Georgi Kropachyov

Hard to Be a God

A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position.

Garpastum

Garpastum is a Latin word meaning ball game. Set in 1914 in St. Petersburg, the brothers Andrey and Nikolai are passionate about the matches they play on the streets. They hatch a scheme to buy a playing field. But World War I has already begun and soon their lives and dreams will be shattered.

Khrustalyov, My Car!

Military doctor General Klenski is arrested in Stalin's Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called "doctors' plot".

Summerfolk

Representatives of the Russian nobility gathered at the dacha. A young nobleman Vlas, in love with the mistress of the estate, a simpering poetess, a writer who has long stopped writing, a frivolous wife, her lover and a jealous husband. Their lives are measured and unhurried. They talk about nothing, get bored and quarrel, flirt and have fun… But even passionate romances, which are now and then tied up here, usually end at the same time as the holiday season...

Love at First Sight

Murad Rasulov, a simple 16-year-old Azerbaijani, raised in Tbilisi, and a passionate fan of football, falls in love for the first time in his life with Anya, a Russian girl who is studying at the same institute in Baku, two years older than him. The difference in age and the conflict of cultures becomes an obstacle in the way of a young man whom no one helps, in a hopeless, desperate struggle for love.

Neptune's Feast

A group of Swedish tourists are on the way to a Russian village to witness the so called 'Festivity of Neptunus', in which the inhabitants take a dive in a hole in the ice. This tradition, however, does not exist at all. The inhabitants try to make a good impression by starting the 'tradition' to please the tourists.

Since We've Been Together

Students Nadya and Valera fell in love with each other and began to live together. Their classmates envy them, and the lovers have continuous disagreements...

Sergey Ivanovich Retires

Accountant Sergey Ivanovich is retiring. Finally, he will be able to devote all his free time to his family: he will help his daughter Natalya with the housework, raise his granddaughter, visit his sons who live in different cities... But it turns out that adult children do not need parental care, and Sergei Ivanovich feels uneasy at work...

A Twig in the Wind

Varya Berezina has just graduated from high school. My parents are getting divorced, my beloved grandmother is pestering me about the meaning of life. Mishka is a good guy — he loves Varka very much, but he doesn't understand a lot. Having not received the documents, she leaves for the city to her sister. My sister has a big new apartment, a good husband and a dear family friend — neighbor Vissarion Arkadyevich. He is a doctor and everyone loves him. He helps Varka to enter the institute, but she has neither documents nor knowledge. My sister is very worried. And Varka gets a job in a hospital, where he can often see a doctor and be with people. When Vissarion Arkadyevich is transferred to Leningrad, Varka returns to the village.

The Wolverine's Trail

A modern interpretation of the ancient Chukchi legend of love. The young hunter fell in love with the daughter of the sun, but with his last rays, the beauty left the earth, afraid of the cold. And the hunter decided to get wolverine fur for her, hunting for which is a big risk.

Viy

A young priest is ordered to preside over the wake of a witch in the church of a remote village. This means spending three nights alone with the corpse with only his faith to protect him.

Viy

A young priest is ordered to preside over the wake of a witch in the church of a remote village. This means spending three nights alone with the corpse with only his faith to protect him.

Hamlet

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.