Best Russian documentary movies

After the death of her son Julia seemed to be frozen. I can not regain consciousness. But she believes in a new meeting with the one she lost.

On a remote coast of the Russian Arctic in a wind-battered hut, a lonely man waits to witness an ancient gathering. But warming seas and rising temperatures bring an unexpected change, and he soon finds himself overwhelmed.

After surviving poisoning by a Novichok nerve agent, Alexey Navalny made his most important film. Putin's Palace: History of World's Largest Bribe is about the palace near Gelendzhik that presumably belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also shows vineyards, corruption schemes and more.

A 2017 Russian documentary film about alleged corruption by Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. The film claims that Dmitry Medvedev has embezzled an estimated $1.2 billion.

An Ural city of Nizhniy Tagil. Summer is over and a ten years old Vadim is moving to a new district and attends a new school. The last warm days of September. Vadim is making his way through the fading rays of the autumn sun.

An account of the life and work of Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky (1932-86) in his own words: his memories, his vision of art and his reflections on the fate of the artist and the meaning of human existence; through extremely rare audio recordings that allow a complete understanding of his inner life and the mysterious world existing behind his complex cinematic imagery.

For the besieged Leningrad, the primary need was bread. But it was equally important to ensure the smooth operation of transport communications. In order for the city to live, people had to go to the factories, soldiers - to the front; it was necessary to transport a huge amount of cargo… The most indispensable transport was the tram.

The images comprise only of material Sergei Loznitsa found in the Moscow film archives about the siege of Leningrad during the World War II. By providing the originally silent images with a meticulously reconstructed soundtrack, the scenes from everyday life under siege seem to be set in the present. By not intervening in the montage but giving the scenes room to tell a story, the scenes transcend the specific historic events and lead a new life. They do not evoke memories of the past, but become a breathtaking reanimation of reality.

Khodorkovsky, the richest Russian, challenges President Putin. A fight of the titans begins. Putin warns him. But Khodorkovsky comes back to Russia knowing that he will be imprisoned, once he returns. When I heard about it, I asked myself: why didn't he stay in exile with a couple of billions? Why did he do that? A personal journey to Khodorkovsky.

A meld of legendary performers and contemporary artists of today who have been influenced by Ray's music perform in this concert extravaganza.

Artem loves Yulia, Yulia loves Artem. They recently graduated from school, moved to Moscow and began an independent life. In search of part-time jobs, Artem comes up with the idea of creating another image from Yulia - Eva Elfie - and making an amateur video for Pornhub. Suddenly, the video becomes popular, Eva gets more and more job offers, and Artem becomes the boyfriend and producer of a world celebrity. The heroes seem to fall into the "American dream", but in their personal lives there are more and more problems and doubts.

The true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov.

With the participation of Fyodor Konyukhov. An extreme and beautiful route in the Russian Arctic. A path of ten thousand kilometers through the harsh lands of the North. For the first time in modern history, the legendary route of Semyon Dezhnev, the great Russian Explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia of the 17th century, was explored and filmed in a unique visual diary of hard-to-reach places that nobody had seen before. The most picturesque and inaccessible places in Russia, from Arkhangelsk to Chukotka, are now closer thanks to the film.

A documentary about Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, a pioneer in color photography of early 20th-century Russia.

BORN TO BE FREE is a revelatory investigation by three intrepid free-diving journalists, Gaya, Tanya and Julia, into the global trade in wild sea mammals. Their journey takes us to the most remote corners of Russia and witnesses, for the very first time, the shocking treatment that whales, dolphins and walruses are subjected to and discovers the corruption at the heart of this cruel international business.

Documentary film-investigation of financial frauds of persons close to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika.

The film details the early years of the legendary Siberian Punk/Rock group 'Гражданская Оборона' (Grazhdanskaya Oborona), and its frontman, Egor Letov.

What is the Russian death? Author of the film walking at different cemeteries and search answer at this question.

Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow.

The Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is the most powerful in Russia and the sixth most powerful in the world. It was built during the Soviet Union, from 1963 to 1978 on the Yenisei River in Siberia. In 2009, one of the world's largest man-made disasters occurred at the hydroelectric power station, which claimed the lives of 75 people. It took five years and 40 billion rubles to resume operation of the station. And although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been established, the engineers accused of the accident have been jailed. The accident showed that the Soviet legacy is still firmly in the minds of people, many of whom live in the past and are afraid of the future. The wear and tear of equipment, the backwardness of technology, corruption, a corrupt court, and propaganda based on the cult of "back to the USSR" portend new man-made disasters…

The history of Jewish people in Russia up until the 1917 revolution.

