Russia & the Former Soviet Union
A collection of films about Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
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Kin-dza-dza!
Directed by Georgiy Daneliya • Drama • With Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze • 1986 • 133 minutes
Imagine Andrei Tarkovsky circa Solaris directing Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and you'll come close to the existential weirdness of this loopy Soviet-era sci-fi comedy. Two...
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The Savage Hunt Of King Stakh
Directed by Valeri Rubinchik • Drama • With Elena Dimitrova, Boris Plotnikov • 1980 • 127 minutes
Part folk horror, part supernatural mystery, the long-unseen THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH is a melancholy, chilling mixture of Terry Gilliam, Italian Gothic Horror, 1960s Hammer Films and THE WICKE...
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Pilgrims
Directed by Laurynas Bareiša • Drama • With Giedrius Kiela, Gabija Bargailaite • 2021 • 92 minutes
A work of fiction that emerges directly from elements of reality: a newspaper article, the space occupied by a small town, and its surroundings. A young man (Giedrius Kiela) and a young woman (Gabi...
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Ilya Muromets
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko • Drama • With Boris Andreyev, Shukur Burkhanov, Ninel Myshkova • 1956 • 92 minutes
Legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s sweeping, visual F/X-filled epic is one of his most enchanting achievements: a stunning Cinemascope ballad of heroic medieval knights,...
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Town Of Glory
Directed by Dmitry Bogolyubov • Documentary • 2019 • 82 minutes
With few exceptions, Yelnyans raise their children to become good patriots. They don’t mind the eerie, all-encompassing militarization of society. A heroic Soviet past and a destitute post-industrial present make this provincial tow...
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Eastern Front
Directed by Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko • Documentary • 2023 • 98 minutes
On February 24, 2022, Yevhen Titarenko didn’t have to puzzle over what he should do. He went to the front. And from the first minute of Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine, he began to record everything ...
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The Assassin Of The Tsar - Russian Version
Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov • Drama • With Malcolm McDowell, Oleg Yankovsky • 1991 • 103 minutes
THE ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR is a mysterious psychological drama / thriller in which the tormented chambers of a patient's mind come to warp everything around him, even the folds of history itself. Ma...
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The Assassin Of The Tsar - English Version
Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov • Drama • With Malcolm McDowell, Oleg Yankovsky • 1991 • 105 minutes
THE ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR is a mysterious psychological drama / thriller in which the tormented chambers of a patient's mind come to warp everything around him, even the folds of history itself. Ma...
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The Student
Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov • Drama • With Pyotr Skvortsov, Viktoriya Isakova, Yuliya Aug • 2016 • 118 minutes
After Venya’s mother receives a call from school reporting her son’s refusal to participate in mixed swimming lessons, she first suspects her teenager of being shy and derides his ...
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Stop-Zemlia
Directed by Kateryna Gornostai • Drama • 2021 • 122 minutes
Hanging out with friends, smoking too much, spinning bottles and kissing, making mistakes, playing, refusing to accept, dreaming with open eyes – life as a teenager can be overwhelmingly beautiful and difficult at the same time. Introve...
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The Pencil
Directed by Natalya Nazarova • Drama • With Vladimir Mishukov, Nadezhda Gorelova, Kirill Veselov • 2019 • 92 minutes
Antonina, an artist from Saint Petersburg, follows her husband, a political prisoner, to the deep north province of Russia. As she starts teaching art in a local school, she finds...
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Crystal Swan
Directed by Darya Zhuk • Drama • With Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin • 2018 • 93 minutes
Set a few years after Belarus gained independence in 1990, this vibrant debut feature follows the path of young Evelina, who dreams of moving to Chicago in order to pursue her passion for house music. However...
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La Supplication (Voices from Chernobyl)
Directed by Pol Cruchten • Documentary • 2017 • 86 minutes
Based on the novel by Svetlana Alexievich, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Literature, La Supplication (Voices from Chernobyl) does not deal with Chernobyl, but rather with the world of Chernobyl, about which we know very little. Eyewitnes...
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The Son (inside the Russian army)
Directed by Alexander Abaturov • Documentary • 2022 • 70 minutes
In 2013, filmmaker Alexander Abaturov cousin Dima Ilukhin was killed during a Russian Special Forces (Spetsnaz) operation in the Republic of Dagestan. He was 21. The fighter who shot him in the head and was himself subsequently kil...
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Glory to the Queen
Directed by Tatia Skhirtladze • Documentary • With Nona Gaprindashvili, Nana Alexandria, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani • 2020 • 82 minutes
Leading us to Tbilisi, Georgia, Glory to the Queen reveals the interwoven biographies of the world chess heroes Nona Gaprindashvili, Nana Alexandria,...
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Mariam
Directed by Sharipa Urazbayeva • Drama • With Meruert Sabbusinova • 2019 • 75 minutes
After her husband mysteriously disappears, all the hardships of survival in the cold winter period in the far away village in Kazakhstan have to be carried out by Mariam, the mother of four small kids. To save ...
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Beanpole
Directed by Kantemir Balagov • Drama • With Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov • 2019 • 137 minutes
In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina), intensely bonded after fighting side by side as an...
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The Coal Miner's Day
Directed by Gael Mocaer • Documentary • 2014 • 80 minutes
"That's the fire emergency system. If there's a fire, it bursts and the water falls down," one of the mineworkers explains. He is talking about a few bags of water, all the size of a fist, somewhat haphazardly hung from the low ceiling of...
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Close Relations (Rodnye)
Directed by Vitaly Mansky • Documentary • 2016 • 114 minutes
Following Ukraine’s revolution in 2013, filmmaker Vitaly Mansky decides to travel throughout the region and visit his family. He talks on camera with family members in Ukraine, Crimea and Donetsk, hoping to gain a better understanding ...
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Afghanistan 1979: The War That Changed the World
Directed by Gulya Mirzoeva • Documentary • 2014 • 52 minutes
The Soviet troops' intervention in Afghanistan was a pivotal event in the history of the 20th century. It launched Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in 1979. This was the war that changed the world. Western cou...
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900 Days
Directed by Jessica Gorter • Documentary • 2011 • 77 minutes
Jessica Gorter's 900 DAYS contrasts the devastating and unforgettable stories recounted by survivors of the Siege of Leningrad, the infamous German blockade, which caused the deaths of more than 1 million people during World War II, wi...
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Space Dogs
Directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter • Documentary • 2020 • 91 minutes
Laika, a stray dog picked up by the Soviet space program on the streets of Moscow, became the first living being to orbit the earth when she was launched into space on Sputnik 2. Although Laika would not survive the journ...
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Sleeping Souls
Directed by Alexander Abaturov • Documentary • 2013 • 50 minutes
Atchinsk is a Siberian town 2500 miles away from Moscow where Soviet dissidents and, before them, the Tsar's opponents were deported. It's pre-election season, and the small, sleepy town is abuzz with the voices of regime supporter...
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Siberian Love
Directed by Olga Delane • Documentary • 2017 • 82 minutes
In rural Siberia, romantic expectations are traditional and practical. The man is the head of the household. The woman takes care of the housekeeping and the children. But filmmaker Olga Delane doesn’t agree. While she was born in this sm...