Vertov Windows

The collective life of the generation born as Jurij Gagarin became the first man in space. Vitaly Mansky has woven together a fictional biography – taken from over 5.000 hours of film material, and 20.000 still pictures made for home use. A moving document of the fictional, but nonetheless true life of the generation who grew up in this time of huge change and upheaval.

Yulia is sixteen, she lives in a hut and is pregnant. Vanya lives with his parents in a five-story building. His parents are against mesalliance and do not let the couple on the threshold.

An immersion into the intimacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. The architect of perestroika and glasnost, who was praised in the West but reviled in his own country, still combative despite his advanced age, loneliness and illness, offers his personal and political testament.

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

The Leningrad period of V. Putin's life.

Using Cuban cities as the backdrop to personal stories, the renowned documentary maker Vitaly Mansky depicts the complexity of contemporary Cuba. As the regime begins to slightly relax its iron grip, the island begins to slowly open up to the world. Despite the economic hardship, a life full of passion, temperament and energy still pulsates in Cuban cities. Food is rationed and decent living conditions is an illusion for many. The dreams of today’s senior citizens, who believed in Fidel and his communist experiment 50 years ago, have not been fully realized. Children of these revolutionaries still follow the ideals of the revolution but do not seem all that convinced. Instead young people prefer to enjoy small pleasures the regime allows for. While many Cubans look for life outside of Cuba, for tourists the island is for many reasons very special destination. Motherland or Death is the story of real life played out against the picturesque background of today’s Cuba.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

The true, detailed lives of the girls of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. as they break through in their promotional tour in America.

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

Three young women, who each have a sought-after commodity - their virginity. Kristina, Karina and Katya each try to make their way in a world ruled by fame, popularity and money.

A drunk couple spend their summer-holiday at sea. Their life is not everything they hoped for, and abuse is part of their relationship. At sea they dream about love and understanding, and we observe their fellow countrymen spending their holidays on the same beach. Tragedy, comedy, love, hate, sex : it is all there.

Podnebesnaya was a musical production company organized by producer Ivan Shapovalov. The project for Podnebensaya, with the same title, began in 2003 in Moscow, Russia. The main purpose of the production was to produce t.A.T.u.'s second studio album, however after a falling-out with Ivan, such production was ended. Shapovalov continued to work with other Russian artists including 7B, Helya, Ledokol, FlyDream and n.A.T.o.. A CD was released of this project in 2004, after t.A.T.u. split from Shapovalov. The CD was titled Podnebesnaya No. 1, and only featured one song by t.A.T.u., although the release capatalized on the fact that it was made during the reality show.

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

They say that the average Earthling spends about 10 years of his life at the TV screen. It is pointless to ask whether these are lost years - without television, it is impossible to imagine our civilization, although not 100 years have passed since its invention. "Iconoscope" is a chance to cover the entire vast history of television in 100 minutes of exciting and paradoxical spectacle.

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.