Ordinary Bolshevism

Tale of the Moon Outstanding

The legendary commander of the Civil War, the winner of Wrangel arrives in the capital at the call of Stalin. In the capital, he is perplexed to learn that the Politburo at a special meeting decided to force him to operate on a long-standing ulcer. The attending physician is convinced that the operation is not needed, but, obeying party discipline, the old Bolshevik lies on the operating table.

Stalker

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.

Requiem for a Fillet

The modest notary at the symphony orchestra of Gen Munkin did not like his mother-in-law. She was especially repelled by his work. Having identified her son-in-law as a loader in a butcher shop, she did not expect that the first piece of meat taken out by Gena from the store would end up in the circus...

Office Romance

Anatoly Novoseltsev is a mousy single father and office stumblebum working at a statistics bureau in Moscow. In the hopes of being promoted, he is coaxed into charming his disagreeable and seemingly unfeeling boss, Ludmila Kalugina, or "Meany" as she's otherwise known by her subordinates. Helped by his colleagues Olya and Yura, Anatoly attempts to ease the yoke of Ms. Kalugina, and what follows in the wake of his graceless manoeuvres is completely unforeseen, as he awakens a side to her not yet known, even to herself..

The Ascent

During a freezing WWII winter, two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the temperature, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.

Ruthless Romance

In the town of Bryakhimov, noble but poor widow Harita Ignatyevna Ogudalova seeks to arrange marriages for her three daughters. She maintains an “open house”, hoping to attract gentlemen well-off enough to marry a dowry-less girl for love.

Without Witness

In visiting his ex-wife’s apartment a man learns that she plans to remarry a scientist named Valentin Shlyakhov. In his past, the man wrote a scathing letter about Shlyakhov which greatly impacted his career. Fearing that this information will come to light when his ex-wife marries Shlyakhov, the man insists that the wedding be called off. What follows is an intimate portrayal of the relationship between a man and a woman (who are never named), whose history as husband and wife plays out during a heated conversation.

Dear Yelena Sergeyevna

Four school graduates congratulate their teacher of mathematics Yelena Sergeyevna on her birthday and ask her to return them their graduate works on mathematics in order to change them before the marks. Yelena Sergeyevna strongly objects...

Forgotten Tune for the Flute

A flutist in the forgotten past, at present the husband of a “big man’s” daughter and head of one of the Chief Directorate’s sections felt unwell one day: the forty-year-old man had a pain in his heart. This unpleasant incident provided an opportunity to meet a nurse named Lida. However, their stormy love affair ended, with Filimonov returning to normal life and an unloved wife.

Kin

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.

My Tender and Affectionate Beast

An aristocrat falls for a young woman who brings him ruin. Based on Chekhov's story. AKA A Hunting Accident, The Shooting Party.

Dziga and His Brothers

The fascinating and tumultuous lives of Mikhail, Boris and Denis Kaufman (better known as Dziga Vertov) are the focus of this powerful documentary. Using rare archival footage from Russian state film archives and private collections, the brothers' lives and art are traced from Bialystok to Moscow, Paris, and Hollywood.

Defence Counsel Sedov

Late one evening in Moscow in 1937, Defence Counsel Sedov hears a knock at the door. Three women whose agronomist husbands have been sentenced to death for alleged sabotage beg him to take on the seemingly hopeless task of saving them. Sedov embarks upon a succession of encounters with increasingly powerful officials, gradually persuading them to look at the case anew. But the highest authorities are not so easily outmanoeuvered, and Sedov becomes canonised as a Stalinist zealot, with the film building inexorably to its chilling triple climax.

Jonah, or the Artist at Work

A painter lives with his wife and four children in a studio. Due to creative frustrations and the irritation of admirers and hangers-on he becomes increasingly reclusive, finally sealing himself away in the attic. Based on an Albert Camus story.

Oscar

Oscar is the story of the life of the famous artist Oscar Rabin against the background of three decades of Soviet history; it is a story about a successful experience of standing up against a regime with the help of paint and brushes. It is the story of non-violent resistance against evil, of the boundaries of compromise, about how people try to maintain their inner freedom when they are living in a country that is not very free. The film uses many unique newsreels and other archival materials being shown for the first time. Along with Oscar Rabin, featured in the fim are Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir Sorokin, Evgeny Kisin, Boris Akunin, Maya Turovskaya, Vladimir Paperny, Erik Bulatov, Oleg Tselkov, Vitaly Komar, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mihail Chemiakin, Igor Guberman, Donald Rayfield, and Adam Michnik.

Red Zion

The rise and fall of the Soviet Jewish Autonomous Region