Nikolay Zheludovich

In Russia, an introverted father and his teenage daughter live on the road in a van that contains their entire life, including the equipment for a travelling cinema: the source of their meager income. Povolotsky builds on the undeniable art of the long take, on both the scale of the imposing landscapes and the tight interior of their cramped vehicle. The nameless father and daughter rove around the extremities of their vast country, from south to north. On its margins, the pulse of independent drifters who endure and resist.

Slava is a girl who is used to living with emotions, her actions are impulsive and unpredictable. On New Year's Eve, she makes a wish that her husband Valya will become a cool startup in Silicon Valley, and she is "just" a superwoman who will save the world. But time passes, and the miracle does not happen, and Slava, having collected things, leaves her husband. However, the wish made becomes fatal: everything starts to work out for Valya, and Slava continues to live with the expectation that the world will revolve around her.

A husband, a wife and another woman. Only three are in the frame.

Tushetian shepherds guide thousands of sheep along an ancient migratory route between mountains and deserted steppes, following seasonal rhythms in a landscape where traditional movement meets a rapidly changing world.

The Northerners is a cycle of film essays with a focus on northern individualism. Each one of the three parts plays out in different places around the Kola Peninsula over one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people who share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a dynasty of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vasily is a tug master at Murmansk’s commercial port; Volodya is a woodcutter, leader of a logging guild. Like most of those living in the north of Russia, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying, they ended up staying forever.

Anton, a successful Russian director in his late thirties, feels hollow despite his career, relationship, and friends. Obsessed with casting the perfect actress for his deeply personal film, he flees to foreign lands, trapped in an exhausting, relentless routine. As weeks pass, the producer makes decisions without him. Alone and spiraling, Anton's self-destruction deepens - until an unexpected, wordless connection offers a faint hope of salvation.

16-year-old Andrian lives in Transnistria. At school he has problems with his peers, and at home with his parents. Andrian, who used to sing in the church choir, secretly dreams of ditching everything and going away with a friend to Italy, which he sees as a symbol of freedom from the present hopelessness. But there comes the Holy Week which will forever change his life.

Kolya and Sasha hide away in an old lodge in the middle of the forest. They are in love, and the world around seems strange and wonderful. But the idyll of the sunny summer days is continually disturbed by nightmares. Sasha dreams that she is submerged by a huge wave. Once they meet a mysterious married couple living in the neighbourhood. The Man and the Woman are very much like the young lovers. With their help, they try to understand their feelings.