Gennadiy Garbuk

Each of the short stories is based on either one or several stories by a wonderful Russian writer. The heroes are ordinary people “of the people”, contemporaries of Shukshin, all of whose life’s ups and downs are inextricably linked with their country - the Soviet Union of the 60s-70s. The main thing that unites both the works themselves and the films made is a whole gallery of the brightest images and characters, a story about such different destinies and differently meaningful lives, a story in the center of which is invariably Man, with his love, quests, weaknesses and victories.

The film covers the heroic defence of the Brest Fortress, which was attacked during the first strike of German invaders on June 22 1941. The story describes the events of the first days of the defence, including the three main resistance zones, headed by the regiment commander, Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov, the commissar Efim Moiseevich Fomin and the head of the 9th frontier outpost, Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov. Many years later veteran Alexander Akimov again recalls the memories of the time, when he, then a 15 year old Sasha Akimov was deeply in love with the beautiful Anya and suddenly found himself in the middle of the bloody events of war.

June 21, 1941, Brest fortress. Lieutenant Andrey Kizhevatov, Major Pyotr Gavrilov and Commissar Yefim Fomin were engaged in daily business. There was also a boy trumpeter Sasha Akimov from the regimental orchestra, who secretly smoked and selflessly loved the girl Vera. None of the servicemen knew that the next morning they would become the commanders of the last three hotbeds of resistance, and the boy was the only link between them in the stone cauldron of the first object of attack by Nazi troops in the USSR, the Brest Fortress.

The location is the Belarusian forests, close to the Polish border, during Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944. The Red Army is preparing to advance, but on one segment of the front there are two serious obstacles: an unnamed hill, and a highly skilled German sniper. The local commander, Major Inozemtsev, suspects that the hill is a trap.

In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men. A grand-scale film with excellent leading roles by Mamonov and Yankovsky. An allegory of Stalinist Russia

No description available.

No description available.

The young artist Burtsev goes to Paris about the inheritance left to him by his uncle, who left for France with the first wave of emigrants. There, he is expected by the hostility of some persons interested in the inheritance, and the open sympathies of others - the old man Yerikhonov and his daughter Asya, who fell in love with Burtsev.

A funny story about Fyodor - the oldest person in the village - and his three sons.

Paleographer and writer Anton Glebovich Kosmich finds in the binding of an ancient book a parchment with encrypted information about treasures hidden in the dungeon of the castle. It gradually becomes clear that the last scion of the family of the Olshansky princes, who collaborated with the Nazis during the war, is also looking for the treasure. In the dungeon of the castle, along with treasures of the 17th century, materials from the SD archive are also hidden. The spaceman is in mortal danger.

A woman defends during World War II her home and her family against Hitler's soldiers.

Two noblemen from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania clash because one refuses to free his servant - a girl. The second joins a peasant revolt and takes over the castle.

The film is based on real events described in the documentary novel by Soviet writer Ivan Novikov, Ruins Shoot Point Blank, dedicated to the heroes of the Minsk underground during the WWII.

After researcher Yuri Sergeev fails to report to work, local police officer Ilya Sergeev opens an investigation into his disappearance.

Father Alexander is trying to maintain peaceful life for his church amidst the Nazi occupation during WWII.

Ivan Khristoforov discovers the strange property of foreseeing explosions. Trying to understand the reason and meaning of this unusual ability, he turns to family history. The attention of the secret public service doesn't bode well for Khristoforov. The imaginary journey of the hero in his past, bearing the imprint of a children's worldview, and the present, at times just like a dream.

Belarus, summer 1942. The war has moved on, far off to the east. The life of a small town where the German authorities of the region have set themselves up is getting back to "normal". The Germans study Russian, flirt with the local girls, the women wash their clothes and feed them. They have to carry on somehow... But suddenly the teenage son of the film's heroine decides to run away to the partisans and blows up a German train so that they could accept him. He gets caught and the Germans have to execute him in order "to teach others a lesson". That's the order and it can't be disobeyed. The Germans know that this execution will bring an end to their peaceful lives. The local commandant understands this better than anyone as he is already involved in a close relationship with the boy's mother. But he can't ignore an order from his commanders...

Focuses on the lives of two married Polish couples (one Jewish, one Catholic) and the personal and social devastation wrought by the Holocaust and its aftermath.

The story of the Siberian Zavarzin family, which has long lived by bee trade. After an incomprehensible virus entered the hives one day, accusations between two neighboring farms reached the intensity of a real war. After all, if there are no bees, then there is no life, and you have to go to the city. The village began to empty before our eyes. The disintegration also occurs within the Zavarzin family: the eldest son gets drunk, the middle one is going to emigrate, the younger one goes crazy, the uncle rages with fat, not knowing where to put his money. And nothing can unite the once strong family anymore.

In the 1920s, Soviet power came to the remote areas of the Polessky marshes. However, the wealthy landowners of the village of Kureny had no intention of giving their land to the peasants. Gangs intimidated the people. But the peasants themselves took the first step: the entire village set out to build a causeway across the marsh-road to a new life.