Russia

Russia

A collection of films about Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

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Russia
  • Liberation: The User's Guide

    Directed by Alexander Kuznetsov • Documentary • 2016 • 80 minutes

    In Sibera, Russia, 18-year-old girls Julia, Ina, Olga and Katia are transferred directly from orphanages to neuropsychiatric institutions and are deprived of their rights as citizens: no freedom, no work, and no family. On the bas...

  • The Last Bolshevik

    Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1998 • 116 minutes

    Based on the life and work of the Russian film director Alexander Medvedkin (1900-1989), THE LAST BOLSHEVIK is a tribute from one filmmaker to another. An archeological expedition into film history that reveals new cinematic treasures, ...

  • Jamilia

    Directed by Aminatou Echard • Documentary • 2018 • 84 minutes

    This mesmerizing film, shot in Kyrgyzstan on richly saturated Super-8 footage, is a search for Jamilia, the title character in that country's famous novel by Chinghiz Aitmatov, about a young woman who rebels against the strict rules o...

  • Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here

    Directed by Amei Wallach • Documentary • With Ilya Kabakov, Emilia Kabakov, Igoris Markovas, Andrei Monastrysky, Oleg Vassiliev • 2013 • 103 minutes

    Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here portrays two of Russia’s most celebrated international artists, now American citizens, as they come to terms wi...

  • The Internationale

    Directed by Peter Miller • Documentary • 2000 • 30 minutes

    THE INTERNATIONALE draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change, and to evaluate the uncertain fate of on...

  • How Putin Came to Power

    Directed by Tania Rakhmanova • Documentary • 2005 • 52 minutes

    In August 1999, Vladimir V. Putin, head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the KGB, was appointed Prime Minister. On December 31st of that year, Boris Yeltsin announced that Putin would succeed him as President ...

  • The Hermitage Dwellers

    Directed by Aliona van der Horst • Documentary • 2003 • 73 minutes

    THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS is as much about the people who work in Russia's renowned museum as it is about the glorious art works housed in this St. Petersburg institution. We meet with several 'Hermitage-niks'-including Olga Bogdano...

  • Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

    Directed by Werner Herzog & Dmitry Vasyukov • Documentary • With Werner Herzog • 2013 • 90 minutes

    Werner Herzog takes viewers on yet another unforgettable journey into remote and extreme natural landscapes. The acclaimed filmmaker presents this visually stunning documentary about the people liv...

  • Gorbachev. Heaven

    Directed by Vitaly Mansky • Documentary • 2021 • 100 minutes

    GORBACHEV. HEAVEN finds acclaimed director Vitaly Mansky (UNDER THE SUN) at home with a man who helped to shape the 20th-century: Mikhail Gorbachev. 

    The Soviet leader was acclaimed as the architect of Glasnost and Perestroika, polici...

  • The Gold Spinners

    Directed by Kiur Aarma, Hardi Volmer • Documentary • 2014 • 72 minutes

    The Gold Spinners is a story about the birth, glory, and disappearance of a peculiar, invisible, and mighty business empire – the film studio Eesti Reklaamfilm, the only company producing commercials in the Soviet Union.

  • Girl Model

    Directed by David Redmon & Ashley Sabin • Documentary • With Ashley Arbaugh, Olivia Arben, Rachel Blais, Tigran Khachatrain, Nadya Vall • 2012 • 77 minutes

    Girl Model explores how young girls are discovered in obscure corners of the globe and initiated into the high stakes modeling industry. Thi...

  • From The East

    Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2003 • 110 minutes

    FROM THE EAST retraces a journey from the end of summer to deepest winter, from East Germany, across Poland and the Baltics, to Moscow. It is a voyage Chantal Akerman wanted to make shortly after the collapse of the Soviet bloc "befo...

  • Double Life, a Short History of Sex in the USSR

    Directed by Ināra Kolmane • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    The October Revolution ushered in an era of sexual freedom and liberation from bourgeois conventions. Satisfying sexual needs had to be "as simple as drinking a glass of water," according to feminist Alexandra Kollontai who was at the f...

  • Disco and Atomic War

    Directed by Jaak Kilmi • Documentary • 2009 • 80 minutes

    Winner of the Best Documentary prize at the Warsaw International Film Festival, this witty, charming, and provocative film recounts how in the mid 1980's, the nation of Estonia still lay firmly in the grip of the Soviet Union, and the repr...

  • City of the Sun

    Directed by Rati Oneli • Documentary • 2017 • 100 minutes

    Chiatura is a city in Western Georgia. There was a time when it supplied 50% of the world's manganese, and at its peak the mine employed up to 10,000 workers. Today, with drastically reduced manganese production, dangerous working conditi...

  • Ballerina

    Directed by Bertrand Norman • Documentary • With Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova and Evgenia Obraztsova. • 2006 • 77 minutes

    In the grand tradition of the Ballets Russes comes a portrait of five Russian ballerinas from the Mariinsky Theatre (also known as the K...

  • Art and Oligarchs

    Directed by Tania Rakhmanova • Documentary • 2010 • 52 minutes

    A popular trend among Russian oligarchs is to purchase works of art. Why? It's a way to get into the Kremlin's good graces, to gild their image...and to cover up the origin of their fortunes, often acquired in the shadow of post-Sovi...

  • No Gods, No Masters - Pt. I

    Directed by Tancrède Ramonet • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    This episode of NO GODS NO MASTERS shows how anarchism emerged from the horrendous social conditions facing workers at a time when industrialization was, paradoxically, providing better hygiene and social standards – for some. In an ...

  • No Gods, No Masters - Pt. II

    Directed by Tancrède Ramonet • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    By the early 20th century, anarchists in France were a powerful enough constituency to draw the French president to an event. In England, they were considered so dangerous that when they occupied a London building, it took the full f...

  • No Gods, No Masters - Pt. III

    Directed by Tancrède Ramonet • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    This episode of NO GODS NO MASTERS opens with the United States during the Depression, and the galvanizing role of the conviction and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. It was a period during which anarchists were characterized as bomb...