Documentary feature about Kyrgyzstan, the home of the poet Tschingis Aitmatov and his characters, encounters with nomads, Kyrgyz traditions and the impressive scenery.
A disturbing chapter in Russian history is explored in this documentary. In 1933, Joseph Stalin sent 6000 "unwanted" citizens of Moscow and Leningrad to a desolate Siberian island - with no food or clothes to speak of. Decades later this documentary returns to the island.
Three decades after the nuclear explosion, almost everything has been said about this ecological and sanitary disaster that made Pripiat a part of History. How did the greatest industrial disaster change the course of History, disrupt global geopolitics and, directly or indirectly, redistribute the balances and power relations of the twentieth century? The world will never be the same again. By retracing the incredible battle waged by the Soviet Union against radiation, this film proposes to retrace and enlighten an extraordinary story, while exploring the historical stakes in the medium and long-term…
One of the highest achievements of the new wave of Kirghiz cinema, which emerged in the mid-1960s. This story of a boy building sandcastles on the shores of the Issyk-Kul Lake becomes a documentary parable on the tensions between an artist and society.
oil workers, builders, geologists
A landmark four disc Box Set - Unearthed from Moscow's legendary Soyuzmultfilm Studios, the 41 films in ANIMATED SOVIET PROPAGANDA span sixty years of Soviet history (1924 - 1984), and have never been available before in the U.S.
Experimental short film that explores the rise and decline of the Soviet Union, from the revolutionary spark of 1917 to the challenges and sacrifices endured during World War II, until its dissolution in 1991.
Documentary movie about testing of the largest nuclear weapon in history, the Tsar Bomba. Declassified and made available to the public in 2020.
Life in a Kyrgyz aul (village) in the mountains connected to the rest of the world by a cable bridge, and the teenage boys who are constructing the rope of the bridge. A rope bridge which the locals call “The devil’s bridge” forms part of each and every event which takes place in a small village lost in the mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic. A platform driven by a huge winch which they have to pull with their own strength to cross the torrent is their only link with the outside world. But the director of the documentary wondered something else: “Does this bridge unite or does it actually separate?” Through the mist and over the thrashing waters, the inhabitants of the area glide along their ropes. A film, in the director’s own words, about ordinary people who live in an extraordinary place.
A critical look at the human-nature relationship in the tundra.
A documentary charting the rigors of the Russian space program, where the symbol of national pride would justify the most demanding training conditions.
Over the past hundred years, dramatic social upheavals have taken place in the name of Karl Marx's theories. In Western Europe, the student movement of 1968 and the Eurocommunists were inspired. And in recent times, the thinker has experienced a renaissance.
On the same day that Stalin was buried, Sergei Prokofiev's funeral took place completely unnoticed. And if the farewell to the composer quietly went against the backdrop of the farewell to the dictator that swept the whole country, then in the play everything is the opposite - Prokofiev's music is in the center, and it is interrupted by the stories of those people who would probably ignore Stalin's funeral and went to say goodbye to the great composer.
The Impossible Beskov
From 1989 to 1991 a string of unpredictable events happened that brought to light the rivalry between two men: Gorbachev, hindered by the economic results of his perestroika, and Yeltsin, embodying the hopes of the Russian people. Illustrated with interviews of top protagonists such as Mikhail Gobachev himself, the documentary recounts the critical last two years of the former USSR.
Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine, newly uncovered archival footage and recorded interviews with those who were present paint an emotional and gripping portrait of the extent and gravity of the disaster and the lengths to which the Soviet government went to cover up the incident, including the soldiers sent in to “liquidate” the damage. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unvarnished true story of what happened in one of the least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.
A documentary film about the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
At the non-places of this world lie the struggles of nobodies, to improve, overcome and survive. Their struggles suffocate them, they forget to live. They dislocate them, bring them together and pull them apart. Father and son share simple dreams and a lifetime on the road. Along an unromantic Silk Route they try to make some come true. Searching for a more livable future they break apart. As working class heroes they accept their fate. The film examines the added value of honesty in our actions.
As Russia continues to horrify the world with its brutal attacks on Ukraine, and its crush of dissent at home, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria takes viewers inside the mind of the man behind the ruthless conflict, Vladimir Putin. Throughout his rise to power and political career, Vladimir Putin has been an autocratic enigma. He was reared in Soviet poverty, served as a KGB intelligence agent in East Germany, and through a series of cunning maneuvers, rose from deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to the presidency of post-Soviet Russia. Zakaria gets answers to the many questions that surround Putin that have confounded leaders around the world, including at least four U.S. presidents: how did Putin’s mindset move from pro-global harmony, to isolation, fear, and loathing of the West.
As „wings of men“ they became the faithful companion of a great nomadic nation thousands of years ago. Today, 28 years after the Soviet occupation, the little horse is an essential part of the cultural heritage and the search for identity of the modern Kyrgyz people. Based on its own story, a so called „good brown horse“ leads through the film and offers an insight of what it could mean to be „todays wings of men“. Told by a horse’s voice and through its eyes, this short film still is a documentary, but also a poetic journey to a nomadic culture.