Pavel Kostomarov

More than 100 years ago, explorers raced to discover the South Pole. Now scientists are racing to discover the secret subterranean world of rivers and lakes buried miles beneath it. In 1974, scientists made a sensational discovery: a vast lake underneath the icy desert of Antarctica, untouched for 400.000 years, Lake Vostok. In spring 2012, after 40 years of drilling, Russian scientist broke through the ice. In two different narrative strands the film tells the story of the evolution of life and climate, the story of four decades of exploration in the coldest place on Earth, and it accompanies the scientists on their final trip to the camp. The film also explores the mythologies and legends surrounding Antarctica – from H.P. Lovecraft to James Cameron: the ‘Mountains of Madness’ have lured many into their realm – not many left unscathed.

An intimate portrait of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov — once Deputy Prime Minister and “an heir of President Yeltsin”, later an uncompromising adversary of Putin — that was assassinated near the Kremlin in February 2015. Election campaigns and hotel beds, protest rallies and office routine, train compartments and courtrooms, night walks and police vans – you have never seen any politician so close. This is a story how a journalist assignment turns into a genuine friendship.

The documentary project The Term was conceived in May 2012. When the directing trio commenced mapping the Russian sociopolitical landscape, Vladimir Putin had just settled into the Kremlin for his third term. The original experimental format of “documentary bulletins,” which were published daily online, allowed for wide-ranging content; in the feature film version, however, the filmmakers focused solely on the members of various opposition groups. Nevertheless, the work’s neutral position remains and viewers have to interpret the objectively presented situations for themselves. The main characteristics of this strongly authentic movie include close contact with the protagonists, precise editing, and an effectively controlled release of information.

Аlina Makarova is a mother of six of her own children and one adopted child. Her ex husband is from Ethiopia, and all her own children are mixed race. Only her adopted son is white, but he has serious health problems and is psychologically unstable. Alina's older children realise what complications the adoption might bring and are afraid that there won't be enough room, time and love for everyone. But she convinces them that it's the right thing.

A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message and is still trying to find the right moment to tell Sergei, when fear, lies and suspicions start poisoning the atmosphere...

These are the stories of the three guys,three friends, living in a city in the south of Russia. In the course of a year they recorded their everyday lives with a small HDcam. This record is what comprises the movie and to what it is dedicated. Our heroes are eighteen years old and they live average lives: work, have parties and, fall in love. But finally they will have to make those most important of personal choices which will define their future.

Sascha lives in a village on the Kola Peninsular in northern Russia and dedicatedly manages what is left of an old collective farm. He gets on well with his farm workers who respect him and also tolerate his more or less clandestine love-affair with Anya, a secretary at the local government office. But then Sascha is suddenly faced with a dilemma: the district’s self-seeking administrators, none of whom could be termed squeamish, offer him a lucrative deal for the farm. In legal terms, Sascha doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on since his lease on the farm was only agreed with a handshake. The pressure mounts, and even more so when his employees convince him to stand firm. Against the backdrop of a landscape exposed to the elements, this unflinching man’s destiny takes its course.

A team of mathematicians is working together on a big project. Excitement of discovery, hope and disappointment, competition and recognition are shown from an infinitely close distance. Scientists united by the idea of discretization, which, in short, means: constructing continuous objects from basic building blocks. Akin to the scientists' search for the right discretization of continuum, this film itself is composed of fragments - individual characters of different ages, temperaments and scientific approaches - which form a single continuous melody. The question of where the boundaries lie between mathematics and the lives of those who are involved in it and how much they are willing to sacrifice is as important as the search for precise scientific answers. A unique and unprecedented dive into the unknown world of mathematicians.