Russia & Ukraine
A special collection of films that explore the recent political history of Russia and Ukraine.
Discover three films by Ukrainian-born Vitaly Mansky, on Mikhail Gorbachev's place in history (GORBACHEV. HEAVEN), Vladimir Putin's rise to power (PUTIN’S WITNESSES), and conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as viewed from the tensions within his own family (CLOSE RELATIONS). Also of interest is Jessica Gorter's THE RED SOUL, which explores Russia's feelings towards Stalin and their country's historical traumas.
For more films about the past, present, and future of Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, click here.
For more films by Mansky, check out his director page.
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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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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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The Dmitriev Affair (Jessica Gorter)
Directed by Jessica Gorter • Documentary • 2024 • 96 minutes
Yuri Dmitriev exhumes what the Russian rulers would rather forget. After years of searching the pine forests of Karelia in northwestern Russia, he discovers a mass grave containing thousands of people who were secretly executed during ...
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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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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...
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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 ...
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Inside Russia
Directed by Paul Mitchell, Anastasiya Popova • Documentary • 2023 • 54 minutes
Despite the huge risks, two Russian filmmakers have been filming the impact of the invasion of Ukraine in their country.
The filmmakers get rare access to the brave Russians who are willing to speak out against their...
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Kyiv Theater: An Island of Hope
Directed by Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini, Thomas Briat • Documentary • With Ariane Mnouchkine • 2024 • 59 minutes
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brings back dark memories of 1930s Europe for Ariane Mnouchkine, the 84-year-old theater director and founder of the prestigious Théâtre du...
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Putin's Witnesses
Directed by Vitaly Mansky • Documentary • 2018 • 102 minutes
On December 31, 1999, Russian president Boris Yeltsin went on live television just before midnight. He announced he was stepping down, and his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin, would take over as acting president. Putin promised a pres...
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The Red Soul
Directed by Jessica Gorter • Documentary • 2017 • 90 minutes
The Red Soul lays bare the Russian psyche of today and shows a world full of contradictions. In a country where hardly any family escaped the hunger, fear and violence resulting from Stalin’s reign of terror, no one has ever been convi...
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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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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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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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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...
