Aleksandr Zavyalov

A mysterious Dark Horseman slays young girls near the village of Dikanka, and he has already butchered 11 ladies. Nikolai Gogol, a scribe from Saint Petersburg has to take charge of the investigation, but the closer he gets to solving the case, the more fits he has, causing macabre visions. When he learns the next victim is his beloved, Liza, he doubts that he can protect her and resist the murderer. Fortunately, he meets somebody who can help him: Khoma Brut, the witch hunter, martial artist and philosopher. Together they spend three dreadful nights in an old chapel reading the funeral service for Ulyana, the witch, and calling upon the ghastly evil spirit Viy.

Harry Palmer heads a private investigation business based in Moscow. His associates are Nikolai "Nick" Petrov, ex-CIA agent Craig, and ex-KGB Colonel Gradsky. They take on the job of finding 1000 grams of weapons-grade plutonium stolen from the Russian government, though they do not know the identity of their client.

When long-time British agent Harry Palmer loses his job because the Cold War is over, he's promptly approached by a Russian bossman, Alex. In St. Petersburg Alex tells Harry of his plan for Russia's future, which is threatened because a deadly biochemical weapon called the Red Death has been stolen from him. He'll pay Harry handsomely to retrieve it. An ex-spy friend tips Harry off that it's being sent to Beijing by train, aboard which we begin to learn whose side everyone's really on.

An almanac of short feature films based on stories by Mikhail Mishin from the collection of short stories "Pause in a Major".

From his childhood in Russia to his last days in California, the tumultuous ininerary and bathed in melancholy of the legendary pianist and composer Serguei Rachmaninov. This film is based on the legend that Rachmaninoff received a bouquet of lilacs from an unknown admirer after every performance. He emigrated to the United States, and after an interval, began to receive the mysterious lilacs again.

A lonely, defenseless, unsettled man meets a beautiful gypsy woman and falls in love with her. Having left the service, having left home, he sticks to the camp, but even here he finds neither home nor love — only pity. So he remains a "gadjo" for everyone, a stranger.

The shrill and tragic story about an event that involved Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. In an infantry regiment of the military based in the Tula region an offence occurs. In this regiment, the capital’s lieutenant Grigory Kolokoltsev — inspired by progressive ideas — does his service. A military tribunal and execution await the soldier charged with the offence. Kolokoltsev asks Count Tolstoy for help — and he decides to protect the innocent man. The pointed history about the complexity of choice and fidelity to one’s ideals is based on real events.

In 1953, the year Stalin died, many prisoners (some political, but mostly common criminals) were released from the Soviet Gulags. This is the story of a remote settlement which was under attack by a bunch of these recently-released blood-thirsty thugs in the summer of 1953, and the townspeople, along with a two political prisoners, who try to stop them.

A parody of the clichés and techniques of the Soviet adventurous comedy genre of the 1950s-1970s. This is a story about three heroes who return to their home city after escaping from prison. Truthfulness and sincerity help the characters find their place in the changed system.

In Russia at the turn of the century, a wealthy Jewish merchant enjoys the best of relations with his Russian neighbours, while his respected home forms the obvious social centre of the entire community. However, the atmosphere grows more tense as the local authorities come under pressure to fall in line with the officially sanctioned anti-Semitic policies of the Tsarist Government. The village elder is one of our hero's best friends and together they seem to find a way to outwit these evil intentions but unfortunately they fail to understand what forces they are dealing with in a country where anti-Semitism is state policy.

General Ivolgin, forester Kuzmich, and good-natured Lyova lose their way on a fishing trip and wind up in a neighboring country, where they decide to have a good time anyway but end up leaving their vodka and fishing equipment behind.

A Finn preparing a work on the Russian hunting traditions and customs, comes to Russia to collect materials and is invited to take part in a hunting party. His flamboyant companions include an Army general, with more than a passing resemblance to Aleksander Lebed, a police detective, local forest ranger (a devotee of Zen Buddhism) and some big-city types from St. Petersburg. Inevitably, their good intentions soon give way to endless drinking, visits to local farm girls and much else besides.

