Kirill Shuvalov

Snowflakes in my Yard

It would seem that nothing connects them: Givi is a film director with his family, Levan is a loner living like a homeless man. But they have something in common — their childhood memories. They begin to communicate by correspondence again and help each other. Levan opens up to a friend from an unexpected side, and Givi gets the opportunity to return to his hometown.

The Editorial Office

In the wild steppes of southern Ukraine, a young nature researcher named Yura is looking for an endangered species of groundhog but instead witnesses a crime. Eager to expose the truth, Yura takes his photo evidence to the local newspaper's editorial office. However, he quickly realizes that nobody there cares about pursuing justice. While a big war is looming over the horizon, Yura's naive worldview is splintering in a storm of fake news, rigged political elections, and mysterious cult rituals. On his quest, the hero is about to find out who he really is-an endangered species of a good man or just a loser?

Shelter Kingdom

Teenagers celebrate graduation from an orphanage by spending all the money in two days. They rent a luxury cottage and arrange a real holiday. These two days are the time when dreams come true. The rental of the house ends, but the holiday should not end: the house turns into a fortress. And even when the assault begins, the guys expect that everything will end soon and dawn will come.

Stepne

Set amidst stunning Ukrainian winter landscapes, vanishing villages and emerging feeling of alienation between people in a post-Soviet society, Stepne is a story of a mature man who comes back home from the city to take care of his dying mother. The mother’s passing, together with a meeting with his brother and a woman he loves make him reflect on the life he’s had and choices he’s made along the way. And then, just before her death, the mother tells Anatolii about a treasure she has buried inside the shed…

Parquet

The creators of the legendary tango à trois reunite for an encore performance 25 years after breaking up. Determined to take on the night as if they had never aged they face the realities when their families arrive to join the audience.

Numbers

Ten figures walk around in a circle. All they have is a number. The “Great Zero” monitors them. Based on a dystopian parable by Oleg Sentsov, this film was created between Kyiv and the Siberian penal colony where Sentsov spent five years as a political prisoner.

Core of the World

Egor is a vet at a training facility for hunting dogs in a remote region of the country. Surrounded by foxes, deer, badgers, and dogs, he lives in a small building next to the house of the facility's master. He treats the dogs, cleans the kennels, oversees the workers, and meets with clients and their dogs. It's easier for him to get along with dogs than with people. Egor is willing to take on any job to get closer to the facility's master and his near and dear. He wants the impossible - to become a member of that family.

Homo Novus

Riga in the 30s. Wild bohemian lifestyle is the name of the game for every artist worth his salt. A young man from the countryside, poor but ambitious, arrives in the capital, where he hopes to make his mark in the artistic circles. What follows is a string of events, fraught with confusion and misunderstanding, hilarious and heart-warming at the same time.

Donbass

In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people try to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.

Volcano

A series of odd coincidences has left Lukas, an interpreter for an OSCE military checkpoint inspection tour, stranded near a small southern Ukrainian steppe town. With nowhere to turn, this city boy finds shelter at the home of a colorful local named Vova. With Vova as his guide, Lukas is confronted by a universe beyond his imagination, one in which life seems utterly detached from any identifiable structure. Fascinated by his host and his host's daughter Marushka, with whom he is rapidly falling in love, Lukas’s contempt for provincial life slowly melts away and sets him on a quest for a happiness he had never known could exist.

A Gentle Creature

A woman lives in a small village in Russia. One day she receives the parcel she sent to her husband, serving a sentence in prison. Confused and angered, she sets out to find why her package was returned to sender.

Sunset

Lyudmila is a successful realtor in the capital. Pictures from the past pop up in her memory, and the viewer learns at what cost a single mother from the province managed to cherish Moscow's well-being. Lyudmila's story is typical, it reflects, like in a mirror, the pain points of modern life, forcing us to make our hourly choices. Is it worth a deal with the conscience of material comfort? Is it possible to achieve success in a megalopolis today and remain an honest person? Won't a "bright future" built on betrayal of one's own ideals lead to the decline of genuine human values?

