The Rider Named Death

Fitil is a popular Soviet/Russian television satirical/comedy short film series which ran for about 500 episodes. Some of the episodes were aimed at children, and were called Фитилёк, Fitilyok, Little Fuse. Each issue contained from the few short segments: documentary, fictional and animated ones. Directed by various artists, including Leonid Gaidai who presented his famous trio of Nikulin, Vitsin and Morgunov into the cast. It was called in USSR as "the anecdotes from the Soviet government".

Ivan Miroshnikov, a cheeky young man in the Gorbachev era, is trying to figure out what to do with his life (he's not in college, and the 2-year mandatory military service is looming large ahead of him). Meanwhile, he lives with his divorced mother, and works as a courier at a Russian newspaper. Through his job, he meets patronizing Professor Kuznetzov and his rebellious daughter Katya. To annoy the professor, Ivan claims to have an affair with Katya. To his surprise, Katya backs his story up.

A music student is expelled from school because he loves jazz, a kind of music that represents the US capitalism. He hires two street musicians to form a dixie band, and goes from one city to another trying to gain fame.

Going on a business trip, the hero of the film suddenly finds himself in a fantastic city. It is very similar to our world, only the hidden absurdity of everyday life here has become apparent.

An adventurer rents out someone else's house by the sea to several women with children at once. So, the truth-loving salesman Antonina, the modest translator Sonya and the wife of Dr. Ira find themselves under the same roof. The vacation promises to be difficult, especially since the owner of the house suddenly appears.

A young romantic loves step dance but there is only one person who knows this forgotten art. Beglov was a step dance super star back in 50s but as step became unpopular he lost everything. He hates even this word - 'chechotka' (step dance). But somehow the young man convinces him to become his coach and manager.

Based on a novella by the well-known Soviet writer, Emmanuil Kazakevich "Two in the Steppe" and the war diaries of Konstantin Simonov. It's the summer of 1942, communications officer Ogarkov and private Dzhurabaev are fighting their way through the German encirclement. Finding themselves in difficult situations, they learn to trust one another, becoming true friends in the process.

In the summer of 1944, the Nazi Armies prepare a massive Tank Division named 'Viking" for the offensive on occupied Russian land. The Russian Army's special group of seven snipers named "Zvezda" is sent for a reconnaissance operation behind the enemy lines in the back of the Nazi Tank Division. Two previous Russian groups never came back. The seven Russians know that they are going to an almost certain Death for the sake of Victory.

Moscow, 1902. The famous director Konstantin Stanislavsky, in search of inspiration for staging a new play, decides to get acquainted with the life of the city "bottom". He turns to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, a recognized expert on the Moscow slums, for help.

Aleksey and Katerina separated twenty years ago. He left for the West, she stayed in the East. They will meet again in Switzerland under troubling circumstances.

A lonely Russian man is trying to see his daughter, who lives with her mother far away in the USA.

Gordei Kabachkov, a professional con man, decided to pursue a career in science and was very successful. Having settled in a certain Institute of Ancient Culture, he easily wraps his finger around the numerous "kind men" - members of the academic council - and defends his thesis. Using his "talents" and the kindness of the staff of the Institute of Ancient Culture, Kabachkov makes a rapid take-off on the career ladder...

WWII, 1945. After barely surviving a battle with a mysterious, ghostly-white German Tiger tank, Red Army Sergeant Ivan Naydenov becomes obsessed with its destruction.

There is no single truth in love. Each treads their own path. Which should take precedence – passion or duty? How do we choose? And who gets to judge? These are the eternal questions, remorselessly thrust upon us by life. Anna Karenina made her choice, leaving her son Sergei to grow up struggling to understand why his mother took such a tragic and terrible path, and Count Vronsky haunted by the memory of the woman for whose death he still blames himself 30 years later. In 1904, in the aftermath of one of the battles of the Russo-Japanese war, Sergei Karenin and Alexei Vronsky find themselves thrown together in a remote Manchurian village, where fate offers them a chance to return to the events long past and, finally, to find the answers both have long been seeking.

A new doctor from Moscow arrives at a provincial mental institution. His interest is the peculiarities of the psyche of a patient who believes that he is Yakov Yurovsky, the man who assassinated the last Russian tsar. In the course of their conversations it transpires that the patient is a kind of philosopher, not without a gift for suggestion. In a while the doctor himself falls under his patient’s influence: he tends to relive that fatal night of June 16-17, 1918 when, without any investigation or trial, Tsar Nicholas II, who had recently abdicated, was murdered, together with his wife, daughters and incurably ill heir. Soon the doctor realizes that the tragedy of the last Russian tsar is in part his own tragedy, too...

The ruthless extremist Bazgaev responsible for terrorist attacks which lead to deaths of hundreds of civilians, among them school children, is planning new actions. A group of security officers is to track and destroy him. Based on a true story.