Crime and punishment – this theme is immortal. Boris Godunov is about conscience and existential choice, connected to the history of a nation. Pushkin himself has stated that in this work, they are tangled in a mysterious knot or pattern. Our choice can also be history’s choice. One wrong individual decision can cause a fatal chain of events. Furthermore, if this person has been granted power, it can affect the whole country.
Cast: Максим Суханов, Ольга Гутшмидт-Остроумова, Михаил Козаков, Андрей Мерзликин, Петр Федоров, Дмитрий Певцов и др.
Directed by: Владимир Мирзоев
He is a clerk, she – a museum employee. He has come to a small provincial town to help the district governor seize the museum’s land in order to build a new residence. But his meeting with Her changes not just his opinion on the situation, but his entire viewpoint on life...
Cast: Федор Бондарчук, Ксения Раппопорт, Ирина Розанова и др..
Directed by: Авдотья Смирнова
Black and white 1960s style. Zhuzha likes the twist and Gerard Philippe movies. Petya plays the dulcimer and loves his Moskvich with the engine of a Zaporozhets. The third person doesn’t like talking about himself, and in his presence everyone else should shut up too...
The film Indifference was created as a declaration of love. Filming began in 1989, but it could not be completed, and the director returned to the material 20 years later.
Cast: Fyodor Bondarchuk, Aleksandr Bashirov, Olga Shorina, Sergey Bragin, Artem Prokin, Alexei Taratorin, Yuri Pavlov, Alexander Sazonov, Andrey Abramov, Andrey Romanov, Dmitri Nezhvedski, Inna Vikhodtseva, Nikolay Kokhturev, Elizaveta Buzdakova, Vera Panfilova, Aleksey Kozin, Oksana Litvinova, Yulia Sokolova
Directed by: Oleg Flyangolts
A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Casting: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Blanca Suárez, Jan Cornet
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Thirteen year-old Marta has recently moved back to her native region of Italy with her mother and older sister and struggles to find her place on her own, restlessly testing the boundaries of the unfamiliar city. Marta’s only source of socialization is the local church, where she attends a series of catechism classes in preparation for her upcoming confirmation. A gritty exploration of a realistic coming-of-age tale that tackles questions of faith in impoverished southern Italy.
Cast: Yile Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Pasqualina Scuncia, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentieri
Directed by: Alice Rohrwacher
Police officer Gromov, surgeon Kaminsky and taxi driver Mozerov are a smashing trio. During the old school days they played in a band called Gromozeka, and as the local rebels were the idols for their schoolmates and horror for the teachers. A lot has changed since then and each of them has their own different troubles: one is futilely waiting for the well-deserved promotion, another is having a hard time maneuvering between his wife and his lover, but the daughter of the third is featuring in porn videos. Despite the long time passed since they saw each other last, Gromozeka is united on stage at a school reunion party in order to play the greatest hits of the 1980s.
Cast: Nikolay Dobrynin, Boris Kamorzin, Leonid Gromov, Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya, Polina Filonenko
Directed by: Vladimir Kott
Bibinur is already of age, and her last dream does not bring happy tidings. She sees herself, aged five, walking through a blossoming orchard, beckoned by her dead relatives sitting in the trees. Bibinur realizes she has only five days left, and she must use this time to set the old debts straight to pass on to the other side peacefully. Suddenly the usual quietness of the village is disturbed by the arrival of businessmen and landowners who start fixing shady deals. One of them spends the night at Bibinur’s house, where he is about to have several surprising revelations.
Cast: Firdaus Akhtyamova, Ernest Timerkhanov, Ruslan Mustafin
Directed by: Juri Feting
On a water-skiing outing, a girl drives a speedboat and pulls a young man, when a crash occurs. After waking up from a coma, the man embarks on a mysterious travel – an odyssey where intuition and telepathy accelerates the journey in time. Dharma Guns revisits the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice fighting with the tyranny of Time-God. At a time when the industrial death of cinema seems to have been rationally, technically and economically organized, a cinema of poetry and fantastical adventure – intentionally created in a B-movie style – is possible.
Cast: Guy McKnight, Elvire, Lionel Tua, Diogo Doria
Directed by: F.J. Ossang
Habemus Papam is a traditional announcement in Latin, meaning “We Have a Pope!” The conclave of cardinals has spent several days in isolation, considering the candidates. The crowd of people in the St. Peter’s Square has also been waiting patiently. Everyone’s attention is suspended in tension until the moment the new pope appears on the balcony and greets all the believers. However, an unexpected problem occurs as the new pope has a panic attack. A famous psychoanalyst, an atheist, is called to help.
Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa
Directed by: Nanni Moretti
Bettina and Marcus is a passionate couple living in a canteen in the middle of a plain field dotted by never-ending rows of poles. Marcus, trying to create his own company, has become an electrician. Bored Bettina manages the workers’ canteen and longs for a better life. Their nine-year-old daughter Tessa avoids school whenever possible and wanders through the industrial area, looking for various things to entertain herself. The casual way of life changes its pattern when Marcus hires a Hungarian engineer to work in the company. A tragic accident shatters the fragile harmony.
Cast: Lisbeth Gruwez, Sam Louwyck, Kimke Desart, Zoltan Miklos Hajdu
Directed by: Caroline Strubbe
JØRGEN LETH (Denmark, 1937) is a true living cultural icon. Theatre, film and jazz critic, poet, writer, sports commentator, and anthropologist, having travelled to Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and India, and having written volumes on his observations. He is also a leading figure in experimental documentary filmmaking with several dozens of films in his filmography. His surrealistic short The Perfect Human (1967) was later famously explored in The Five Obstructions (2003), co-directed with Lars von Trier. The Erotic Man, Leth's docu-fictional account of his sexual encounters with women in third world countries, is a collection of scenes based on documents, letters, pictures and poems that depict man's erotic nature. The controversially reviewed film premiered at the 2010 Toronto IFF.
Cast: Alexander Gruszynski, Dan Holmberg, Adam Philp
Directed by: Jorgen Leth
Marian, a middle-aged nurse, devotes herself to her patients like a saint. Sometimes she even takes on the role of a redeemer, by helping the gravely ill to the soothing order of ultimate silence. When she gets linked to a neighbour in an act of common voyeurism she becomes fascinated by him. Faced with the fragility of these newfound emotions, Marian surrenders to her human needs...
Cast: Bien de Moor, Lars Eidinger, Annemarie Prins, Sophie van Winden
Directed by: Urszula Antoniak