A quantum physicist teaches students at the university summer camp.

From the Barents Sea, a chill wind seems to blow constantly across a semi-deserted town at the edge of the world. Nevertheless, a little community holds out here. In a flawlessly filmed portrait of this extraordinary place, the theme linking the residents is their determination to chart their own course. Bardak was a marine, but his garrison broke up and his comrades sought a better life elsewhere. He stayed behind among the many empty buildings that are slowly but surely being consumed by the elements. Meanwhile, Dima, a young poacher​, flouts as many rules as he can, but gives friendly directions to lost tourists and reads lovingly to his little daughter. Ferryman Alexander is locked in a silent generational battle with his teenage daughter Masha; her eyes are on the outside world. Further along, a little team of ships from the Second World War turns up, and a woman steadfastly runs a weather station.

Sockeye, a species of wild salmon, is born in Kamchatkan waters and spends its entire life in the Pacific Ocean. Only once does it return to fresh waters — to give offspring, start the circle of life, and die. It is an inexhaustible resource that feeds billions of people on the planet, restored every year. But soon, we may find ourselves facing the unimaginable: humans will exhaust the inexhaustible.

To ensure that the viewer guessed in the name of Ilfipetrov that Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov were separate, the authors collected an impressive evidence base: live testimonies were obtained in Moscow, Odessa, Yaroslavl, Paris, New York; in the exact repetition of the route of "One-storied America", in miraculously preserved family archives.

In September Zemfira organized a mini-tour in honor of the re-release of the first three albums. Solo performance at the Moscow concert hall "Crocus City Hall", September 17, 2010.

Two young intellectuals, Katya and Vassya, come to a small industrial town to work as teachers. They want to change the system of scholastic education and the social situation in difficult regions. The school is a closed conservative world, where obedience and discipline are of the highest value. Young teachers discover that nationalism, sexism and homophobia are typical for their new environment. Children see the school as a prison and are completely indifferent to any new ideas. During one school year we observe attempts of our protagonists to bring new practices into the system. Young teachers try to speak with children about feminism, human rights and Russian politics, but the system pushes them out, and a comedy turns into a drama.

Film research of design in Russia. Many believe that a specifically Russian approach to design does not exist. But what if they underestimate the influence of culture, history and surrounding reality on the style and aesthetic guidelines of those who shape our visual environment? Natasha Klimchuk, Tim Cherny and Olya Morozova, leaders of the Bang Bang Education online design school, have assembled a company of 33 contemporary Russian designers. Among them are many famous names: Artemy Lebedev, Valery Golyzhenkov, Pokras Lampas, Anton Schneider, Denis Bashev, Oleg Pashchenko. They all speak and think in Russian and are inevitably inspired by what has become part of our everyday life, books, practices, rituals, holidays, economics, historical memory and fashion. With the help of these 33 guides, the almanac will try to find the features and boundaries of our national perception of beauty and look at what ethical and aesthetic values ​​we carry to the world.

Fellow poets, excited ladies, the love of his life, Marina Basmanova, two psychiatric hospitals, KGB interrogations, a People's Court, prison, exile, forced emigration. All of this was Brodsky's Leningrad. The biography, which was written for, in Akhmatova's words, "our red-head". On the fourth of June 1972, when the plane carrying Brodsky took off from Pulkovo airport, this biography ended. And a new life began that almost no one in his homeland is aware of. Russia, America, Italy, Sweden, Finland - the filmmakers have traced the journey of their hero, perhaps the most well-traveled of all Russian writers. The places, that became his biography. And the people, that defined his fate.

Educational project and documentary. The purpose of the almanac is to give a systematic picture of the path that design has taken from the Bauhaus school until 2018.

The Northerners is a cycle of film essays with a focus on northern individualism. Each one of the three parts plays out in different places around the Kola Peninsula over one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people who share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a dynasty of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vasily is a tug master at Murmansk’s commercial port; Volodya is a woodcutter, leader of a logging guild. Like most of those living in the north of Russia, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying, they ended up staying forever.

