Iron Games

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

Anatoly Novoseltsev is a mousy single father and office stumblebum working at a statistics bureau in Moscow. In the hopes of being promoted, he is coaxed into charming his disagreeable and seemingly unfeeling boss, Ludmila Kalugina, or "Meany" as she's otherwise known by her subordinates. Helped by his colleagues Olya and Yura, Anatoly attempts to ease the yoke of Ms. Kalugina, and what follows in the wake of his graceless manoeuvres is completely unforeseen, as he awakens a side to her not yet known, even to herself..

Three best friend are going to spend a vacation on a sea shore. But when they arrive to their usual place they suddenly find that the spot is already occupied - by two beautiful girls.

In December 1825, distinguished members of the Russian military, most of whom were quite affluent and of noble lineage, took it upon themselves to stir revolution against the autocratic and tyrannical Czar Nikolai I in the wake of his not honoring the drafting of a constitution for the Russian people. The revolution failed miserably and the conspirators (known as the Decembrists) were weeded out by the czar himself. One by one, each of the conspirators confess and are systematically exiled to the harsh winters of Siberia, slated to work and wither in a prison/mine. The wives of the conspirators are faced with the prospect of leaving the bosom of wealth and family (including their own children) to be with their husbands in the brutal Siberian locale. If they agree to this, they face having their illustrious social stations stripped away and certain disdain from everyone around them...

A romantic and funny fantasy about the events occurred during the building of a first railroad in Russia.

Natasha, a woman struggling to find housing in a crowded resort town with her young son. She forces a stranger, Viktor, to pretend to be her husband to secure accommodation that bans children, leading to unexpected romantic developments.

Romantic John the Fool and his friend Foal set out on a series of unpredictable adventures in different magical worlds. The two buddies will have to outsmart an evil tyrant king, catch the firebird, and find John’s true love.

The "Fiery Arc" tells of a grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943. Here was the largest tank battle in the history of World War II. Along with the personal fate of the heroes, the film shows battle scenes, the activities of headquarters and intelligence, those who worked at the front and in the rear.

A very typical post-Soviet era storyline. A bunch of vagabonds lured an innocent teenage girl to their apartment, offered her a drink, intimidated, then gang raped her. Local cops are incapable to undertake an adequate actions against the scoundrels - prevented by the superior chief of the local police, who is the dad of one of the scumbags. The case is closed. The girl's granddad tired of an endless circumlocution decides to take revenge in his own hands.

Kindergarten teacher Evgeniy Ivanovich Troshkin is reluctantly sent undercover to take the place of an imprisoned thief who stole Alexander the Great's helmet. Evgeniy uses his striking resemblance to the thief to infiltrate his gang and learn the location of the stolen artifact. He finds the gangsters are unexpectedly similar to his students- they also need love and care.

Mitya, a recent high school student, dreams of fame, but has no idea what price he'll have to pay for it. A random car accident, captured on a cell phone camera, makes him a hostage to a frantic media frenzy. He's caught in the maelstrom of political games and becomes a tool for garnering millions of views for his talk show. However, even this isn't enough for the media. Mitya tries to escape this cycle before he's buried in the news feeds.

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.

The story of a woman returning from a labor camp. She is looking for a person, on whose denunciation she was arrested, in order to take revenge on him, but having completed her judgment, she realizes that revenge is meaningless.

After the overthrowing of Duke Senior by his tyrannical brother, Senior's daughter Rosalind disguises herself as a man and sets out to find her banished father while also counseling her clumsy suitor Orlando in the art of wooing.

Central Russia. The deputy chairman of the district executive committee, Tretyakova, was instructed to organize work to eliminate the consequences of a tornado that suddenly hit the village. She has to come to terms with the indifference of summer residents from a neighboring village, untouched by the disaster. Relying on her own experience and the will of the victims, Tretyakova will do her best...

Based on the satirical anti-war comedy of the same name by B. Brecht.

Russian Empire, 1919. By a twist of fate, young idealist Osip Zadunaisky meets an infamous con artist and self-proclaimed Turkish subject Ibrahim Bender. A man of pure thought and aristocratic upbringing, Osip would never have associated with a cunning and unscrupulous swindler, but Bender comes up with an offer Osip cannot refuse. A precious royal relic, a diamond-encrusted golden scepter is hidden somewhere in town; Bender needs a partner on his mission to find it, and offers Osip a share of the profit from selling the treasure. And so begins their joint venture, wrought with comical and dangerous twists and turns, where they have to outsmart and outmaneuver officers of the White Guard as well as the local mafia, who also have their eyes on the scepter. As their quest unfolds, Osip is compelled to learn Bender’s tricks of the trade: charming flattery, delicate deception, soft intimidation... as well as brute force.

Having returned from the army, 20-year-old Sergei settles down at the thermal power station and merges into ordinary life. Every day he meets and spends time with childhood friends — the young family man Slava and the merry fellow Nikolai, and once at first sight he falls in love with a stranger on the bus. A lyrical story about a generation of young people entering adulthood, a reappraisal of values, life principles, traditions in culture and art.

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.

Several children go on a lifelong space mission to Cassiopeia because they don't want to go to school.

Summer of 1945. The salute of the Great Victory died down and the country is gradually returning to peaceful life. From "fire yes into the fire" a young reconnaissance commander Volodya Sharapov falls, having come to the MUR for distribution, to the department for combating banditry. In the city the Black Cat gang rages, terrifying Muscovites. Captain Gleb Zheglov enters the fray with the bandits, for whom Sharapov soon becomes his right hand.

