The film is based on the story of the Oval Sarcophagus with Dionysian scenes from the antique collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin. At various times, the owners of the sarcophagus were the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Italian Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps, and finally, the Minister of Public Education of Russia, Count Sergei Uvarov, who purchased the sarcophagus for his "museum" in the Porechye estate near Moscow. The history of the sarcophagus is an occasion to reflect on the connection between epochs and cultures, the vicissitudes of fate, the mystery of life and death. Filming was carried out in various museums in Moscow, Rome, in the Porechye estate and the Hermitage.

The film is dedicated to the famous French architect, pioneer of architectural modernism, artist, designer Le Corbusier.

Every year in Russia, tens of thousands of people are released from places of detention. They return to a free life, sometimes not for long. The most difficult process of adaptation to "freedom" begins. This film is about the newly released, trying to find their own, new way, as well as about people who help the recent prisoners to get on their feet.

The journey of two brothers-fans to Samara for the match of the Russian national team.

In this poignant and deeply intimate documentary, three kids, removed from their parents, find friendship and flickers of hope inside the worn walls of a remarkable orphanage in Eastern Ukraine, as a group of dedicated social workers create moments of joy and respite from childhood's all but lost.

This year they, father and daughter, rarely saw each other and had not been together for a long time. Two cameras pointing at each other, different fears, one space. And the question is to go back or still continue the journey together?

In the spring of 2017, after the release of the film by Alexei Navalny and FBK “He is not Dimon to you” about Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, many young people and schoolchildren joined the next protests. Young people have become the driving force behind Navalny's presidential campaign. It was they who actively participated in the creation of a regional network of political headquarters, subjected to pressure from the state. In the first episode of the film "The Age of Dissent" there are stories of three young supporters of Navalny, whom the local authorities have declared war on.

In the spring of 2017, the Investigative Committee conducted the first searches as part of the criminal case, which everyone now knows as the Serebrennikov case, the Seventh Studio case, or the Platform case. Six people, including a world-famous director, are accused of stealing from the state more than one hundred million rubles allocated for staging performances. And they can go to jail for 10 years for that. Journalists Katerina Gordeeva and Roman Super tried to figure out what the essence of this case is. We talked to people who know what theater is, including in terms of money. We studied financial documents. Communicated with those with whom no one had ever been able to before. They figured out why the applause of the audience and the compliments of the Ministry of Culture turned into arrests. And of course, they went to all the court sessions.

Carlos was just born. He is the sweetest boy for grandmother, although she is sorry that he was born dark. Grandpa wants to drink to Carlos' health, to celebrate an event, but he is not allowed. It's Carlos' first New Year and I made a movie for my son to remember.

Nikolai Kochegarov is the only remaining resident of the village of Pashki. Only one of his houses has survived, standing in the middle of the field. All his life he was in prison, sometimes for his wife, sometimes for theft. He had a son who drank a lot, robbed houses and did nothing. And one day the son attacked his father, but the father defended himself and killed his own son. My father was given a year of probation. This was in 2011. And now he lives all alone, in winter he cannot get into the village. But every summer his daughter Tatyana visits him, who still loves him the way he is. And he loves her. This is a film about love between a father and his daughter, about the Russian soul and about the corners of the earth forgotten by civilization, where passions sometimes heat up to the limit.

Petr Pavlensky, artist and activist, is in the vanguard of forging social change in Russia. Through an array of courageous performances, he acts as society's conscience in the face of an increasingly totalitarian state. From lying naked in a coil of barbed wire, to nailing his scrotum to the floor of Red Square, his acts of defiance aim to spark debate and catalyse reform.

The battle for Donetsk Airport (May 2014 - January 2015) through the warriors's eyes of both sides. The humans behind the battle. The Donetsk Airport, Ukraine. Rebuilt in 2012, but now a scene of utter devastation - shortly after Russian-backed separatists have taken it over. Weaving together the voices of fighters on both sides supported by battle video, we tell an unvarnished story of war through the eyes of those who were there. The desperate fight for an airport whose capture seems more symbolic than strategic, they also show how human nature can adapt - in sometimes disturbing ways - when one's life is on the line.

