Natalia Manskaya

Time to the Target

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.

The Iron

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

Eastern Front

On February 24, 2022, Yevhen, together with his friends, volunteered to join the first aid squad on the front line. They provided life-saving support and evacuation of the wounded. This film reveals the experiences of these young men for six months full of drama, despair, fear, hatred, bitterness, love, and, most importantly, faith in victory.

2020. On Love And Freedom

Just like the novel 1984, film 2020 is not about a calendar year, although it is about unique events. The year 2020 serves as a backdrop for a conversation about freedom and unfreedom, starting on the eve of 2020 with Mikhail Gorbachev and continued by Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis; documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, who emigrated from Russia to Latvia; actress Chulpana Hamatova, who was once a confidante of Vladimir Putin; and actor and artistic director Yevgeny Mironov. Together, they create a theatrical production on freedom and a man who gave everyone equal opportunities to enjoy it.

Gorbachev. Heaven

An immersion into the intimacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. The architect of perestroika and glasnost, who was praised in the West but reviled in his own country, still combative despite his advanced age, loneliness and illness, offers his personal and political testament.

Putin's Witnesses

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

The Choice

Russia. August-September 2016. A month remains before the State Duma elections. The main characters of the film are a mother of four children, a paralympic, an opposition journalist, a philologist girl, a young economist and a trucker - independent candidates. What made each of them enter the fight and how do these men and women live on the eve of the elections is about this movie.

Close Relations

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

Under the Sun

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

Beyond The Fear

The main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...

Pipeline

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

The Day of the Coal Miner

The story is about a family that lives in a ghost town. 15 years ago, there was a job and a happy life here. After the closure of the mine, there were only old barracks, mountains of recycled land and unnecessary people who had lost the meaning of life. Is it possible to survive in such conditions and not sink even lower, when all moral boundaries are erased? Are these people's hopes for happiness destroyed? And is there a place for a holiday, a dream, or love in a hopeless reality? At the festival "Texture" in Perm, the tape was awarded the main prize.

Tender's Heat: Wild Wild Beach

A drunk couple spend their summer-holiday at sea. Their life is not everything they hoped for, and abuse is part of their relationship. At sea they dream about love and understanding, and we observe their fellow countrymen spending their holidays on the same beach. Tragedy, comedy, love, hate, sex : it is all there.

Bashlachev. The Flight of Death

A documentary film about the life and early death of Russian singer and songwriter Aleksandr Bashlachev through the eyes of his friends, family members and other representatives of rock music scene.

Anatomy of t.A.T.u.

The true, detailed lives of the girls of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. as they break through in their promotional tour in America.

Vertov Windows

In five European cities: Helsinki, Rome, Budapest, Brussels and Moscow, five directors made a film about the place in which they live. The director of the Moscow series Vitaly Mansky lives in the house where the great documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov used to live. What Vertov saw in his windows and what a modern director sees today.

Mummies

Yulia is sixteen, she lives in a hut and is pregnant. Vanya lives with his parents in a five-story building. His parents are against mesalliance and do not let the couple on the threshold.

There is No Death For Me

It is a documentary story about five legends of russian cinema: Nonna Mordyukova, Tatyana Okunevskaya, Tatyana Samoylova, Lidiya Smirnova and Vera Vasileva. These wonderful women tell about their lifes and careers in hour interview.