Alexey Uchitel

Directing

Alexey Uchitel

Born

1951-08-31 (75)

Place of birth

Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR

Known for

Directing

Credits

42 titles

Aleksei Yefimovich Uchitel (Russian: Алексей Ефимович Учитель; born 31 August 1951; Leningrad) is a Russian film director, screenwriter and producer. In 2002, he received the title People's Artist of Russia. Uchitel was born on 31 August 1951 in Leningrad to the family of documentary filmmaker Yefim Uchitel. In 1975, he graduated from VGIK, worked at the Leningrad studio of documentary films. In 1990, he founded his film studio "Rock". Uchitel's directorial debut was the film Gisele's Mania. In 2000, he received the Nika Award, the Kinotavr Grand Prix and the Crystal Globe nomination for His Wife's Diary. The film was about the last love affair of Ivan Bunin. His 2003 film The Stroll was en…

Known for

The Fool poster
7.8

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

The Fool

2014

The Edge poster
5.8

The action takes place shortly after the end of the Second World War in the Siberian hinterland, among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat, is the embodiment of the larger-than-life image of the Soviet victorious warrior who, in fact, proves to be shell-shocked, sick and broken, although not completely destroyed. Trains become fetish for the heroes of the film, and speed becomes a mania; they virtually become one with their steam engines, while the machines take on human names. The heroes set up an almost fatal race in the Siberian forest, risking their own lives and those of others.

The Edge

2010

Cinema 3.0 poster
NR

The documentary series tells about the history of the new Russian cinema in the context of events that changed Russia forever. The narrative is built in chronological order: from 1992, when the first film was released, where "Russia" was listed in the output data instead of "USSR", to the present. Directors, actors and producers will share their memories of the path in Russian cinema. Among them are Fyodor Bondarchuk, Gosha Kutsenko, Evgeny Tsyganov, Zhora Gooseberry, Pyotr Buslov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Khotinenko, Valeria Guy Germanika, Sergey Selyanov, Egor Konchalovsky and many others.

Cinema 3.0

2023

Mathilde poster
5.8

It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

Mathilde

2017

Once In The Desert poster
7.0

The films follows a Syrian War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by ISIS militants while they prepare the recently liberated historic site of Palmyra to hold a symbolic concert of the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. The peacekeeping event can only be held in Palmyra that has been severely damaged by the terrorists only if the ancient city and the roads leading to it are defused. The EOD team clears the way one kilometer at a time. But the closer they get to the center of Palmyra, the more destructive the explosives. Tension grows between the young team Captain and the most experienced of the EOD experts. And yet, despite their differences, when the team falls into an ambush and the Captain goes missing, it’s the experienced sapper that sets out to search for him.

Once In The Desert

2022

Affect poster
10.0

A dream about a young man, a girl and a retired colonel.

Affect

2022

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

The Fool poster
7.8

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

The Fool

2014

The Edge poster
5.8

The action takes place shortly after the end of the Second World War in the Siberian hinterland, among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat, is the embodiment of the larger-than-life image of the Soviet victorious warrior who, in fact, proves to be shell-shocked, sick and broken, although not completely destroyed. Trains become fetish for the heroes of the film, and speed becomes a mania; they virtually become one with their steam engines, while the machines take on human names. The heroes set up an almost fatal race in the Siberian forest, risking their own lives and those of others.

The Edge

2010

The Edge poster
5.8

The action takes place shortly after the end of the Second World War in the Siberian hinterland, among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat, is the embodiment of the larger-than-life image of the Soviet victorious warrior who, in fact, proves to be shell-shocked, sick and broken, although not completely destroyed. Trains become fetish for the heroes of the film, and speed becomes a mania; they virtually become one with their steam engines, while the machines take on human names. The heroes set up an almost fatal race in the Siberian forest, risking their own lives and those of others.