After graduating from the institute in Leningrad, the young geologist Volodya Batanin arrives to work for distribution to a coal plant in the Arctic.

In 1568, Saadi prince Abdelmalek is exiled from Morocco by his brothers, an event that is only the beginning of his adventures: fighting the Spanish Inquisition, taking part in the Battle of Lepanto, being incarcerated in Alicante prison, and assist in the Conquest of Tunis. Eventually, he returns to Morocco to fulfill his destiny.

Going on a business trip, the hero of the film suddenly finds himself in a fantastic city. It is very similar to our world, only the hidden absurdity of everyday life here has become apparent.

Interstellar expedition equipped by "pioneers"(soviet scouts) reaches Alpha Kassiopea and finds that smart robots took control of whole planet. Their only goal - to make happy, as they understand, their masters. Happiness was, actually, satisfactions of primitive needs, and removing "disturbing" emotions like love, responsibility etc. A many years ago they succeeded in reaching this goal and all the people died out. A very few people escaped from "total happiness" and their descendants orbiting the planet in a big orbital station for many generations. Brave soviet pioneers land on a planet, destroy the robots and return it to the people

Life and works of V.I. Lenin during the difficult period for the country of 1918.

It shows how the October Revolution affected the hearts of the Mongolian people, and how they defeated the white bandit Baron Ungern at the beginning of the revolution and put an end to his evil activities.

Investigating the murder of a cash-collector, Major Isaev, a former boxing champion, comes to the conclusion that the killer is a boxer. To catch the criminal, Peter Isaev takes an unconventional decision. He applies to participate in the city's boxing championship, hoping that the criminal will probably come to watch the former champion fight. Isayev has to overcome each stage of the championship with difficulty: it has been five years since he left the ring...

Eugene returned from the army, and his friend Kostya Sila — from the penal colony. Having met, heroes decided to leave the city: one didn't wait for the beloved girl, another doesn't want to see sympathetic views of former acquaintances. But the meeting with the police major — a talented teacher — changed their intent. All summer heroes devoted to wrest from the influence of the bully the group of boys.

A Ukrainian poet visiting his emigre cousin is threatened into working for the CIA's operations through Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Based on the famous fairytale "The Tinderbox" by Hans Christian Andersen. The main character of the film is a puppeteer who lives in a poor and gray world. He composes a fairy tale in which he himself, in the guise of a brave soldier, finds a flint and is helped by a kind wizard. The soldier falls in love with a spoiled, capricious princess who, as befits a princess, poses riddles to her numerous suitors. Her father, the king, is eager to see the soldier as her husband, as he believes the soldier has a great deal of gold. In the fairy tale, everything ends well, but in real life, not so much. "But life is not a fairy tale," his beloved girl says to him as she bids him farewell.

In a deserted tundra on the lake, a seaplane makes an emergency landing, on board of which bank collectors carry a large amount of money. A storm begins and the plane relates to the river delta. An unknown person steals money from an airplane and kills a geologist, an accidental witness. And a few days later the ship departs from the northern port for the last navigation voyage, where a recidivist hides among the motley company of passengers, and the captain begins his own investigation...

Based on the story "Oh, Marat!" by Fazil Iskander. The main character of the movie, Marat, lives in a coastal town near the Black Sea, he works as a photographer at the beach and is an editor at the local newspaper. But he is known for an entirely other reason: no woman can resist him. Making love is a serious thing for Marat, although his adventures will make the viewers die with laughter...

The movie is set during the last days of a foreign intervention against Soviet Russia. Police are searching everywhere for a Bolshevik named Brodsky but cannot find him. Meanwhile, a man named Michel Voronov serves as a teacher to a rich woman's son, Zhen'ka.

For many years, a prominent scientist had been striving to solve the problem of immortality. He shared the results of his daring and risky experiments with his colleagues. But one day something happened that no one could have foreseen: the professor had disappeared. The best student and follower of Professor Dowell tries to use the results of his scientific research for criminal purposes.

Due to heavy snowfall that hit the city, aircraft flights were stopped for a day. Thousands of passengers crowded into the waiting room. Working together during this difficult shift, the previously conflicting bosses of the two shifts will evaluate each other, act in concert, and each will reconsider their professional and moral positions...

Before a New Year evening Masha and Vitya decide to go to the forest full of fairy tales creatures.

In 1922, in a small town, the boys formed a pioneer squad and named it "Red Bees."

A very sick girl asks her father to get her a live elephant. Based on the early stories by Alexander Kuprin.

The dentist of the provincial town of Upper Yamki made an unexpected scientific discovery by finding the thirty-third tooth in the patient’s oral cavity, Ivan Sergeyevich Travkin. Travkin, exhausted from pain, was taken to Moscow. Ivan Sergeyevich first becomes a patient of a madhouse (thanks to envious persons), and then — a hero of a scientific international conference and, finally, a patient of a dentist professor Bruk.

Having helped his brother King Edward IV take the throne of England, the jealous hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots to seize power for himself. Masterfully deceiving and plotting against nearly everyone in the royal court, including his eventual wife, Lady Anne, and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, Richard orchestrates a bloody rise to power before finding all his gains jeopardized by those he betrayed.

A classic mystery story based on Arkadi Adamov novels. A task force is investigating a series of routine thefts at hotels. Upon closer examination of the case, young criminal investigator Vitaly Losev unexpectedly uncovers major players in the shadow economy who were involved in speculation and theft of state property.