Sergey Chliyants

Five aspiring directors, five short stories about the discovery of cinema. Each short story is an independent story exploring how cinema begins, how it influences us and where the line between the screen and reality lies. The film almanac has the widest range of genres, themes, geography of authors, time of action and even frame format. It can be a short sketch from the set, where the lighting technician suddenly changes places and importance with the most influential auteur director; preparation for the first film screening in Rus'; a conversation between friends immediately after the film; a story of a difficult choice between creative freedom and a career; and finally, a free interpretation of the 1986 film about the life of a simple fisherman from Kaliningrad.

In a time after devastating wars, plagues, and natural disasters, the social order has collapsed, and new moral systems, beliefs, and forms of survival emerge. The story follows Ivan Morozov, who leaves his wife Katya to search for necessities, and meets Sergei Volkov, a mysterious companion. Together, they travel through haunting landscapes filled with forgotten villages, strange rituals, and mythological echoes, culminating in a profound and painful choice.

In a time after devastating wars, plagues, and natural disasters, the social order has collapsed, and new moral systems, beliefs, and forms of survival emerge. The story follows Ivan Morozov, who leaves his wife Katya to search for necessities, and meets Sergei Volkov, a mysterious companion. Together, they travel through haunting landscapes filled with forgotten villages, strange rituals, and mythological echoes, culminating in a profound and painful choice.

The hero is an ordinary farmer, Philip Safronov, whose peaceful life is aggressively interrupted when his land is appropriated by a mysterious group to exploit its oil resources.

St. Petersburg, early 20th century. The handsome and secretive Johann specializes in shooting erotic pictures depicting the floggings of bare-bottomed women. With the help of his assistants, the photographic creations gradually penetrate the peaceful households of two upper-class Russian families.

A black BMW, a symbol of luxury, is racing along the night streets of Moscow in the 90s. Bad luck turns four friends into criminals and they have no way back. Only the black “bimmer” is reliable in this life without rules, taking the friends farther and farther from Moscow, into the crazy and ruthless wilderness of Russian roads… None of them wanted to kill. None of them wanted to die. But they will have to face their destiny in the end.

A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message and is still trying to find the right moment to tell Sergei, when fear, lies and suspicions start poisoning the atmosphere...

The film takes place a few years after the events shown in Bummer. Kostyan "Kot", who lost all his friends, the woman he loved and was nearly killed in the first installment of the film tries to begin a new, peaceful life. But is it possible to do? Has Russia changed and do "bratki" on black "bummers" no longer control business? Can he escape his past?

A young piano tuner befriends two rich old-ladies, and plots, with the help of his girlfriend, to betray their trust and steal from them.

Programmer Prince Myshkin returns to his historical homeland from Switzerland, where he was undergoing treatment in a psychiatric clinic. On the bus, the prince meets businessman Parfen Rogozhin, who is suffering from lovesickness for Nastasya Filippovna.

Andrei Davydov, a successful businessman and former physicist, plots an unprecedented scam aimed at causing a downfall on the world’s financial markets. He has no doubts that he will succeed, but speculating on an ecological catastrophe is a dangerous gamble. Especially when love interferes with his carefully thought-out scheme of the operation…

The painting is about the metaphysical "train of Russian history" that departed from the tsarist era, went through revolutionary cataclysms, three wars, the times of Stalinism and the "thaw" and finally arrived on the platform of our time. It is a platform of wild primordial capitalism, and its geographic location is the Russian-Chinese border.

Two childhood friends, and if you're being honest, then two trash with a criminal flavor get into a situation in which long-term friendship is not taken into account. What kind of trash is "trashier", the one who is trying to throw a friend for a certain amount of bucks, and in a very primitive way (they say the money was stolen while he was driving), or the one who, in an effort to return the money, takes the wife and child of his sidekick and companion hostage?

A young and handsome prison guard falls in love with a beautiful lady-prisoner. She makes him hooked on sex and manipulates him into becoming a gang member. He kills and steals under her control.

Eda Savenko finds herself in a situation where she wants to take her daughter to a restaurant, but her parents refuse to provide the necessary funds. She decides to take drastic action by robbing the dining room and subsequently consuming alcohol. Observing a girl with another person, she makes a dramatic gesture by cutting her veins, leading to her admission to the ‘Quiet Ward’ of the Saburka psychiatric hospital.

Almanac of five short stories commissioned by ROSKOMKINO to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema.

The film's hero, Lola, is getting ready for the celebration of her birthday. Because she knows she is in for a surprise, she lets two strangers with flowers and a cake into her apartment. The guests names are Bim and Bom; they are killers. They've chosen the girl's apartment as a shooting place to assassinate the president whose motorcade is to proceed by her house. Lola becomes a hostage and the main obstacle foiling the assassination plan.

It is hard to know the future. It is even more difficult to feel its inevitability. He is a tax collector. He has an inexplicable, supernatural gift to foresee the future. He is sent to where the impossible is needed. And he does not fail, until - she does not appear. Love is expensive. Give the Gift and love or continue to live an invulnerable wolf. But what he will choose - only God knows.

Moving from rural Russia to the city, Den faces a new reality.

An amazing story about the life of a modern girl and her friends, the same desperate young people who do not want to put up with the gray routine and boredom, eager to escape from the real world into the world of their dreams and fantasies.

Dmitry is a strong willed, solid guy. He could easily quit the game, if only he knew he was playing.

Gera, a respected director of TV commercials, thinks he's capable of creating a fiction movie masterpiece. Predictably, he ends up with owning money to a mafia and no film to show for. To make his life even crazier he falls in love with a girl who belongs to the boss of mafia.

The film is based on Gennady Shpalikov’s most intimate story, “The Wharf”. Young Katya, who lives in a small provincial town, is dreaming of a prince charming. And, of course, she can’t help falling in love with a stern skipper played by Yevgeny Sidikhin. Wishing to unravel his mystery, Katya goes to Moscow. One night in the capital will change both the skipper’s and the young heroine’s lives, making them to better understand each other…

An orphan, left at a children’s home in a cardboard box, was named Anton Pavlovich Chekhov because he was born on the 100th anniversary of the great writer. When he was thirteen, he wrote his first poem. But Anton’s talents did not end there…

A veteran of the Chechen War is helped by the ghosts of his two fallen comrades to leave the war behind.