The Edge

2010

Mathilde poster
5.8

It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

Mathilde

2017

Mathilde poster
5.8

It portrays the memories of Matilda Kshesinskaya and her love affair with the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Matilda, a Polish-born ballerina from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, had a brief and intense romance with Nicholas between 1892 and 1894, before Nicholas married Alexandra Feodorovna and was crowned Tsar after his father's death. It also explores their relationship, facing societal pressures and interference from Nicholas's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as Matilda's involvement with other members of the imperial family, the Romanovs, such as Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.

Mathilde

2017

Once In The Desert poster
7.0

The films follows a Syrian War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by ISIS militants while they prepare the recently liberated historic site of Palmyra to hold a symbolic concert of the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. The peacekeeping event can only be held in Palmyra that has been severely damaged by the terrorists only if the ancient city and the roads leading to it are defused. The EOD team clears the way one kilometer at a time. But the closer they get to the center of Palmyra, the more destructive the explosives. Tension grows between the young team Captain and the most experienced of the EOD experts. And yet, despite their differences, when the team falls into an ambush and the Captain goes missing, it’s the experienced sapper that sets out to search for him.

Once In The Desert

2022

Affect poster
10.0

A dream about a young man, a girl and a retired colonel.

Affect

2022

Streltsov poster
6.1

By the age of twenty, Eduard Streltsov has everything one can dream of: talent, fame and love. He is the rising star of Soviet football. The whole country, with bated breath, expects victory from the national team at the upcoming World Cup where Streltsov is to face the great Brazilian football player Pelé. However, two days before the departure of the team, the sportsman’s enemies manage to destroy his career. When the door to big sport seems to be closed for good, Streltsov has to re-enter the field and prove that he is a true champion who is worth everybody’s love.

Streltsov

2020

The Flying Ship poster
4.7

The Tsar is having his daughter Zabava marry a charmingly handsome and a handsomely charming Paul, a rich heir and a foreign fancy pants. However, it's a bit of a challenge, since Zabava wants a marriage of love, not of calculation. Her unexpected encounter with sailor Ivan, a simpleton yet an honest and endearing guy, messes up Paul's plans of snatching the crown. Deeply in love with the princess, Ivan enlists help from the residents of an enchanted forest to build a Flying Ship which would then take him and his beloved away. The brave sailor is in for serious confrontation with the sneaky Paul, who's using dark magic to bring his unwanted opponent down. However, true love is going to win this battle: with the evil mastermind punished, Ivan and Zabava step aboard the magic Flying Ship and set sail towards a new common dream of theirs.

The Flying Ship

2024

Noise of Time poster
NR

About one of the most famous composers of the 20th century, Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich.

Noise of Time

2027

Mittelmarsch poster
8.0

Petersburg was swept by a wave of an unusual cultural movement: an unknown enthusiast organizes art events, trying to draw attention to forgotten monuments. This enthusiast is Mitya. He is 18. And he keeps a vow of silence. In the world of Mitya's ideas, everything is harmonious and understandable exactly until the energetic trickster Kowalski joins him with his girlfriend, the charming but dependent on him Polina. With new friends, the movement is rapidly gaining momentum: and now young people are already launching an ambitious campaign to save the old greenhouse building from demolition. But the further, the more complex the intertwining relationship within the trinity. And the spark that flared up between Mitya and Polina intensifies the already insoluble ideological dispute between the guys. When the rally on the day of the demolition finally gets out of control, Mitya will have to finally decide what is more important for him - people or monuments.

Mittelmarsch

2023

The Stroll poster
6.2

Today’s twenty-something Russians are the first generation in the country’s post-communist history to have grown up free. Their twenties are the age of freedom, of fast-changing events and intense emotions. Perhaps only at this age they can live a whole life in one day. A young girl and her two accident companions walk halfway around St.-Petersburg; they flirt and tease each other, and for ninety minutes they act out a real-time romantic drama. This stroll is full of laughter and tears against a backdrop of the hustle and bustle of the streets.

