Vladimir Pavlov

18 directors, 18 novels, 18 short stories about Moscow...

No synopsis available yet.

The plot is not developed; in the film we see a man (he) and a woman (she) who, in fact, are neither connected nor familiar with each other; they casually met in hospital. "She" (Viktoria Tolstoganova) does not see that she is in danger in connection with her plan to use a tape with illegally made recordings as compromising evidence in court. "He" (Il'ia Shakunov, an actor of the Petersburg TYuZ) is a gay translator who, after the random meeting with her, is pursued by her image which frequently pops up in front of him. As a consequence, his relationship with a young boy no longer satisfies him. Both he and she lose sight of the meaning of life, because of their own inability to see others and to see love, as perception relies on proximity instead of distance.

This is a story about the battle for a hospital building in Grozny (Chechnya) in January 1995 between Russian Army forces and Chechen rebels supported by Arabian mujahideen and international mercenaries. Although the story is fictional, most of the characters are based on real-life prototypes and events are the compilation of true events during the Grozny Siege in the First Chechen War.

A visiting German entrepreneur, Hugo Pectoralis, discovers the secrets of the Russian character and the absurdities of Russian life. This proves to be precisely the case when calculation, confronted with naive stupidity, proves powerless against it. As usual, three intellectuals at a table, whether today or in Leskov's time, signify the same thing: an eternal and never-ending debate about the mysteries of the Russian soul and the twists and turns of the national character.

The action takes place in the early 1950s. The endless meetings of the rural district party committee occupy almost all of the simple collective farmers' time, preventing them from working and solving their everyday problems...

Borders guard are trying to catch a group of smugglers using the cruise ship to move a contraband.