Using the example of Georgia, the film's authors explore various historical and contemporary events related to Russia's aggressive foreign policy with respect to neighboring (and not only!) Countries, trying to understand their causes and answer difficult questions. What is the fundamental difference between the Russian world and Western civilization? What were and are the methods and tools of Russian politics? What influence does foreign policy have on domestic, in particular, on a person’s position, his fundamental rights and freedoms?

Papa Srapa is the main shaman of the Russian avant-garde sound. Noise musician known for his insane, mind-blowing noise performances. An artist and inventor who creates completely unpredictable synthesizers, each of which is a unique object of art. Surprisingly, it is the USSR that is the birthplace of industrial music. Back in the 1920s, Dziga Vertov recorded musical compositions from the sounds of a sawmill, and Arseny Avraamov created a symphony entirely consisting of the sounds of the city: factory whistles, whistling steam and the sounds of aircraft. With this film, we want to introduce to the world a modern representative of a century-old underground tradition who has dedicated his life to noise, performance and synthesis.

A documentary investigation by Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation about corruption and "theft" of Margarita Simonyan and Tigran Keosayan during the filming of the film "Crimean Bridge. Made with Love!"

The poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya (1936-2013) gained wide popularity first of all as a participant in the dissident movement and one of those legendary eight who on August 25, 1968 went to the Red Square to protest against the invasion of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, having paid for this several years of imprisonment. She was often called the heroine. She objected: "I'm not a heroine, I'm just an ordinary person." The authors of the film shot Gorbanevskaya for several years, asking questions that worried her as a poet, forced them to go to the square, and how her fate developed after forced emigration from the USSR.

Tatyana and Artem have been living together for twenty-five years. They have two natural children who are now grown, and a constantly changing number of adopted children. Parents leave their children to Tatyana and Artem's family for temporary upbringing. They are trusted by guardianship authorities, parents who cannot cope with themselves and the responsibilities of raising children, neighbors and older students. But they are not trusted by people who accidentally meet them at the crossroads of fate or social networks. The story is not only about the family of Tatiana and Artem, but also about the distrust of each of us in the kindness and mercy of others.

A film about the life and fate of a real Russian patriot. All his thoughts, dreams and hopes are inextricably linked with the greatness of the Fatherland. However, over time, cognitive dissonance suddenly penetrates into his consciousness, which did not know reproaches and doubts. Finding himself in a severe existential crisis, the hero of the film paradoxically and contradictory rethinks the concept of patriotism.

The film intertwines two parallel realities. The first one is the rehearsal of the play “The Little Prince”, which is conducted by the actor Alexander Zhdanovich with actors - children from a psycho-neurological boarding school. The second is the different spheres of life in which heroes appear, revealing their inner world, their state of mind in the present moment. Loneliness, love, impossibility to love, a feeling of confusion, mercy, joy of children from the orphanage ...

Full-length musical film, built on footage of the concert Zemfira in the Green Theatre of Gorky Park of the city of Moscow

200 years ago, the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov was born. The young man with huge eyes: his portrait is known to everyone since school. Lermontov wrote poetry, fought, fell in love, and was killed in a duel. Short life of 27 years. But what do we know about the real Lermontov? Biographical documentary-feature film tells in detail about the life of an outstanding person and a great poet.

Portrait of a troubled peasant family. The film tells the story of two times widow Anna Belova who lives together with her brother Mikhail. Blending the two personalities, Kosakovsky characterizes the true Russian soul: she is the rational worker, honest and strong - he is the drunken poet, the idealist, his philosophy fades into radical nonsense time after time.

The first feature film about KVN. A unique project filmed at the KVN festival in Sochi without the permission of the festival organizers. The history of this path to the heights of the youth game itself.

The creators explore what the cross is like as a cornerstone symbol for humanity, what its installation on Earth means for people and how this changed the picture of the world of peoples and generations.

The «Eye of God» is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum. It shows how progressive and pro-West Russians can be, when it comes to comprehending the essence of beauty. Ivan Tsvetayev, a village priest's son, the founder of the museum, wanted the new generation of "Ivans" to understand that we are Europe, while Antiquity is our mutual cradle.