The Stroll

2003

The Stroll poster
6.2

Today’s twenty-something Russians are the first generation in the country’s post-communist history to have grown up free. Their twenties are the age of freedom, of fast-changing events and intense emotions. Perhaps only at this age they can live a whole life in one day. A young girl and her two accident companions walk halfway around St.-Petersburg; they flirt and tease each other, and for ninety minutes they act out a real-time romantic drama. This stroll is full of laughter and tears against a backdrop of the hustle and bustle of the streets.

The Stroll

2003

Было не было poster
NR

A student from St. Petersburg, Vasilisa, learns of a fatal diagnosis. She goes to Murmansk to look for her father, whom she has not seen for 20 years. It turns out that strangers have been living in her childhood home for a long time. The girl is ready to give up, but at that moment she begins to receive clues that can lead her to her father.

Было не было

2026

The Battle poster
6.2

The dreams of passionate street dancer Anton are crushed when an accidental injury makes him deaf. But it is exactly at this difficult time that he meets his true love and finds his vocation. Anton learns to listen to the music that comes from the inside and to create his own music through a dance that will never be the same. He starts to teach dancing to kids with hearing impairments and prepares a unique act with them. He takes great risks joining his former team with deaf kids for a new dance to take part in the World Championship.

The Battle

2019

Семейное cчастье (Semeynoe schaste) poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Семейное cчастье (Semeynoe schaste)

2025

The Major poster
6.8

On a cold winter’s day Sergey Sobolev, a major at the local police office, is driving to the hospital where his wife is about to give birth to their child. High from happiness, he’s driving too fast and runs down a boy on a passage walk, who dies. Now the major has only two options: go to prison or conceal the crime. Sobolev decides to compromise with his conscience and calls on a colleague to help him out. But the case turns out to be messy and when Sobolev finally changes his mind and tries to make up for his deed, it’s already too late…

The Major

2013

The Whaler Boy poster
5.9

Everything changes in the life of a young 15-year-old Chukchi hunter Lyoshka with the advent of the Internet in the village. He falls in love – for the first time and deeply – with the silent video chat girl. Upon learning that she lives in Detroit, Lyoshka decides on the most desperate act in his life.

The Whaler Boy

2020

Mitki in Europe, Yolly-pally poster
NR

Film about Mitki - a creative group of St. Petersburg artists, writers and musicians who joined them, - went on a trip to Europe.

Mitki in Europe, Yolly-pally

1990

Mitki in Europe, Yolly-pally poster
NR

Film about Mitki - a creative group of St. Petersburg artists, writers and musicians who joined them, - went on a trip to Europe.

Mitki in Europe, Yolly-pally

1990

Friends from France poster
5.4

1979: Cousins Carole and Jérôme go on an organized trip to Odessa, behind the Iron Curtain. During the day, posing as tourists celebrating their engagement, they visit monuments and museums. In the evening they slip away from the group and meet “refuseniks”, Jews persecuted by the Soviet regime for wanting to leave the country. While Carole is motivated by political commitment and a taste for risk, Jérôme’s motivation is Carole.

Friends from France

2013

I'll Be Around poster
5.2

A 30-something single mother must find adoptive parents for her son when she founds out she has an incurable illness in this family drama.

I'll Be Around

2012

The Connection poster
4.2

Ilya lives in Moscow; Nina lives in St. Petersburg. Ilya has a beautiful wife and a daughter; Nina's husband is an artist, and they have a young son. Nina occasionally travels to Moscow to see her partners in the publishing industry. Ilya sometimes comes to St. Petersburg on business. But more often they are in the train between St. Petersburg and Moscow just to see each other. Because they have an affair.

The Connection

2006

To Live poster
6.5

Early autumn, godforsaken Russian countryside. A local hunter Michail witnesses a skirmish in the middle of the forest - three men want to kill the forth, Andrey. Kind-hearted Michail helps Andrey escape and together they run from the villains who chase them. Thus, two totally different men start a long and dangerous journey together, constantly arguing with each other regarding their ideology, morals and opinions about life. But life will put everything on its place and make the men understand who they really are.

