Sergey Amirdzhanov

A feature-length documentary film dedicated to the life of the modern Bolshoi Theatre.

THE STRAIT GUYS follows Czech-born mining engineer, George, and his fast-talking protégé, Scott, along the proposed route of the InterContinental Railway through Alaska, to the Bering Strait and onward to Russia. The “Strait Guys” endeavor to convince international governments, corporations, and indigenous tribes to green-light their $100 billion railway project, which would provide ground-based infrastructure across the continents, relieve overcrowded Pacific ports, improve global supply chains, and ease tensions between the superpowers. The US and Russia have been successfully collaborating in space for decades. Now the Strait Guys are out to prove it is also possible down here on earth.

The plot of the film is based on the large-scale reconstruction of the historical building of the HPP-2 power plant on Bolotnaya Embankment under the direction of architect Renzo Piano and the transformation of the power plant into a cultural institution and a cultural house of the V-A-C foundation, founded by Leonid Mikhelson. For five years, the process of fixing this reincarnation was carried out. The basis of the shooting method was the desire to show big events through the prism of the interaction of art and life of the construction site and the V-A-C foundation, through small details, through the people who are doing it all.

A story about Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski, a twentieth-century theatre genius. Owing to his powerful extraordinary talent he managed to stay a true artist and a free spirit within the harsh Soviet system. In the film contemporary theater and film directors (Kirill Serebrennikov, Katie Mitchell, Lev Dodin and others) show how Stanislavski's method affects their everyday work. Each of the directors finds his or her own reflection in the mirror of his genius. In search of an answer to the question whether modern theatre really needs Stanislavski they discover that art lacks its most essential part – the human being.

In November 2017 in Volgograd, the BK-31 armored boat was raised from the bottom of the river. According to historical data, from July 1942 until the month of October, the ship took an active part in the Battle of Stalingrad. Built at the special request of the NKVD "BK-31" at that time was a ship unique to the river fleet. After getting up on board, artifacts, the remains of the team, various weapons and a huge amount of ammunition were discovered on it, the latter indirectly confirms the historians' version of the “special” tasks that the navy had to carry out.

The film shows how the famous Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov reflects the events taking place in Russia in his works. We will see his whole career - from the first successes in the theater to feature films. We will see that the rise and fall of the director’s star is also a reflection of Russian cultural policy: from the short flowering of artistic freedom under Medvedev to a conservative culture, backed by authoritarian measures.

Mila got diagnosed with tongue cancer. Instead of operation and chemotherapy she decides to try an unconventional treatment in the Amazon jungle of Peru and to make a film about her healing process.

This is a candid and emotional project of Russian-Israeli writer and screenwriter Dina Rubina. Together with director and her close friend Stanislav Mitin she goes back to her childhood and youth spent in Tashkent, contemplates her creative early days in Moscow, and shares how she feels about immigration to Jerusalem. The film is full of excerpts from the writer’s famous works, episodes from films based on her writing, and sketches from her current life. It is dedicated to the anniversary of Dina Rubina - one of the most widely read contemporary authors and recipient of many international awards, whose books are translated into 38 languages.

At the age of 21, Vasily Vlasov became the youngest parliamentarian in the Russian Duma. Given his abundant confidence and self-assured manner, he could have been a refreshing new voice.

Uncle Sasha lives on an island in a “dead” village, surrounded by water. He dreams of the restoration of the monarchy and reviving the true wisdom of the Russian way of life, forgotten and trampled by modernisation and European influence. Every spring he builds a bridge, and every winter it is destroyed by ice. Uncle Sasha is now building his thirteenth bridge.

Documentary film dedicated to the destiny of the great Soviet actress Tatyana Samoylova

Bleak shots of Russian clinics set the tone. Then the telephone rings. On the other end of the line, Masha Osipova’s parents are asked to explain why they sent her to children’s sanatoria in her childhood. In these clinical government institutions, children were lodged free of charge in the Soviet era. Back then it was a privilege, but the deep impressions (drastic procedures, far from home) they left on Masha have had a negative impact on her life today.

The V-A-C art foundation is transforming the former GES-2 electric power station in Moscow into a new cultural space for the capital. In 2017, before work had even begun, a festival called Geometry of Now was held inside the station. As part of the festival, Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Dramatic and Mild was shown in Russia for the first time. In order to see the painting, visitors had to enter the workers’ recreation room, which measured just 4 x 4 metres.

Through unique and candid interviews the film tells the compelling and tragic stories of the six women – last survivors of the Gulag, the brutal system of repression and terror that devastated the Soviet population during the regime of Stalin.

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.

2011-2012. Swamp area. Protesting moods. The 22-year-old Dasha goes to the polls - to the municipal deputies of the Brateevo district of Moscow. She is not a member of any party, and her electoral fund is 15,000 rubles, given by her mother. This is how Dasha begins his political career. Two years passed. Career is shaping up. What can not you tell about personal life: it seems that the family and political success for the girl are incompatible things ...

When Masha was ten years old she lived in a far away northern village, where she was the only pupil in her school. She loved her village - a quiet place without any stores, cell phones, and other spoils of civilization. Masha dreamed to build a clinic there. Masha is seventeen now. She goes to a boarding school in a nearby village, and realizes that she needs to leave.

The film is about volleyball coach Nikolay Karpole.

At first glance, charity is easy: gather things, spend time, help with money. But it turns out, it's not easy when you are 17 and you are not ready to see lonely old age, poverty and disease. And when you realize that now you are there - in a nursing home - waiting, it becomes even more difficult.

They go out with slogans on streets, climb with flash-lights on the roofs, they want to be noticed. Why? They are 18-20 years old, they are in motion. What for?

Masha lives in a far northern village. At school one is studying - there are no more children in the village. In the village also there is no cellular communication, internet, shop and entertainment. But Masha loves her native places and dreams of opening a hospital in the village.

The hero of the film, the famous director, screenwriter, playwright Vasily Sigarev, tells stories from his life, which, when slightly transformed, become the stories of his plays. For the residents of his native Verkhnyaya Salda it's everyday. For the capital's theaters - an unprecedented reality of provincial life. For the audience - and laughter and horror. For the playwright - numerous prizes and endless pain.