Larisa Kuznetsova

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

The end of the 1950s. Aleksandr Petrovich Ilyin travels to the city where he lived before the war. Visiting the telephone operator Zoya, he sees a familiar house through the window and decides to go there for only fifteen minutes. So Aleksandr gets into a communal apartment, where the love of his youth Tamara Vasilyevna lives. They met twenty years ago and fell in love, but the war separated them. Now Ilyin and Tamara Vasilyevna met again, and love broke out with renewed vigor...

The historical drama set during the Second World War centres on three people whose paths cross: a Russian aristocratic emigrant and member of the French resistance, a French collaborator and a high-ranking German SS officer.

11-year-old Minko is forced to move from a decaying village to the city with his father, mother and sick grandfather. New apartment, school and classmates greet the boy with hostility. This only strengthens his desire to return home, where there is a forest and his friends. But what Minko misses the most is Ginger Fairy, a tame moose he once saved and which disappeared the day he left.

The story follows Maria Konovalova who travels from her rural village to visit her daughter Nina in the city. Maria's arrival exposes the stark contrasts between rural and urban lifestyles and reveals deep-seated family tensions. Interestingly, Родня (Rodnya) in Russian sounds very similar to the word Родина (Rodina), which means "Motherland." The film features three generations of women — Maria, her daughter Nina, and her granddaughter Irina — symbolizing three different Russias: one from the past, one modern, and one representing the future.

The story of a girl who recently graduated from school and works as a projectionist. Her ideas about life are taken from films starring Greta Garbo, romantic literature, and advice from her practical friend. This "explosive mixture" prevents her from hearing herself and causes her to act rashly.

A farmer and his wife live in a rural part of Inner Mongolia with their three children. Chinese population control policies prevent them from having any more. The farmer sets out for the nearest town to obtain birth control. He comes upon a Russian truck driver who has ended up in a lake. The farmer takes the man back to his farm, and after initially being appalled, the Russian becomes enchanted with the peaceful life of the countryside and decides to stay. But his presence presages big changes for the peasants.

A savvy aeronautical engineer, unable to find a use for his talent in the design bureau, finds a job in a private workshop fixing "left" machines.