Discover the best of Russian cinema, film, and television
Discover the definitive list of popular and critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows from Russia. Find your next binge-watch, streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
The cinema of Russia
Russian cinema is a world of epic soul and staggering ambition, a film culture that has given the world some of its greatest artists and most innovative ideas. Its story is built on the shoulders of giants. In the early Soviet era, Sergei Eisenstein revolutionised the very language of film with his pioneering theories of montage, unleashing the power of editing in masterpieces like Battleship Potemkin. Decades later, the visionary Andrei Tarkovsky created a different kind of cinema: a spiritual, poetic, and philosophical journey in timeless classics like Solaris and Stalker. This incredible legacy has powered its modern era. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a new blockbuster cinema emerged, with directors like Timur Bekmambetov creating slick, visually inventive hits like Night Watch that found global success. At the same time, the art-house tradition remains fiercely alive, with modern masters like Andrei Zvyagintsev earning Oscar nominations for their profound and powerful dramas. This storytelling ambition now fuels a new age of high-quality television series, often exploring history and crime with the same epic scope. What makes Russian cinema so enduring is this very blend of grand scale and deep, philosophical inquiry. It is a cinema that dares to ask the biggest questions, painted on the largest possible canvas.
Best Russian series
Better Than Us 2018
Moscow in a not so distant future where human beings share their daily lives with robots. Georgy, a forensic who has a robot assistant, suddenly finds himself caught up in the first murder committed by a new kind of experimental humanoid.
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To the Lake 2019
A grim drama that unfolds against the backdrop of a global catastrophe. An unknown new virus turns Moscow into a city of the dead. Money loses its value and those not yet infected struggle desperately for food and survival.
69
The Kitchen 2012
Maksim "Max" Lavrov wants to become a great chef. But he finds out that the kitchen isn't the place for an easy career. And at restaurant "Claude Monet," this job looks to be harder and much more complicated than just cooking.
81
Brigada 2002
A quartet of childhood pals who create a business together find themselves at the core of a powerful Moscow gang in the aftermath of an unplanned murder.
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Interny 2010
Witness the life of four young medical interns who experience various hilarious situations every day with their mentor and the hospital staff.
72
P. E. Teacher 2014
Retired mobster tries to get back in business by making friends with the kid of his ex-boss. To do so, he must became PE teacher in kid's school.
70
Best Russian movies
Hardcore Henry 2015
Henry, a newly resurrected cyborg who must save his wife/creator from the clutches of a psychotic tyrant with telekinetic powers, AKAN, and his army of mercenaries. Fighting alongside Henry is Jimmy, who is Henry's only hope to make it through the day. Hardcore Henry takes place over the course of one day, in Moscow, Russia.
66
Sputnik 2020
At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander’s mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him…
65
Guardians 2017
During the Cold War, an organization called "Patriot" created a superhero squad, which includes members of multiple Soviet republics. For years, the heroes had to hide their identities, but, in hard times, they must show themselves again.
56
Attraction 2017
After an alien ship crash lands in a Russian city, many who see the inside and the occupants start to question their own existence while others demand the aliens leave Earth.
65
Night Watch 2004
Among normal humans live the "Others" possessing various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day Moscow the dark Others actually roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" of light forces, among them Anton, the movie's protagonist, try to control them and limit their outrage
67
Leviathan 2014
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
72