Torrents of Steel

The sad story of a drunken athlete.

Drawing heavily from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1971 novella 'Piknik na obochine' ('Roadside Picnic') as well as Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film adaptation ('Stalker'), 'Tretya planeta' tells the story of a father seeking a cure for his ill daughter by venturing into an area known only as "The Zone" to request help from the mysterious healers that dwell within its forbidden borders.

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.

The film is about the military figure, General Jamshid Nakhchivanski, commander of the first national rifle division of Azerbaijan. Although his physical life ended in 1938 with a shooting as a result of repression, as he himself told his family, "he returned."

A few former pupils of primary school teacher Aishi-Aly meet again for a party on the top of the sacred mountain that dominates their village. But what was supposed to be a joyful party turns into a nightmare...

Katya, a young librarian, believes in love, but her ideals are crushed by reality. After a string of disappointing affairs, Katya finally finds tenderness and understanding in the arms of her colleague, a journalist called Tanya. But then the First Department interferes: the state security services see this relationship as unacceptable for a Soviet woman.

Makar has spent years overseeing work at a collective farm. After he is asked to retire, it is time for Makar's son to take the reins. Yet the farm workers' hopes are soon dashed, and it is up to Makar to right the ship.

On a lonely mission to Alpha Centauri, Milutin is teamed up with Nimani 1345, a female cyborg designed to fulfill his every need. At first thrilled to be able to control her, Sebastian grows tired of having his desires fulfilled so easily. Longing for human intimacy, Sebastian alters Nimani's programmed responses, but in doing so he risks the mission's security — and his own life.

Historian James Bulgin reveals the origins of the Holocaust in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, exploring the mass murder, collaboration and experimentation that led to the Final Solution.

The Red Arrow is the special train No.1 between Leningrad and Moscow. The film is set in the 1980s during perestroika in the Soviet Union. Valeriy Kropotov is CEO of a big industrial company in Leningrad who is crafty and successful in getting a major order from the Soviet Government: building an automated assembly line. But his style of management clashes with his subordinates, talented engineers. Their potential is strangled by Kropotov's manipulative control. The government order is not accomplished and Kropotov gets fired. He is rethinking his outdated business style while on the train No.1 to Moscow.

The Humorist is a film about a week in the life of Boris Arkadiev, a fictional Soviet stand-up comedian. Boris is tormented not only by external oppression and censorship but also by his own insecurities that poison all his relationships.

In the cramped cockpit of the boat, of which Ivan Burlakov has long been the captain and where Elenka, not jokingly called his wife, works as a sailor, a new employee appears - the captain's assistant Sergei. Outwardly energetic and open, he quickly achieves Elenka’s love. And just as quickly - Ivan’s dismissal.

The story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin. Through the eyes and memories of Anna Aliluyeva, Stalin’s granddaughter, the film traces the rise of the Bolshevik tyrant from Lenin’s return from exile to his brutal struggle with Trotsky, the creation of his feared secret police and the merciless inner workings of his regime. As Anna recounts her grandfather’s life, viewers gain an intimate, personal perspective on the paranoia and purges that left even his closest circles living in constant fear.

Sashko and Yulia have been friends since childhood. Sashko grew up in a communal apartment surrounded by post-war poverty. Yulia fell seriously ill during the war. Sashko goes to study in the big city, where he gains his first experiences of independent living in a student dormitory and on a construction site. Later, he meets Yulia again.

An ongoing experiment, evolving from a biopic about Soviet physicist Lev Landau into a large scale project – part cinematic cycle, part behavioral experiment – involving hundreds of participants from around the world. Combining elements of film, theatre, science, psychology, architecture, visual arts and performance, it has created a complex and absorbing world that has to be lived as much as seen.

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.

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.

In the summer of 1944, the Nazi Armies prepare a massive Tank Division named 'Viking" for the offensive on occupied Russian land. The Russian Army's special group of seven snipers named "Zvezda" is sent for a reconnaissance operation behind the enemy lines in the back of the Nazi Tank Division. Two previous Russian groups never came back. The seven Russians know that they are going to an almost certain Death for the sake of Victory.

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LPs by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoi. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.