII of Sweden. Although separated by war and allegiance, fate has not finished with them.

A convict named Valiko, a Georgian by nationality, accidentally took part in a prison escape. But local villagers mistake him for a new Franch teacher and employ him in their local school.

Nadya Klyueva is a single woman. Persuaded by her friend, she decides to charm her co-worker whom she doesn't really love, but who is the most popular man around.

Nadia made her choice all her life with an eye to pleasing the environment, and by the age of 45 she was at an impasse. On the one hand, she has everything that many do not have - a family, work at the university, status. On the other hand, she does not feel that she is living her own life. But violence against one's inner world cannot go on forever. After her husband's betrayal, Nadya realizes that she cannot continue to live like this. At this moment, her niece Alena, who is fond of stand-up, moves into her apartment and encourages her aunt to change. Gradually finding harmony with herself, Nadia begins to change for the better. But will Nadia be able to defend her right to be herself - to dress the way she wants, do what she loves and meet a young guy - when relatives, friends and colleagues believe that she violates social norms and do everything to prevent this from happening?

Russian remake of a famous French movie.