Danila goes to his successful brother, Victor, in Petersburg to start a new life. Unknown to Danila, Victor is a contract killer, but is in hiding after asking for too much money to assassinate a Chechen mob boss. To avoid exposure, Victor convinces Danila to kill the boss instead.
Closely based on Franz Kafka's book "Das Schloß", the movie shares the same action on a land surveyor who is called to a village to do a job that no one seems to have ordered. Once there, he takes up the struggle against bureaucracy emanating from the castle.
A bizarre tale of a fictional experiment performed during the Stalin-controlled years in the USSR. The main character is changed from a woman into a man. This is part of a larger plan to change more women into men and have a stronger workforce.
To earn money for married life, a young engaged man takes a job as an engineer on a privately operated oil drilling rig in the far North of Russia. A friend's letter brings the sad news that his fiancée has already married someone else and in desperation he quits his job and flies back to Moscow. There all his vast efforts to win her back seem in vain...
A young Russian store clerk has a drab existence in times of shortages and is berated by her ailing mother for not seeing men. So she brings home an unknown young man who she met on the tram. She dreams many things but pines for this man.
Based on a famous short story by Pushkin, this film tells of a youthful, innocent and pure love story that begins as a girlish joke. Liza is eager to get to know her young neighbor but cannot do so as their fathers are not on speaking terms. Her response is simple and direct. With the help of her loyal servant Nastya, she dresses up as a peasant girl and goes pick mushrooms in the nearby woods....
A wife finds her life transformed after a torrid affair in this story of murder. Katia is a rather dull young woman who types manuscripts for Irina, her husband’s mother and successful writer of romance novels. Katia’s husband is a real momma’s boy. They go to Irina’s summer house to work. There Katia encounters the intense and sexy Serguei who creates passionate longings with in her. Overcome she and Serguei engage in vigorous love-making upon a windowsill where Irina sees them. Irina has a weak heart. Quiet Katia, having rediscovered the joys of sex, changes and becomes more assertive and flighty. Serguei quickly loses interest in her. Strange and deadly things begin happening at the summer house which calls the attention of a judge who is extremely familiar with Irina’s writing.
A popular middle-aged writer is warned by a fortuneteller that he will die in exactly 24 hours. He then meets a man, who claims to be him. The writer uses this bizarre situation to change his life and take revenge.
The cat in the bag arrives in Russia as part of humanitarian aid from America and gets young drunk and mountain-the patriot Karabasov, which offers to emigrate to America. Flying on the magic cat which uses the tail as a propeller, dropped over Europe. There conceited young man forgets about the invaluable services rendered him puss in boots, and he returns ungrateful back to Russia...
Two people meet one another in a multi-million city...
Almanac of five short stories commissioned by ROSKOMKINO to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema.
Former criminal Sergei meets Vera - an elderly unhappy woman who lives in a dormitory. After Sergei commits another crime, they run together and along the way they accidentally get into a zone contaminated by radiation. Sergei decides to stay there, but Vera does not leave him. At that moment three looters come to the territory.
Knowing that he will soon pass on, elderly Valentin Grack hires private detective Stanislav to follow him around for an entire day and write down everything that he does. It is a cold day and during Grack's travels he encounters a younger woman who addresses him as professor. He then meets a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter, and finally he meets an old woman, his worried wife who has been searching eight days for him. In between meeting the women, Grack finds himself in some almost surreal situations and having flashbacks about his youth.
Russian countess in 1893 has strange dreams about herself living a life as a dishwasher in 1993' Moscow after dissolution of the USSR.
In Soviet days an old peasant woman's hen begins to lay golden eggs. Of course, everyone agrees that she should share the wealth like a good citizen.
Mefody, a wise master, comes to a weird village one day to teach local men wisdom and life. The strange thing about the village is all the men living there are of different nationalities: German, Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian, Uzbek, Gypsy etc.. Mefodi teaches all them the way to understand each other, he speaks about music, cabala, fairy tales, sex etc. Finally all of them become even more friendly to each other and find success in life.
Originally aired on Russian television, this five-part semi-documentary series tells the story of a Russian naval commander in charge of an Arctic-based ship. The film provokes a meditation on solitude and isolation, while revealing the daily duties associated with the ship. Voice-over narration by the commander, other sailors, and even a third-person voice provide the "confession" of the title.
A rich, smart, charming philanthropist from Saint-Petersburg Andrei Rokshin is found dead at home. The culprit is a woman wearing a black veil. Investigator Sinev takes the case.
