Alexander Filippov

Mikhail Kulakov, the protagonist of the film, is a prominent figure of the Russian unofficial art scene of the 50s-60s. He was an abstractionist, a tachiste, a participant in the first underground expositions. He lived and worked at great extremes, advocating the idea of freedom as the supreme value.

The first attempt in the history of Russian documentalism to understand what was the historical moment in which Anatoly Sobchak appeared in the political arena what his role in the history of the country was and, finally, why he suffered as a politician collapse. Perhaps his ideas were too advanced for his time?

This film is about Oleg Karavaichuk, eccentric musical genius and famous St. Petersburg composer, who takes his final stroll through Komarovo, a bay-side summer community just outside St. Petersburg where he spent his whole life and wrote most of his works. His final piece, “The Komarovo Waltz”, unveiled here for the very first time, was written as a tribute to the place. The film is the reclusive composer’s eulogy to the community. It also serves as Karavoichuk’s farewell to audience as well as his last address and reminder of things that are truly important – love for your fellow man and virgin nature.

More than 100 years ago, explorers raced to discover the South Pole. Now scientists are racing to discover the secret subterranean world of rivers and lakes buried miles beneath it. In 1974, scientists made a sensational discovery: a vast lake underneath the icy desert of Antarctica, untouched for 400.000 years, Lake Vostok. In spring 2012, after 40 years of drilling, Russian scientist broke through the ice. In two different narrative strands the film tells the story of the evolution of life and climate, the story of four decades of exploration in the coldest place on Earth, and it accompanies the scientists on their final trip to the camp. The film also explores the mythologies and legends surrounding Antarctica – from H.P. Lovecraft to James Cameron: the ‘Mountains of Madness’ have lured many into their realm – not many left unscathed.

Endowed with outstanding cinematography, and in-depth interviews with competitors, this documentary underlines the gender parity being achieved at an Olympic level. Women compete in ski jumping for the first time at the Winter Games, and Canada is seen beating the United States at the last gasp in the women's ice hockey final. Disciplines given prominence here include speed skating, figure skating, aerial skiing, curling, and the biathlon. Training is analysed as much as the competitions themselves. A suite of accidents and mishaps, and the consequent tears of frustration, remind us that the Olympics is not just about winning.

Eight of the strongest athletes from different parts of the world are fighting for a chance to get to Sochi.

Documentary following a mobile blood donation team travelling through rural Russia, where people sell their blood to make ends meet.

A confessional documentary about the thoughts of a woman just before her abortion.

A brilliant observational documentary filmed at the Civil Registry office in St. Petersburg, where people come to have births, marriages, divorces and deaths registered. 'It’s like a theatre here', one says in the beginning of the film, and it indeed is, the Theater of Life. The young women working in the office have a job that shifts from being verbally attacked and called idiots, to situations where they are subject to flirt, or where they master the happy ceremony of marriage. Faces, joy, sorrow, fun, despair... It’s all very well composed, rhythmical, with atmosphere conveyed, and lives up to what a documentary should be: multilayered and universal. And about Life.