Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

“Without the Sun” is the first name that Gorky himself gave to his play and which most closely matches its essence. For this work is not about the "day" and its people, but about the indestructible, passionate desire of people from darkness to light, to the sun. "

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...

History teacher Nikolay Echevin on his sixtieth birthday receives an anonymous letter in which he is called the "center of public infection" and threatened with murder.

When gold is discovered in a remote location, a variety of different groups descend on the spot to stake their claims, resulting in a spate of brutal violence.

Film version of the Rimsky Korsakov opera from the Pushkin story. Motsart i Salyeri (Mozart and Salieri), based on a legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart, meditates on the nature of creativity while introducing, in brilliantly compressed speeches, what was to be one of the important Russian themes—metaphysical rebellion against God.

Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.

A boy in Russia, circa 1900, makes a daunting trip from his home village to a school in the city.

A story about a good doctor - surgeon Mishkin who works in a countryside hospital.

Four geologists are searching for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia. After a long and tiresome journey they manage to find their luck and put the diamond mine on the map. The map must be delivered back to Moscow. But on the day of their departure a terrible forest fire wreaks havoc, and the geologists get trapped in the woods.

Mashenka, a young typist during WWII, flees her occupied town with her boss, the senior cashier of a bank,along with a sack of jewelry and gold they hope to deliver to the Red Army.

This film version was released before the premiere of the full two-part television version (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Approaches). In this version the entire plot of the story Bruce-Partington Drawings was deleted.

Ukraine, 1918. Underground worker Sigismund Raevsky organizes a Komsomol cell and gathers young people to fight against the German invaders...

In July 1942, in the Second World War, the rearguard of the Russian army protects the bridgehead of the Don River against the German army while the retreating Russian troops cross the bridge. While they move back to the Russian territory through the countryside, the soldiers show their companionship, sentiments, fears and heroism to defend their motherland.

After a pilot is forced to make an emergency landing in the Sahara Desert, he befriends a young prince from outer space; the friendship conjures up stories of journeys through the solar system for the stranded aviator.

An insurance agent who moonlights as a car thief steals cars various crooks and never from the common people. He sells the stolen cars and gives the money to charity. His best friend, a cop, is assigned to bring in this modern Robin Hood.

Aboard a ship early in the 20th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian.

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.

Set in the Soviet scientific community, the story follows two dedicated physicists whose close friendship unfolds amid dangerous nuclear research, shaped by their shared affection for a strong-willed woman. Radiation exposure, scientific ambition, and romantic rivalries intersect as the characters confront the physical risks of their work and the personal consequences of their choices.

About fidelity and cunning, about purity of human feelings and belief in true happiness.

The film is dedicated to the great Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). It tells of the last twenty years of the great master’s life, of his friendship with Baroness von Meck, an outstanding woman of her time, who for many years was Tchaikovsky’s guardian angel. The film also includes retrospections of the composer’s childhood and adolescent years, with Tchaikovsky’s life poetically recounted against the background of fragments from his operas and ballets performed by the best Russian musicians.

A Marine's presumed death leads his fiancée to marry another, only for him to return, leading to a tragic, symbolic end for him despite his physical survival.

Former student Raskolnikov is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Raskolnikov struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is a series of five films produced by Lenfilm for the Soviet Central Television, split into eleven episodes, starring Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr. Watson. They were directed by Igor Maslennikov and filmed in Russia (the then Soviet Union) between 1979 and 1986, and the series was one of the most successful in the history of Russian television.

The family of Russian intellectuals during the first Russian revolution is faced with a "cholera riot". One of the characters commits suicide, another goes mad, the third suffers from unrequited love.

Detective television series based on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Five films about Sherlock Holmes, shot by Igor Maslennikov earlier, were remounted in 2000, a connecting story about Conan Doyle's literary secretary, Mr. Wood, who is preparing an anniversary collection of stories about Holmes for the beginning of the coming XX century. Sir Arthur receives huge mail every day, addressed not to him, but to Sherlock Holmes. And then one day a letter arrives with a plea for help, and Doyle begins an investigation...

How far can a man overcome by a destructive passion go? And does he realize that slavish worship of irrepressible desires always entails retribution?

Three naval cadets accidentally get possession of a secret diary that was stolen from Bestuzhev, a vice-chancellor of Russia. If this diary ever gets abroad, the consequences for the country would be grave. The cadets are trying to return the papers to their owner, but there are others who want to get the papers...

The fifth and final part of the cycle of Soviet television feature films, filmed by director Igor Maslennikov based on the stories of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. In the first part based on the works - "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb", "The Adventure of the Second Stain". In the second part based on the works - "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", and "His Last Bow".

Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov plans to buy the titles to “dead souls” and use them as collateral to obtain a large loan. He comes to a small provincial town and begins to proposition the local landowners. These landowners are revealed to be so petty and avaricious that not even Chichikov’s amazing offer can be worked to his advantage on them. Some stall, some refuse for no obvious reasons, some promise and then renege, and others want “in on the deal.” In the end, Chichikov, having concluded that the landowners are a hopeless lot, leaves for other regions.

Summer. Heat. A garden full of dandelions. They are picked and used to make excellent wine... A brilliant inventor creates a happiness machine... An experienced colonel transports boys into a world unknown to them with his stories, or he himself travels in the time machine of his memory.

A story about a good doctor - surgeon Mishkin who works in a countryside hospital.