The memory of World War II is the only thing that makes a small Russian town alive. Like a great treasure this memory is preserved here in every home and is passed on from generation to generation. Yet exactly this memory prevents people from understanding that despite their own will they are getting involved in a new war.
In Siberia Sergey Zimov and his son Nikita are attempting to slow down the melting of the permafrost, which holds huge carbon reserves, by reintroducing large mammals present in the area during the ice age. It is a mammoth project driven by the faith and convictions of a small group of adventurer-researchers.
The web-cam industry is now at its peak in Russia, thousands of ex-schoolchildren work from their homes or at private studios, selling solo or even group sex for money to anonymous customers online. Tanya and Vova are young and wild; they have easy money, sex, drugs, and freedom. They don’t give a damn about anyone judging them, or about taboos. The web-cam seems to give them everything, but also takes away important things. When real feelings enter their working relations, everything starts falling apart.
THE STRAIT GUYS follows Czech-born mining engineer, George, and his fast-talking protégé, Scott, along the proposed route of the InterContinental Railway through Alaska, to the Bering Strait and onward to Russia. The “Strait Guys” endeavor to convince international governments, corporations, and indigenous tribes to green-light their $100 billion railway project, which would provide ground-based infrastructure across the continents, relieve overcrowded Pacific ports, improve global supply chains, and ease tensions between the superpowers. The US and Russia have been successfully collaborating in space for decades. Now the Strait Guys are out to prove it is also possible down here on earth.
A sensitive and intimate portrait of Ivanna, a nomadic reindeer herder in the Russian Arctic and mother of five small kids. Ivanna is forced to leave the traditional way of life and emigrate to the city, following her own dreams, due to the quickly deteriorating conditions of life in the tundra. We follow her life for several years.
In spring, as soon as the ice descends from the Siberian rivers, Plavpoliklinika goes on a semi-annual route. Doctors are taking medical care to remote Russian villages. Ahead of six months of testing the climate and living conditions, separation from the family and meeting people from the outback.
Every year teams of seasonal workers come to Solovki islands to harvest sea kale. They go out to sea and mow it from car-basses. As the last of the teams go back to Arkhangelsk in October, only a watchman and his dog are left to pass the winter.
Pavlensky/Pawlenski, artist and activist, is leading the way in forging social change in Russia. Through an multiple courageous performances, he acts as society's conscience in the face of an increasingly totalitarian state. From lying naked in a coil of barbed wire, to nailing his scrotum to the floor of Red Square, his acts of defiance aim to spark debate and catalyse reform. This documentary follows his mission to challenge the state.
Anna Grigoryevna, an ordinary Soviet woman, dreamed of a trip to Paris for thirty years. And in 1986, during perestroika, she finally finds herself in the city of her dreams. Her husband and son give her a camera, but because of an excess of emotions, she forgets all the instructions and brings the film, which, when developed, turned out to be a marriage. Recently, the adult son of Anna Grigoryevna found a film. And I decided that this is modern art! He walks around the studios, exhibition curators, they laugh at him, this story is incomprehensible to his mother, his girlfriend is not interested in it. And between these walks, a life passes in which each of these women claims her rights to him.
American psychologist of Russian descent Alex comes to Tuva to open his third eye and learn shamanic practices. Chochagar Kes-Kam becomes his “teacher of shamanism”. Together, the master and the student visit the famous Tuvan shamans and travel around Tuva. But their relationship is being seriously tested.
She was predicted the future of russian Coco Chanel of 21st century – untill her car accident. Consequences of a strong trauma fenced Nastya off from the whole world. But she doesn't intend to change the former way of life, to go on compromises in search of the life’s partner or to reduce the level of her claims.
Four stories of young men's encounters with army recruitment commissions. Ardent pacifist Roman is sent through a series of humiliating court trials. Losha and Viktor endure long and condescending deliberations that undermine their personalities. Finally, LGBT movement veteran, Johnny is bluntly rebuked and handcuffed. All are put to test by a bureaucratic machine that doesn't sympathize with those who dispute the purposiveness of military service. The conscript enters a room packed with officials. The officials have to listen to his convictions that go in conflict with the idea of military service. It's for the officials to decide whether the conscript leaves the room as a soldier or as a civilian.
Many men in the world in order to support their families have to leave families. Our characters go J the North as shift w3ockers and produce gas. Dimity is ambitious engineer in the middle of his career. Alex is a plumber. He does not pump gas, he pinups feces, but he's old polar wolf. Andrew3, young guy, comes to the North for the first time. Each of our protagonists has his challenges and problems and family story lines. Each of them makes his mean's choice and pay for it. Their stories develop in front of our eyes.
At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, after a long construction, the last and most grandiose museum of the Leader was opened. Soon after the opening, the ideology changed, and the flow of pilgrims gradually dried up. Despite this, the museum still works and the management is looking for ways to attract visitors. Faithful to the Lenin keepers of the museum as they can resist the onset of commercialization. The film tells about the modern life of this amazing museum-reserve and its employees.
About ten years ago Sean Quirk, being a student at the College of Music in Chicago, heard for the first time in his hometown of Milwaukee the audio recording of the group "Hung-Hurtuu" - the world famous performers of Tuvan throat singing. And the life of Sean Patrick has changed dramatically. He moved to the capital of Tuva, the city of Kyzyl, married the Tuvinka Svetlana Sunduy, they had three children. Sean became Honored Artist of the Republic of Tuva, soloist of the National Orchestra of the Republic of Tuva, participant and manager of the folklore group "Alash", nominees at the Grammy in the field of World music. He received land as a gift from the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in the suburb of Kyzyl and began to build his house.
Darya Khrenova — a documentalist and the granddaughter of Ilya Trauberg, a successful apprentice of the great Sergey Eisenstein — is trying to solve the mystery of her grandfather’s death at DEFA studio, which he headed after WWII. During the process of the investigation she finds her family, gains more confidence, and takes up a challenge from her grandfather by directing feature films.
Film-portrait of a village self-taught artist Polikarp Sudomoikin. He lives in a surpassingly beautiful place, a village Bichura in Zabaikalie and paints his quaint pictures on a hunch. Former carpenter Sudomoikin started painting only after the retirement. Naked beauties filled with love and bliss surrounded by wild animals, birds and clean pure waters are looking down from his canvases. The connoisseurs compare Polikarp Sudomoikin with Pirosmani, one of the best artists of naive panting.
In the 21st century, under the influence of anti-hunting activism, the very idea that hunting is wrong from a moral point of view since the hunter “enjoys killing” is formed in the mass consciousness. And in general - that rich hunters are wiping out endangered species. Sergey Yastrzhembsky, who never hid his passion for hunting despite facing negative and sometimes aggressive comments, decided, as he himself said, «to restore justice». This is a film about how a properly organized wildlife management changes the everyday life of people for the better, rebuilds the state treasury, creates thousands of new jobs, preserves rare species of animals.
At the heart of this film is a story that we know through two different sources. One version is akin to an amusing tale told in a bar by oilmen. The other is dramatic, a tale from the Nenets reindeer herders that have transformed into a national song, a khinabts. In the film, we present both versions of this same story in parallel.
