Lev Arnshtam

A look behind the scenes at the Bolshoi Theatre. This feature-length ballet film explores the Russian school of realistic dance and highlights the immense daily effort that goes into an artist’s preparation before they take to the stage. Chronicles the arduous journey to mastery: from the first lessons of the kids who joined the ballet class, to the performances of famous dancers – the public’s idols, who have already mastered the magical lightness and beauty of choreography, the pinnacle of this art.

About the life of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

An old soldier has come to Moscow to find his fellow soldiers. But he is plagued by misfortune: some have died, others have moved away, and he mumbles confusedly to the taxi driver as he gives him another address: "Here... not far..."

While Dresden is in ruins in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, over two thousand paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens, Giorgione, and Vermeer have disappeared from the city’s Old Masters Picture Gallery. Red Army captain Leonov and his soldiers are ordered to recover the lost paintings.

In 1933 Berlin, Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov is caught up in the Reichstag fire trials when Nazis seek to frame communists. Despite orchestrated provocations and mass repression, Dimitrov’s defiant courtroom defense exposes the baseless charges, forcing his acquittal and securing him political asylum in the Soviet Union.

The collection consists of five short stories: "The Meeting," "One of Many," "At the Old Nanny's," "One Hundred for One," and "The Incident at the Telegraph Office."

Short propaganda film released to raise army morale during first months of war. Civil War hero and Red Army commander Vasily Chapayev (killed in 1919 by White Army officers then drowned in the Ural river) swims ashore but it's the summer of 1941. Chapayev asks who are Soviets fighting off this time, hears that it's Germans once again and then gives an inspiring speech. He is played by Boris Babochkin who famously portrayed Chapayev in 1934 biopic.

Pyotr, backward lad from poor village, comes to town desperate for work. He's hired as replacement ("scab") worker at big metallurgical factory, which is in the throes of a strike organized by the Bolsheviks (communists). Deceitful industrialist's son involves naive young man in an attempt to murder Bolshevik leader.