In spring 1938 in the mountains in the north of Chile a fiery UFO, later named "Chilean Sphere ", fell down. The investigation of this episode, made by a film crew, has led to a sensational discovery. It appeared that before the Second World War (in the thirties) in the USSR a secret space program had been developed. The Soviet scientists and military authorities managed to launch the first spacecraft 23 years prior to Jury Gagarin's flight! "The First on the Moon" tells about everyday life, heroic deeds and tragedy of the first group of the Soviet cosmonauts. It is the first Russian film shot in a very rare genre 'mockumentary' or 'documentary fiction'.
An intricate thriller about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. Right after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.
The film's protagonist Valera - cheerful guy from Moscow, who at age 19 learned a whole hell of war in Afghanistan, where he lost a leg. Returning from the war, he had no idea what a nightmare for him is just beginning.
Historical drama depicting the events leading up to the 1917 October Revolution produced to celebrate the 40th anniversary.
Compilation short film about the Communist Revolution and Soviet Union.
Though both the historical and modern-day persecution of Armenians and other Christians is relatively uncovered in the mainstream media and not on the radar of many average Americans, it is a subject that has gotten far more attention in recent years.
Based on an excerpt from the novel by L.N.Tolstoy "War and Peace." The war of 1812. The defeated Napoleonic army is retreating. Three Russian soldiers settled in a snowy forest near a fire: a young (Zaletayev), an elderly and a middle-aged one. Zaletayev fantasizes — as if he had captured Napoleon. The soldiers laugh good-naturedly at him. After dinner, they fall asleep... Two Frenchmen go to the clearing — an officer and a soldier. Russian soldiers wake up and, seeing that the officer is barely standing on his feet from cold and hunger, take him to the colonel. The French soldier sits down to the fire. The Russians give him porridge and vodka. The soldier, encouraged, sings a french song. Zaletayev echoes him. A tired Frenchman falls asleep on Zaletayev’s shoulder. The soldiers carefully shelter him. “Also people,” an elderly soldier says with a sigh.
UNKNOWN REDUX is a short movie by Anssi Määttä and Antti Tuominen, where events depicted happen in a fictitious Finland and it's alternative history.
A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Later re-edited and released as "Armored Attack."
A small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.
The story of the unconditional, no-holds-barred tour of America by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, leader of World Communism and America's arch nemesis, during 13 sun-filled days in the fall of 1959.
In Soviet Azerbaijan, a divorced Armenian couple fights over the custody of their daughter, Ashen. Stolen from one parent to another, Ashen's guardians are tragically killed in the bloody war surrounding them. Will the arrival of a new savior finally bring Ashen freedom? Official selection of the Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative.
Anatoli Kuzmich retired and received a separate apartment in a new house. He and his wife are happy and make bright plans for the future: how they will go to theaters, museums, read their favorite books. But their daughter Lyusya suddenly gets married. Not wanting to part with her, Korolyovs persuade the young spouses to live with them in a new apartment. Soon a child is born, and gradually life together becomes unbearable...
How in 1959, during the heat of the Cold War, the government of the United States decided to create a secret military base located in the far north of Greenland: Camp Century, almost a real town with roads and houses, a nuclear plant to provide power and silos to house missiles aimed at the Soviet Union.
Pyotr, backward lad from poor village, comes to town desperate for work. He's hired as replacement ("scab") worker at big metallurgical factory, which is in the throes of a strike organized by the Bolsheviks (communists). Deceitful industrialist's son involves naive young man in an attempt to murder Bolshevik leader.
During a freezing WWII winter, two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the temperature, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.
In 1991, the USSR is falling apart and Cuba enters its hardest economic crisis. Sergio, a professor of Marxism who can't provide for his family, and Sergei, a Soviet cosmonaut stranded in the Mir space station, share a common passion: amateur radio. Through this hobby, both men will be able to help each other in facing the dramatic changes of their countries.
Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.
Photo studio "Contemporary" in a provincial town lives with its everyday problems. The director is concerned over the failure to fulfill the planned targets, receptionist Alevtina wants to get married, and photographer Vladimir Oreshnikov dreams of becoming a professional photographer. But suddenly luck smiles on Oreshnikov. He takes 20 rubles form the worker's mutual aid fund, buys a government lottery bond and wins 10,000 rubles. Oreshnikov wants to receive the win himself, but his colleagues object to him, because the money that he spent on the bond were public, hence the win should be divided equally among all workers. It creates a controversial situation, which is successfully resolved on the very eve of the New Year, under the chiming clock...
A different history of the Cold War: how Estonians under Soviet tyranny began to feel the breeze of freedom when a group of anonymous dreamers successfully used improbable methods to capture the Finnish television signal, a window into Western popular culture, brave but harmless warriors who helped change the fate of an entire nation.