Kira Saksaganskaya

On This Land

In late 18th-century Russia, village life is shaped by a fusion of rural superstitions, pagan beliefs and traces of Orthodox Christianity. Twin girls are violently separated when one is believed to be possessed, accused of draining the vitality of her sister. Meanwhile, a young man, branded a freak and outcast, obsessively constructs mechanical wings in a desperate attempt to fly like Icarus. Overseeing this turbulent world are Europeanised feudal lords who maintain brutal, cynical control over the peasants, exacerbating class tensions.

Peculiarities of the National Hospital

A young German, Werner Müller, turns out to be a volunteer in the neurological department of an ordinary St. Petersburg hospital. A foreigner, overwhelmed by the impulse to help all the sick and needy, has a long and eventful day ahead of him. Every now and then, finding himself in comical situations and making his way through misunderstandings, the volunteer discovers all the facets of the Russian national character.

Niche

Inspired by the words of a random beauty, Slava quits his job as a freight forwarder and his wife Masha, who does not understand him, for the sake of a dream of becoming a professional psychic. The scope of his abilities is dowsing. And now he scans passers-by in the passages, selflessly looking for the sources of water in the gardens and lives with the guard in the booth.

Lenechka

Leonid Desyatnikov is the most played Russian composer of today. Unparalleled, his music is performed all over the world from the Bolshoi Theatre and Paris’s Opéra Garnier to Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Carnegie Hall. While he usually shuns publicity, this time, he will open up to share some of his innermost thoughts. From the genius’s weekday routine and musings to the bold premiere involving the iconic conductor Teodor Currentzis, this movie is an attempt at unraveling the enigma that is the paradox of the composer’s music and persona.

Shchedrin Suite

“Shchedrin Suite” is a candid conversation with the renowned classic. On how he fell in love and was overwhelmed by the beauty of bronze hair and green eyes: the exceptional ballerina Maya Plisetskaya not only became his devoted life companion but also a cherished soul. On how many times he resisted compromising his own conscience and yielding to the omnipotent system. It delves into the composer’s creativity as a profound mystery and an ongoing process. It also reflects on the geniuses whom fate brought into his life: Shostakovich, Rostropovich, Gergiev, and Pierre Cardin. Lastly, it contemplates the world’s current state from the perspective of age and experience.

Mittelmarsch

Petersburg was swept by a wave of an unusual cultural movement: an unknown enthusiast organizes art events, trying to draw attention to forgotten monuments. This enthusiast is Mitya. He is 18. And he keeps a vow of silence. In the world of Mitya's ideas, everything is harmonious and understandable exactly until the energetic trickster Kowalski joins him with his girlfriend, the charming but dependent on him Polina. With new friends, the movement is rapidly gaining momentum: and now young people are already launching an ambitious campaign to save the old greenhouse building from demolition. But the further, the more complex the intertwining relationship within the trinity. And the spark that flared up between Mitya and Polina intensifies the already insoluble ideological dispute between the guys. When the rally on the day of the demolition finally gets out of control, Mitya will have to finally decide what is more important for him - people or monuments.

Little Nina & The Piano Thieves

Eight-year-old Nina is an impulsive and emotional girl, quickly igniting ideas and dropping them halfway. Nina would probably have abandoned her new hobby - music - too, but a strange thing happened: the instrument began to behave defiantly, play by itself and provoke the hostess in every possible way. And soon Nina was completely kidnapped along with him. The villains plan to subjugate the world with the help of the piano.

Zemun

Having learned from his younger brother Pashka about the mysterious death of his father, Yegor returns to his native village after many years of absence. It turns out that the entire inheritance - a farm with a small number of cows and a piece of land - must go to pay off the father's debts to a local entrepreneur. Pashka is categorically against the slaughter of cows and the sale of land. A quarrel breaks out between the brothers. Yegor asks local guys to help take the cows to the neighboring village to the slaughterhouse, but Pashka is ahead of them, who, under cover of night, takes the whole herd in an unknown direction.

Sententia

Devoted to the last days of Soviet writer, poet, and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov, this film follows the efforts of two of Shalamov’s most devoted admirers to preserve the author’s legacy. Having lost his sight and hearing and living in a retirement home, he carried on doing the only thing that mattered to him — writing — until his final breath. This film is a testament to the value of writings that tell the unpalatable truths of the 20th century. To evoke the gritty texture of the Soviet world, Sententia is shot on 16mm black and white film.