Yuri Stepanovich Ipatov, who once held a high-ranking position, is dismissed from his post due to financial misconduct. Coming to terms with his guilt and deeply remorseful, he decides to return to the factory where he began his working life — this time as an ordinary laborer. However, in making this choice, Ipatov did not expect that his beloved daughter Natasha would not only disapprove, but would see it as humiliating to be the daughter of a "small" man...

Father Alexander is trying to maintain peaceful life for his church amidst the Nazi occupation during WWII.

A satiric comedy which dissects the iconography of the 'Soviet Hero'. Original footage of a propaganda film from 1941 is the starting point for this parody of the ideological cliches of Soviet cinema. It follows the story of a Russian crew across the North Pole.

This charming comedy tracks the lives of several romantic pairs through trials and tribulations. The main focus of the story is a young soldier with a good heart but little ambition and his fiancée, who feels torn when a charming and sophisticated intellectual enters her life and sweeps her off her feet. There are also several side stories, also all dealing with relationships, most significantly the soldier's mother, whose comfortable but unexceptional marriage is threatened when a past love returns to her life.

No description available.

A tragicomic grotesque fantasy about the adventures of a drum and its owner in a country once called the Soviet Union.

No description available.

Based on Russian tales.

The purposeful village guy is indifferent to entertainment, but strictly follows the daily schedule, studies languages and exact sciences. There are two goals in his life - to become an astronaut and win the heart of his former classmate.

A slice of life among Russian intelligentsia on the eve of WWII. A haunting reminder of Stalin's psychotic purge of 1938 and the nightmarish German siege of Leningrad.

No description available.

Three people in the cab of truck: Alexei the driver, his partner Nikolai, and Marina, a prostitute they picked up on their way. Or so it seems... In fact, all three are police detectives. Their task: to uncover a gang that has been robbing long-haul trucks.

In a year of 1924 a commissar from Soviet Russia is trying to find and kill Finnish general.

With the money of the gangsters, the director made a film that received prizes at four festivals, but did not raise money. Now he is forced to shoot porn on video.

While detained in one of the Soviet Gulags (prison work camps), Maria fell in love with and had a child by one of the camp guards. However, in order to save her baby, she was manipulated into a situation where she had to betray her lover. The main attraction of this film is the clear depiction it gives of the harsh conditions of life in these infamous camps.

Anton Skulov, a war invalid, shot a drunk young man with a hunting rifle who climbed into his garden and ruined rare flowers that his wife, a war veteran, had grown before her death. The investigation was short-lived, the accused immediately admitted his guilt and was ready to stand trial, having already convicted himself of the murder.

The boy writes an essay at school in which he wants to be like his father - with mayonnaise, i.e. "MNS" (junior research fellow).

A young doctor relocates to a remote region of central Asia, thinking his fiancee soon will join him ...

No description available.

The film tells the story of the life of an Old Believer community at the beginning of the last century. The drama of an unusual life, a story of love and human passions.

The head of the Pervomaiskaya Railway, at the first stage of perestroika, having accidentally learned that they want to fire him from his job, decides to carry out an experiment he had long planned - to put a super-heavy train on the tracks...

Evgeny Sormatov, a veteran of the special forces detachment, goes to a picturesque lake in Karelia. He carries with him the last letter of comrade Andrei Egorov, who died several years ago, and the Order of the Hero of Russia, which he was awarded posthumously. There, in a quiet corner on one of the skerries, in a deserted fishing village, Andrei's father and sister live.

A retro-journalistic drama based on one of the versions of Kirov’s murder, proposed by former NKVD general Orlov, who managed to escape death during the “purge” in the “Kirov” case.

Based on the novel of the same name by Alexei Cherkasov. The film tells the story of an Old Believer community at the beginning of the last century. The drama of an unusual life, a story of love and human passions.

A religious socio-political publicistic drama set in the 1960s-70s in the territory of the USSR.

A man, a local hooligan and alcoholic, is killed in a gloomy St. Petersburg communal apartment. Each of the residents hated him in their own way, and each had their own motive for the crime. But everyone has an ironclad alibi. A local disabled person undertakes to help the investigator...

Runaway prisoner goes searching for a treasure to the island populated with poachers and starover cult with his two companions, an intellectual and a prostitute