Russian Ark

Confession

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.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Agnès Varda: From Here to There

Agnès Varda travels around the world to meet friends, artists and filmmakers for an expansive view of the global contemporary art scene.

Closeness

1998, Nalchik. A Jewish family is in trouble: the youngest son and his bride do not come home, and in the morning, a ransom note arrives. The ransom is so high that the family is forced not only to sell its small business, but also to seek help from its fellow tribesmen.

The Sun

A re-imagination of Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s final days in power as WWII draws to a close.

Faust

A doctor in early 19th-century Germany becomes infatuated with the sister of a man he unintentionally killed and bargains with the Devil incarnate to conjure their union in exchange for his soul.

Mother and Son

A man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.

Francofonia

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

Voice of Sokurov

Five years in the making, based on six lengthy interviews filmed on six different locations in Saint Petersburg, we meet an outspoken artist who covers here his entire life and prolific career. The locations were Sokurov’s own favourites, where he felt at home.

Agnès Varda: From Here to There

Agnès Varda takes us on a journey of discovery as she travels the globe—from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City to Los Angeles—meeting with friends, artists, and fellow filmmakers.

The Degraded

This film was Sokurov's first feature at Lenfilm, roughly based on a short story by the contemporary Soviet writer Grigory Baklanov about the transitional period from power to subordinance.

Moloch

In 1942 Bavaria, Eva is alone, when Adolf arrives with Josef, his wife Magda, and Martin to spend a couple of days without politics.

Alexandra

Elderly Aleksandra visits her Russian soldier grandson, Denis, at the Chechen war front, providing comfort as she tours his army. All the while, Denis ponders the reason for her unexpected appearance.

Taurus

Unfolding over two days in 1924, the film depicts the dying Lenin, world revolutionary and father of the USSR, now powerless and isolated at his Gorki estate. Cared for by his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaia, sister Maniasha, his German doctor and several attendants, Lenin raves about his diminishing faculties, discusses the deaths of great figures (including Marx), rides a car to a picnic in a meadow and ponders his historic legacy.

Days of Eclipse

This bleak late soviet-era drama follows the career of Malyanov, a young medical school graduate who has been sent to work in Turkmenia. Here he runs into a hodge-podge of people of differing ethnicities, all of them victims of the government's earlier mania for relocating and eliminating whole ethnic groups and classes of people. These desperately unhappy people are unable to find any pleasure in this diverse companionship, but instead are antagonistic to it, and often resort to desperate measures in their doomed attempts to ease their pain.

Father and Son

In this dreamlike film, a nameless father and his son, Aleksei, live together in an apartment in St. Petersburg. Aleksei's mother has died and consequently the two have a very close relationship. When Aleksei acquires a girlfriend, she refuses to take a back seat to his bond with his dad, and breaks up with him. Aleksei is also experiencing nightmares, dreading separation from his father to be a part of the military as his father was.

Momo

Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a powerful international corporation starts stealing everybody’s time, nobody has any time left for her, let alone their friends or families. Momo, together with Master Hora, the custodian of time, are the only ones who can go up against the time thieves before all is lost forever.

The Last Mimzy

Two siblings begin to develop special talents after they find a mysterious box of toys, and soon their parents and even their teacher are drawn into a strange new world – and find a task ahead of them that is far more important than any of them could imagine.

Crusade in Jeans

Dolf a 15 year old boy is sent back in time by a timemachine. Accidentally he is sent back to the Middle Ages. He is rescued by children who are part of a childrens' crusade, on their way to rescue Jeruzalem. During the trip Dolf finds out the danger is not coming from outside the crusade, but from within.

The Time Machine

A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.

Leningrad

When in 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, their troops quickly besieged Leningrad. Foreign journalists are evacuated but one of them, Kate Davies, is presumed dead and misses the plane. Alone in the city she is helped by Nina Tsvetnova a young and idealist police officer and together they will fight for their own survival and the survival of the people in the besieged Leningrad.

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box

When the Goddess of Happiness tosses the Longevity Monk and his disciples out of heaven (because the Monkey King tried to attain immortality), the Monkey King is reincarnated as the Joker. He now spends his time chasing two jealous women. When one of them is dying, the Joker goes back in time in an attempt to save her.

Alienoid: Return to the Future

Ean has a critical mission to return to the future to save everyone. However, she becomes trapped in the distant past while trying to prevent the escape of alien prisoners who are locked up in the bodies of humans. Meanwhile, Muruk, who helps Ean escape various predicaments, is unnerved when he begins sensing the presence of a strange being in his body. Traveling through the centuries, they are trying to prevent the explosion of the haava.

Tourist Trap

After their car breaks down, a group of young travelers find themselves stranded at a roadside museum run by the enigmatic Mr. Slausen and populated by his collection of life-like wax mannequins.

Admiral

This is a story of a great love facing the greatest drama of the history of Russia. Admiral Kolchak is a true war hero and beloved husband and father. One day he meets Anna, the love of his life and the wife of his best friend. The revolution in his heart faces the revolution in his own country His destiny is to become the Supreme Ruler of Russia.

Enemy at the Gates

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

Planet of the Apes

Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.