In 2013, Dima Ilukhin, the cousin of the film’s director and a soldier in the Russian army, died on duty in the Republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus. He was 21 years old. This incident marks the starting point for Abaturov’s reflection on the military. He films the training of new recruits in Siberia, as they bid farewell to their mothers and girlfriends, learn the mechanics of a Kalashnikov, or how to throw a hand grenade and administer first aid. While his parents try to cope with their loss, Dima’s former fellow recruits have to return to battle.

Seven months of filming brown bear cubs life resulted in a movie that allows to plunge into the beauty of wild nature, and experience a boundary, beyond which a man should not interfere.

The memory of World War II is the only thing that makes a small Russian town alive. Like a great treasure this memory is preserved here in every home and is passed on from generation to generation. Yet exactly this memory prevents people from understanding that despite their own will they are getting involved in a new war.

The classic story of a woman seeking love. She has aggravating circumstances, or rather, she has a child without alimony, she is unemployed and she is 27 years old. Will Masha meet a man?

A film almanac, in which modern Russian designers and design studios reflect on what we can show the world in addition to Balalaika and Khokhloma. Let's trace the history of Russian visual culture — from the appearance of the Cyrillic alphabet and folk crafts to constructivism, Soviet DIY and metamodern. Let's analyze the visual language of Russian icons, find the motifs of folk costume in modern fashion, look at the Baroque, classicism, Art Nouveau and other styles from the perspective of modern design. We will try to decode our culture and find something valuable in the forgotten together with well-known designers Anton Schneider, Regina Turbina, Alexey Ivanovsky, Tatiana Egoshina, design studios FYD, CLAN, ONY,Just Be Nice, White Russian Studio and more.

The Great Cross procession is considered the largest and most difficult pilgrimage route in Russia. Many participants in the course believe that if you go this way with pure thoughts and a specific request to God, then it will be fulfilled. The main character of the film Leonid also has a request - an intimate dream. And there is a feeling that for him this religious procession is the last.

Chronicle of the life of shift workers in a mining pit in Eastern Siberia. Workers spend a significant part of their lives away from home and loved ones, doing physical labor for 12 hours a day for the only decent income in their region.

A documentary about Boris Nemtsov, a prominent figure of Russian political opposition and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was murdered in Moscow in February of 2015.

Yes, Maria Sharapova is one of the greatest to ever play the game of tennis. Yes, she is beautiful, poised and articulate. Yes, her marketability among female athletes is unrivaled. Yes, she was embroiled in a controversy that resulted in suspension. Yet, despite all of this, the real Maria Sharapova is widely unknown. Told in her own words, with a raw intimacy never before revealed, the_point. spans the most pivotal year in Maria Sharapova’s life.

The plot revolves around the rehearsal of the play “Excitement” in which Freindlikh is to play a famous American writer from New York. The actress and director have heated debates about the eccentric character. They discuss the process of creation, its mysterious mechanisms, the birth of a work of art in general. They also talk about the world around Alisa outside the theatre – her family, home, friends, interests and her beloved St. Petersburg. The film is meant to commemorate the great Russian actress’s 85th anniversary.

The film is a trip to the planet Muscovy - an upside-down twin city of Moscow in space. As the title of the work suggests, the journey also takes us back in time. Gliding over the surface of the planet, we look down and see historic architectural styles fly by - the exuberant Socialist Classicism, aka Stalinist Empire, the austere and brutish Soviet Modernism, and the hodgepodge of contemporary knock-offs and revivals of the styles of the past. An essential companion to this journey through time and space are Hymnic Variations on the Soviet anthem.

People came to the rally. Why are they here, what do they want to change and why do they leave so early? In a role of themselves - young and elderly citizens of Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Enter Shikari Russia Tour Documentary

Imagine one of the most remote wildernesses in the world. Granddaughter Masha and Vladimir, the protagonists of this story from Central Siberia try the impossible to keep their nomadic traditions alive.

Sex guru, feminist, an adherent of polyamoric relations and one of the organizers of the Kinki Academy Elena Rydkina is engaged in education in the field of sex culture - she lectures, conducts master classes and trainings.

In this film the author (Pavel Grinyov) talks about the gaming console Dandy, which was very popular in the Russian Federation in the 90 years of the late 20th century. In particular, the film is explained in detail about how there was also covered by the game console in Russia and pirate games, which have been distributed. Dandy had a logo in the form of a gray elephant, a curse word in this context means low-quality pirated games.