The Day Before

Since the morning, the entire population of the planet has been concerned about one news: a red comet is approaching the Earth. A year ago, scientists only assumed this collision, a month ago they tried to establish the exact date - and finally, it was just announced by all communication sources: the end cannot be avoided. Moreover, it will happen tomorrow. There is one day left until... People of different classes, nationalities and faiths in different parts of a large country - each in their own way - are trying to spend this last day of their lives.

My Good Hans

It is a story about the Soviet worker Pyotr and the German engineer Hans, who came to the USSR before the war on a business trip. At a Soviet plant the German team works in cooperation with Russian specialists. Once Hans makes a mistake which causes the explosion of the furnace and human losses. Hans finds himself at the mercy of Pyotr, the only witness to his actions near the furnace. Pyotr also depends on Hans, because Pyotr’s very presence near the furnace entails accusation of subversive actions and a death sentence. Mutual suspicion gives way to silent sympathy and later friendship. They even look like each other, both have small children. Pyotr secretly leaves the town with his family but Hans feels loss rather that relief at the disappearance of the embarrassing witness.

In the Fog

Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces an impossible moral choice.

The Convoy

Following a brawl, Captain Ignat, who is traumatised by the death of his daughter, is ordered together with a regular soldier to find a deserter and bring him back via Moscow to stand before a military court. Although they locate the young soldier, their journey across the wintry moloch that is Moscow is slow and tortuous. Before long, the unlikely trio find themselves drawn into a chaotic maelstrom of violence, corruption, criminality, degradation and squalidness. In the face of the monstrous malaise and everyday horror of life in Russia, the gradual breakdown of the film’s anti-hero becomes a metaphor for Russian society.

The Hunter

Farmer Ivan Dunaev gets up early. He feeds his piglets, does paperwork, fixes the tractor, and weighs the meat he'll take in his old pickup truck to the market to sell. He has a wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son. And he loves to hunt. His world revolves around these things. Then, one day, two new workers, Lyuba and Raya, on work release from the local prison colony, arrive on the farm. Ivan doesn't notice it at first, but something begins to change.

The Hunter

Farmer Ivan Dunaev gets up early. He feeds his piglets, does paperwork, fixes the tractor, and weighs the meat he'll take in his old pickup truck to the market to sell. He has a wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son. And he loves to hunt. His world revolves around these things. Then, one day, two new workers, Lyuba and Raya, on work release from the local prison colony, arrive on the farm. Ivan doesn't notice it at first, but something begins to change.

My Joy

Georgy is driving a load of freight into Russia when, after an unpleasant encounter with the police at a border crossing, he finds himself giving a lift to a strange old man with disturbing stories about his younger days in the Army. After next picking up a young woman who works as a prostitute and is wary of the territory, Georgy finds himself lost, and despite asking some homeless men for help, he’s less sure than he was before of how to make his way back where he belongs. As brutal images of violence and alienation cross the screen, Georgy’s odyssey becomes darker and more desperate until it reaches an unexpected conclusion.

Shultes

Lesha Shultes, a pickpocket, leads the ordinary life of an average urban creature. The only extraordinary thing about Shultes is that he carries a little notebook with him and notes down everything. This minimalist drama of a 'small man' in a metropolis delivers an existential message with a distinct Russian flavour.

Simple Things

A dying actor asks a doctor to help him commit suicide in return for a masterpiece.

Mermaid

The fanciful tale of an introverted little girl who grows up believing she has the power to make wishes come true. She must reconcile this belief with reality when, as a young woman, she journeys to Moscow and grapples with love, modernity and materialism.

Moscow

A few days from the life of a Kyrgyz family in Moscow. Nurik works on a construction site as handyman. His elder brother Mansur is without work. The mother, Mukhabbat, tries to help her sons solve their problems.