Alexey Uchitel

The documentary series tells about the history of the new Russian cinema in the context of events that changed Russia forever. The narrative is built in chronological order: from 1992, when the first film was released, where "Russia" was listed in the output data instead of "USSR", to the present. Directors, actors and producers will share their memories of the path in Russian cinema. Among them are Fyodor Bondarchuk, Gosha Kutsenko, Evgeny Tsyganov, Zhora Gooseberry, Pyotr Buslov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Khotinenko, Valeria Guy Germanika, Sergey Selyanov, Egor Konchalovsky and many others.

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A biopic about Soviet composer Dmitry Shostakovich.

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A Vatican priest discovers Dante's original Divine Comedy manuscript. When asked to authenticate it, writer Nick Tosches steals it, while a parallel story follows Dante's quest to create his masterpiece.

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Seventeen-year-old Georgian Dato and his grandmother try to find common ground in the ruins of their once large family. Everything is going according to plan until Dato's mother suddenly appears on the doorstep after many years of absence.

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After losing her parents, Masha falls in love with her guardian Sergei Mikhailovich. Masha is young, Sergei Mikhailovich is much older, and they have to go through a difficult path to understanding each other.

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In late 18th-century Russia, village life is shaped by a fusion of rural superstitions, pagan beliefs and traces of Orthodox Christianity. Twin girls are violently separated when one is believed to be possessed, accused of draining the vitality of her sister. Meanwhile, a young man, branded a freak and outcast, obsessively constructs mechanical wings in a desperate attempt to fly like Icarus. Overseeing this turbulent world are Europeanised feudal lords who maintain brutal, cynical control over the peasants, exacerbating class tensions.

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Outstanding oratorical talent and natural wit help Fyodor Plevako to smash the accusers in court, and ordinary people consider him a hero.

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Today the weather was warm. I dressed warmly. At three o’clock, I made a candle at Anya’s—and then drowned it. I’ll chat with you, and then I’ll have some nuts. You were right about Anton wanting to kiss me. He and Natasha had a fight, but they made up. We didn’t have any porridge, so we ate cottage cheese with jam instead. If you were here, you’d cook, remember? Yura’s back is sore because he’s always hunched over. There was fog today. At the street near the Circle. The foggy dew. For lunch, we had pasta and cheese. I helped Oksana cut it. She called me clumsy after I ran to the barn in a dress, slipped, and—bang!—landed in the mud. The moment I pick up Dasha in my arms, Masha wants to be held too. No bingo tomorrow; we’re taking a break. Time to rest. Goodnight. Talk to you sometime; not today.

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A young German, Werner Müller, turns out to be a volunteer in the neurological department of an ordinary St. Petersburg hospital. A foreigner, overwhelmed by the impulse to help all the sick and needy, has a long and eventful day ahead of him. Every now and then, finding himself in comical situations and making his way through misunderstandings, the volunteer discovers all the facets of the Russian national character.

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The Tsar is having his daughter Zabava marry a charmingly handsome and a handsomely charming Paul, a rich heir and a foreign fancy pants. However, it's a bit of a challenge, since Zabava wants a marriage of love, not of calculation. Her unexpected encounter with sailor Ivan, a simpleton yet an honest and endearing guy, messes up Paul's plans of snatching the crown. Deeply in love with the princess, Ivan enlists help from the residents of an enchanted forest to build a Flying Ship which would then take him and his beloved away. The brave sailor is in for serious confrontation with the sneaky Paul, who's using dark magic to bring his unwanted opponent down. However, true love is going to win this battle: with the evil mastermind punished, Ivan and Zabava step aboard the magic Flying Ship and set sail towards a new common dream of theirs.

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Inspired by the words of a random beauty, Slava quits his job as a freight forwarder and his wife Masha, who does not understand him, for the sake of a dream of becoming a professional psychic. The scope of his abilities is dowsing. And now he scans passers-by in the passages, selflessly looking for the sources of water in the gardens and lives with the guard in the booth.