To Live

2010

Tsoy poster
4.2

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoy, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoy’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

Tsoy

2020

Tsoy poster
4.2

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoy, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoy’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

Tsoy

2020

Tsoy poster
4.2

15 August 1990. Viktor Tsoy, the Soviet Union’s most famous rock star, leader of the band Kino, a symbol of freedom and change, dies in an accident on a Latvian highway. The bus driver who was involved in the tragic accident will bring his body back to Leningrad. A party of mourners – Tsoy’s wife and her new boyfriend, his mistress, his producer, his young son and an obsessed photographer – are part of the trip back. This is going to be a long trip, the perfect occasion for an agonizing unravelling of love, jealousy, ambition, and greed.

Tsoy

2020

Leningrad poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Leningrad

1978

Call Myshkin poster
6.5

All his life Myshkin was dreaming about becoming an actor. And now eight years old Dasha is trying to help him.

Call Myshkin

2018

Family Happiness poster
NR

After losing her parents, Masha falls in love with her guardian Sergei Mikhailovich. Masha is young, Sergei Mikhailovich is much older, and they have to go through a difficult path to understanding each other.

Family Happiness

2025

Captive poster
3.3

The story of a young Chechen and his Russian captor during a war between Russia and Chechnya.

Captive

2008

Captive poster
3.3

The story of a young Chechen and his Russian captor during a war between Russia and Chechnya.

Captive

2008

No artwork available
NR

The Great Patriotic War. A ship carrying wounded across the White Sea comes under fire from German aircraft and goes under water. In the midst of the icy void, only two remain alive — a blind soldier and a nurse. Now she becomes his eyes, and he is her test and support at the same time. There are kilometers of ice and snow ahead, without any certainty that there is a chance of salvation. The already difficult path is complicated by another threat: the survivors become a target for the German pilot, who has received orders to destroy them.

Saved

—

His Wife's Diary poster
5.1

A tragic story of love and loneliness - this is the unknown life of the great Russian writer Ivan Bunin. The confused love story that involved Bunin, his wife Vera, the young poet Galina Plotnikova, opera singer Marga Kovtun and literary man Leonid Gurov. A work of great honesty and piercing psychology.

His Wife's Diary

2000

His Wife's Diary poster
5.1

A tragic story of love and loneliness - this is the unknown life of the great Russian writer Ivan Bunin. The confused love story that involved Bunin, his wife Vera, the young poet Galina Plotnikova, opera singer Marga Kovtun and literary man Leonid Gurov. A work of great honesty and piercing psychology.

His Wife's Diary

2000

Elephant poster
5.0

The sad ride of driver Zarezin and Circus Girl, Bonnie, to deliver a sick circus elephant, Bodhi, to be euthanized, becomes a wondrous journey full of unexpected twists and joyous encounters that changes all three characters, human and elephant, forever.

Elephant

2010

The Game poster
1.5

The film takes place at the training base of the Russian national team. The eyes of the whole country are riveted to this place, our players train here in the remaining few days before the match. All those who help them win work here: coaches, administrators, doctors, watchmen and even cleaners. The fate of the decisive match depends on these people. All of them are selflessly devoted to football.

The Game

2008

Little Nina & The Piano Thieves poster
NR

Eight-year-old Nina is an impulsive and emotional girl, quickly igniting ideas and dropping them halfway. Nina would probably have abandoned her new hobby - music - too, but a strange thing happened: the instrument began to behave defiantly, play by itself and provoke the hostess in every possible way. And soon Nina was completely kidnapped along with him. The villains plan to subjugate the world with the help of the piano.

Little Nina & The Piano Thieves

2023

Dreaming of Space poster
5.3

A story of a simple, naive Russian man Konek and the people around him: his love and her sister and a mysterious man. The film is set in 1957, time of changes, time of waiting for something big to happen.

Dreaming of Space

2005

Dreaming of Space poster
5.3

A story of a simple, naive Russian man Konek and the people around him: his love and her sister and a mysterious man. The film is set in 1957, time of changes, time of waiting for something big to happen.

Dreaming of Space

2005