Tsoi

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoi, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoi’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

The Whaler Boy

Everything changes in the life of a young 15-year-old Chukchi hunter Lyoshka with the advent of the Internet in the village. He falls in love – for the first time and deeply – with the silent video chat girl. Upon learning that she lives in Detroit, Lyoshka decides on the most desperate act in his life.

The Battle

The dreams of passionate street dancer Anton are crushed when an accidental injury makes him deaf. But it is exactly at this difficult time that he meets his true love and finds his vocation. Anton learns to listen to the music that comes from the inside and to create his own music through a dance that will never be the same. He starts to teach dancing to kids with hearing impairments and prepares a unique act with them. He takes great risks joining his former team with deaf kids for a new dance to take part in the World Championship.

Call Myshkin

All his life Myshkin was dreaming about becoming an actor. And now eight years old Dasha is trying to help him.

I Did Not Forget You

The story of the short but brilliant life of Ergasha Khamraeva, actor and playwright of the Soviet cinema who laid the foundations of the new art in Uzbekistan. The film is dedicated to those who fell during the Great Patriotic War.

Mathilde

It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

Holy God

Self-portrait. In 1998 our family came under armed attack. We were able to escape and we fled Grozny. We have been silent about it since.

The Fool

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

Breaking Loose

Four best friends. They've been to war, they've seen life, but they are still passionate, young and willing to serve their country. They found their place at OMON - Russian Special Police Squad. They can count only on each other, and their real family is themselves. After working hours they become simple guys with ordinary dreams like family and comfort. But life changes when once in a night club the friends incidentally get in a fight with the local mafia. It turns out that they have no fear and they are ready to stand for each other whatever happens.

Friends from France

1979: Cousins Carole and Jérôme go on an organized trip to Odessa, behind the Iron Curtain. During the day, posing as tourists celebrating their engagement, they visit monuments and museums. In the evening they slip away from the group and meet “refuseniks”, Jews persecuted by the Soviet regime for wanting to leave the country. While Carole is motivated by political commitment and a taste for risk, Jérôme’s motivation is Carole.

The Major

On a cold winter’s day Sergey Sobolev, a major at the local police office, is driving to the hospital where his wife is about to give birth to their child. High from happiness, he’s driving too fast and runs down a boy on a passage walk, who dies. Now the major has only two options: go to prison or conceal the crime. Sobolev decides to compromise with his conscience and calls on a colleague to help him out. But the case turns out to be messy and when Sobolev finally changes his mind and tries to make up for his deed, it’s already too late…

Striptease

Two get into the room, it's unclear how, it's unclear where. They could go out, but the doors suddenly close ...

Bite the Dust

A village so small all the residents not only knows each other, but also can easily recognize the neighbor's cow face a frightful news. It was announced on TV that the most powerful coronal mass ejection in the Earth's history would take place. Humankind has only 24 hours left. The world runs mad in different ways getting ready for the apocalypse, and a unique local scenario of waving the life goodbye is inverted in the village. Tables are put together, pies are baked, and some gather strength and courage to make the most important decisions of their lives... But what about the doomsday? It just doesn't arrive. Oops, got it wrong! The situation is heating up. Everybody realize they can't go on as they did before.

Orlovs

Mother and daughter, forced migrants from Chechnya who survived the war. Both lost their husbands. Now they live in a small town with the belief that everything will work out.

To Live

Early autumn, godforsaken Russian countryside. A local hunter Michail witnesses a skirmish in the middle of the forest - three men want to kill the forth, Andrey. Kind-hearted Michail helps Andrey escape and together they run from the villains who chase them. Thus, two totally different men start a long and dangerous journey together, constantly arguing with each other regarding their ideology, morals and opinions about life. But life will put everything on its place and make the men understand who they really are.

The Edge

The action takes place shortly after the end of the Second World War in the Siberian hinterland, among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat, is the embodiment of the larger-than-life image of the Soviet victorious warrior who, in fact, proves to be shell-shocked, sick and broken, although not completely destroyed. Trains become fetish for the heroes of the film, and speed becomes a mania; they virtually become one with their steam engines, while the machines take on human names. The heroes set up an almost fatal race in the Siberian forest, risking their own lives and those of others.

Captive

The story of a young Chechen and his Russian captor during a war between Russia and Chechnya.

The Stroll

Today’s twenty-something Russians are the first generation in the country’s post-communist history to have grown up free. Their twenties are the age of freedom, of fast-changing events and intense emotions. Perhaps only at this age they can live a whole life in one day. A young girl and her two accident companions walk halfway around St.-Petersburg; they flirt and tease each other, and for ninety minutes they act out a real-time romantic drama. This stroll is full of laughter and tears against a backdrop of the hustle and bustle of the streets.