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Leonid Desyatnikov is the most played Russian composer of today. Unparalleled, his music is performed all over the world from the Bolshoi Theatre and Paris’s Opéra Garnier to Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Carnegie Hall. While he usually shuns publicity, this time, he will open up to share some of his innermost thoughts. From the genius’s weekday routine and musings to the bold premiere involving the iconic conductor Teodor Currentzis, this movie is an attempt at unraveling the enigma that is the paradox of the composer’s music and persona.

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“Shchedrin Suite” is a candid conversation with the renowned classic. On how he fell in love and was overwhelmed by the beauty of bronze hair and green eyes: the exceptional ballerina Maya Plisetskaya not only became his devoted life companion but also a cherished soul. On how many times he resisted compromising his own conscience and yielding to the omnipotent system. It delves into the composer’s creativity as a profound mystery and an ongoing process. It also reflects on the geniuses whom fate brought into his life: Shostakovich, Rostropovich, Gergiev, and Pierre Cardin. Lastly, it contemplates the world’s current state from the perspective of age and experience.

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Yura is on the trail of his young wife’s lover. But how does a simple hunter catch someone who leaves no trace on the ground?

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Petersburg was swept by a wave of an unusual cultural movement: an unknown enthusiast organizes art events, trying to draw attention to forgotten monuments. This enthusiast is Mitya. He is 18. And he keeps a vow of silence. In the world of Mitya's ideas, everything is harmonious and understandable exactly until the energetic trickster Kowalski joins him with his girlfriend, the charming but dependent on him Polina. With new friends, the movement is rapidly gaining momentum: and now young people are already launching an ambitious campaign to save the old greenhouse building from demolition. But the further, the more complex the intertwining relationship within the trinity. And the spark that flared up between Mitya and Polina intensifies the already insoluble ideological dispute between the guys. When the rally on the day of the demolition finally gets out of control, Mitya will have to finally decide what is more important for him - people or monuments.

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Eight-year-old Nina is an impulsive and emotional girl, quickly igniting ideas and dropping them halfway. Nina would probably have abandoned her new hobby - music - too, but a strange thing happened: the instrument began to behave defiantly, play by itself and provoke the hostess in every possible way. And soon Nina was completely kidnapped along with him. The villains plan to subjugate the world with the help of the piano.

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The films follows a Syrian War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by ISIS militants while they prepare the recently liberated historic site of Palmyra to hold a symbolic concert of the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. The peacekeeping event can only be held in Palmyra that has been severely damaged by the terrorists only if the ancient city and the roads leading to it are defused. The EOD team clears the way one kilometer at a time. But the closer they get to the center of Palmyra, the more destructive the explosives. Tension grows between the young team Captain and the most experienced of the EOD experts. And yet, despite their differences, when the team falls into an ambush and the Captain goes missing, it’s the experienced sapper that sets out to search for him.

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Having learned from his younger brother Pashka about the mysterious death of his father, Yegor returns to his native village after many years of absence. It turns out that the entire inheritance - a farm with a small number of cows and a piece of land - must go to pay off the father's debts to a local entrepreneur. Pashka is categorically against the slaughter of cows and the sale of land. A quarrel breaks out between the brothers. Yegor asks local guys to help take the cows to the neighboring village to the slaughterhouse, but Pashka is ahead of them, who, under cover of night, takes the whole herd in an unknown direction.

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Devoted to the last days of Soviet writer, poet, and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov, this film follows the efforts of two of Shalamov’s most devoted admirers to preserve the author’s legacy. Having lost his sight and hearing and living in a retirement home, he carried on doing the only thing that mattered to him — writing — until his final breath. This film is a testament to the value of writings that tell the unpalatable truths of the 20th century. To evoke the gritty texture of the Soviet world, Sententia is shot on 16mm black and white film.