Nature and man, space and time, life and death - in the far north of Russia, everything merges together. Somewhere beyond the Arctic Circle, a few dozen people continue to live surrounded by water, stone and sand. Disconnected from the infrastructure and forgotten by the state, these people are forced to deal with their own problems. Their villages are threatened by the fate of many Russian villages - slow, inevitable extinction. Each scene in the film questions the meaning of life and shows a person's life in a place where nature writes the laws.

FESTIVALS - AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

Zürich Film Festival (Switzerland) / Focus Competition - World premiere

German Cinematography Award 2022 (Germany) - Nomination
European Cinematography AWARDS, ECA (Netherlands) - Best Documentary
International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo (Japan) - Best Feature Film
IDFF Artdocfest (Latvia) - Jury Special Mention
ORION International Film Festival (Australia) - Best Cinematography
Wisdom Tree International Film Festival (India) - Best Art Documentary
Golden Giraffe International Film Festival (France) - Best Feature Documentary
ARFF Paris - Around Films International Festival (France) - Fest Regards Special Mention

COMPETITION

Achill Island Film Festival (Ireland)
BIFF - Boden International Film Festival (Sweden)
DDIFF - Dingle Distillery International Film Festival (Ireland)
FICMEC - Festival Internacional de Cine, Medioambiental de Canarias (Spain)
Flahertiana (Russia)
FSFF - Fünf Seen Film Festival (Germany)
IFF Arctic Open (Russia)
Jerusalem Anthropological Film Festival (Israel)
MAFF - Matsalu Nature Film Festival (Estonia)
New York Film Week (USA)
Prague International Film Awards (Czech Republic)
Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (Netherlands)
Sacramento Independent Film Festival (USA)
Seattle Filmmaker Awards (USA)
UMFF - Ulju Mountain Film Festival (Southkorea)
Vancouver Independent Film Festival (Canada)
Vancouver Movie Awards (Canada)

On the remote coast of the Russian Arctic, a lonely man spends months in an old hut near the Chukchi Sea, waiting to meet mysterious creatures.

Andrey Zaitsev's cycle "My Great War" consists of four parts. Four piercing monologues about the war, four veterans, four stories about what they experienced and what I can not forget for six decades. The protagonists are a mortar lieutenant, a tank lieutenant, a penal battalion officer, a blockade runner.

Since 1994, there has been a war in Chechnya. The Sultan's wife was killed, the house was destroyed. He and his son Apti are trying to build a new peaceful life in one of the Russian villages.

Alina Makarova is a mother of six children, five of her own and one adopted. Her ex-husband is from Ethiopia, which is why all her own children are of mixed origin. Only her adopted son is white, but he is psychologically unstable. Alina's older children realise what complications the adoption might bring, and are afraid that there won't be enough room, time and love for everyone. But she convinces them that it's the right thing. The new boy really turns their life into trouble. Alina shows miraculous patience and pedagogical talents. Her children become her allies in raising the new son. This film is an epic panorama of a fight for love, an ode to motherhood.

The video of the execution appeared online immediately after the brutal murder of two migrants. Moreover, while the Russian law enforcement agencies showed a strange apathy in the investigation, the Nazis quite frankly took responsibility for it. In this situation, an Israeli director penetrates under the guise of a sympathizer into the darkest nooks and crannies of the fascist underground in order to find and expose the killers. However, the result, the documentary thriller Credit for a Kill, paints an ominous picture: many unsolved hate crimes committed in Russia go unpunished, perhaps precisely because they were committed with the assistance of the authorities.

“To get up, you have to fall down,” the legendary boxer Kostya Tszyu understood this from his own experience. During his career in professional boxing at the time of filming, he suffered one defeat. But it turned out to be more important than all his victories.

Every landfill is inhabited by people. They also work, relax, have fun. True, in your own way. Throughout the year, the authors of the film traced the fate of several inhabitants of the "garbage city".