Igor Mayorov

Two middle-aged couples live in two-handed village huts: the Zvyagintsev's and the Arefyev's. Once the wives, tired of family life, decided to exchange husbands. Between old neighbors and good friends, a cheerful quadrille begins with a constant change of partners. Without wanting it, a lonely woman Makeyevna takes part in it for the last time, slowly dragging bricks from the Zvyagintsev's yard.

Day of the Full Moon, a series of vignettes from Russia past and present, summons the spirit of Ophuls’ La Ronde, Altman’s Nashville and Short Cuts, and the time-shifting strategies of Resnais (Mon Oncle d’Amérique) to tell provocative, connected stories illustrating the waltz of years and whim of memory. In 1948, a young man, a boy, and a waiter are captivated during the full moon by a mysterious woman in a lilac dress. The effects of this event ripple across the years, washing over more than 80 characters, including a disc jockey, a fairy princess, a gangster, Alexander Pushkin, and a nostalgic dog. But which of these are dreams, and which reality? Director Shakhnazarov continues his career-long focus on the intersection of past and present with this mysterious, exhilarating mosaic of humankind, which in the end both seduces and satisfies.

Russian countess in 1893 has strange dreams about herself living a life as a dishwasher in 1993' Moscow after dissolution of the USSR.

A new doctor from Moscow arrives at a provincial mental institution. His interest is the peculiarities of the psyche of a patient who believes that he is Yakov Yurovsky, the man who assassinated the last Russian tsar. In the course of their conversations it transpires that the patient is a kind of philosopher, not without a gift for suggestion. In a while the doctor himself falls under his patient’s influence: he tends to relive that fatal night of June 16-17, 1918 when, without any investigation or trial, Tsar Nicholas II, who had recently abdicated, was murdered, together with his wife, daughters and incurably ill heir. Soon the doctor realizes that the tragedy of the last Russian tsar is in part his own tragedy, too...

Karen Shakhnazarov’s surreal satire of Communism follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. He’s quickly drawn into the investigation of the suicide (or possibly murder?) of a local restaurant chef, Nikolaev – who may (or may not) be Varakin’s missing father. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin’s predicament – “I have to get back to Moscow,” he pleads to no avail. Along the way we’re treated to a bizarre and wonderful sideshow of non sequiturs out of a Wes Anderson film, including an underground museum filled with a thousand years of real and imagined Russian history (“Here’s the pistol with which Urusov shot the False Dimitry II.”) Frozen in time, frozen far beneath the surface, the waxwork figures are strangely beautiful and forlorn, like Shakhnazarov’s marvelous and enigmatic satire of Soviet bureaucracy.

Moscow mid-XIX century. Middle-aged provincial businessman Savva Gennadievich Vasilkov falls in love with local beauty Lidiya Yuryevna Cheboksarova. Wanting to meet her, he asks his new acquaintance Telyatev to introduce himself as Cheboksarov. Telyatev and his friend Glumov decide to play the mother of Lidiya, Nadezhda Antonovna, who wants to get a rich son-in-law, and recommend Vasilkov as a gold mining millionaire from Siberia. Savva Gennadievich begins to visit the Cheboksarovs house, but his provincialism and Lydiya’s intention to create a brilliant party due to their beauty prevent them from finding a common language.

A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy. The main character of the film is Prince Stepan Kasatsky, an officer, an ardent, proud young man — a big fan of the tsar. Kasatsky is going to marry, but at the last moment he learns from the bride that she was the mistress of the emperor. The prince is deeply disappointed in social life, he takes a monastic vow and leaves the capital. Faith in God was to save the soul, but passions and worldly temptations don't leave Kasatsky.

A second part of story about a Soviet spies trying to infiltrate German Intelligence center "Saturn" during and after the WWII.

A first part of story about a Soviet spies trying to infiltrate German Intelligence center "Saturn" during and after the WWII.

Mukhtar comes to live and work at the police kennels through rather unusual circumstances. Together with his handler, Glazychev, Mukhtar helps to solve large and small crimes.

Three stories based on O. Henry novels.

Summer of 1960. A detachment of exploration geologists is working in the steppe region, and among them is Alyoshka, a guy who, before entering the geological exploration institute, decided to walk with geologists. Unskillful and messy in everyday life, he becomes the object of their jokes and practical jokes, which are not always harmless. However, his persistent character, his timid and pure love for the switchwoman Zinka, who lives with her grandfather on a crossing lost in the steppe, makes the guys from the squad take a different look at this inconspicuous guy and at his relationship with each other.

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.