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Natasha, 36, awaits a court verdict that is to decide whether for the next eight years she is to stay under police observation. Persons like her are called repeat offenders: She committed a new crime, even though she had been released on parole. “Lost trust” — this legal formula has become the real punishment for the main character. These six months is the main penitentiary term of her lifetime, the last chance to feel life in all its versatility, and she makes a list of all things she needs to cram into that short timespan: a rock concert, a ballet, a soccer championship, going to the seaside, meeting up friends, and, most importantly, meeting her father to whom Natasha did not have the courage to tell the truth about her second imprisonment.

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15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoy, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoy’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

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Everything changes in the life of a young 15-year-old Chukchi hunter Lyoshka with the advent of the Internet in the village. He falls in love – for the first time and deeply – with the silent video chat girl. Upon learning that she lives in Detroit, Lyoshka decides on the most desperate act in his life.

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By the age of twenty, Eduard Streltsov has everything one can dream of: talent, fame and love. He is the rising star of Soviet football. The whole country, with bated breath, expects victory from the national team at the upcoming World Cup where Streltsov is to face the great Brazilian football player Pelé. However, two days before the departure of the team, the sportsman’s enemies manage to destroy his career. When the door to big sport seems to be closed for good, Streltsov has to re-enter the field and prove that he is a true champion who is worth everybody’s love.

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The Russian North. A place of ancient forces, traditions and ceremonies. Here the song continuously accompanies man throughout life: from mortal lullaby-illusions and recruitment refrains to wedding motifs and funeral laments, helping to live through pain, to share pleasure and to comprehend life.

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The film is about trying to find yourself through a relationship with relatives who are very far away.

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Russian Russian emperor and the ballerina who established the glory of Russian ballet. A passion that could change Russian history. A love that has become a legend. There are several days in every person's life that can change it forever. When the most important thing happens. You turn around at the voice of love. And you make a choice. But if the ruler of the empire falls in love with a dancer who is maddening with her beauty… The Assumption Cathedral, the Kremlin, the Khodynka Field, the royal palaces, the stages of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters — where the heart of eternal Russia beats.

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The dreams of passionate street dancer Anton are crushed when an accidental injury makes him deaf. But it is exactly at this difficult time that he meets his true love and finds his vocation. Anton learns to listen to the music that comes from the inside and to create his own music through a dance that will never be the same. He starts to teach dancing to kids with hearing impairments and prepares a unique act with them. He takes great risks joining his former team with deaf kids for a new dance to take part in the World Championship.

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All his life Myshkin was dreaming about becoming an actor. And now eight years old Dasha is trying to help him.

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The story of the short but brilliant life of Ergasha Khamraeva, actor and playwright of the Soviet cinema who laid the foundations of the new art in Uzbekistan. The film is dedicated to those who fell during the Great Patriotic War.

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It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

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A desperate Russian tourist goes to the Monastery of Temptation in Israel to find an elder healer called Amun to hopefully save his dying son s life. His search leads him to the Judaean desert. Thirst and scalding sun bring the traveler to complete exhaustion but his son s life is at stake and there s no way back. Even though the protagonist does not believe in miracles he completes his journey and receives salvation.

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Self-portrait. In 1998 our family came under armed attack. We were able to escape and we fled Grozny. We have been silent about it since.

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Tamerlane, in order to gain independence and be able to marry his beloved Amina, leaves Grozny for the mountains to work as a shepherd.

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This film is about love between a father and his daughter, about the Russian soul and about the corners of the earth forgotten by civilization, where passions sometimes heat up to the limit.

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The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

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Four best friends. They've been to war, they've seen life, but they are still passionate, young and willing to serve their country. They found their place at OMON - Russian Special Police Squad. They can count only on each other, and their real family is themselves. After working hours they become simple guys with ordinary dreams like family and comfort. But life changes when once in a night club the friends incidentally get in a fight with the local mafia. It turns out that they have no fear and they are ready to stand for each other whatever happens.

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