Alexander Urzhanov

Last bastion of freedom of expression or playground for extremists and criminals? Opinions are divided on the messaging service Telegram. Just like on its mysterious founder, tech billionaire Pavel Durov. Is this man an uncompromising advocate of radical freedom or an accomplice of criminals of all kinds? Author Aleksandr Urzhanov searches for answers.

Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020, presidential election day. The day of the start of the most massive protests in the history of the country. There are two people in the square. They could have been good neighbors or acquaintances, but they found themselves opposite each other, in the role of victim and aggressor. It seemed like they couldn't do anything. But both proved that this is not so. That there is a path between desperate feat and inhuman indifference.

“Just One: The True Story of Patient Zero” tells the story of the person commonly referred to as “patient zero” — the first Soviet citizen diagnosed with HIV. The official history of the epidemic in the USSR begins with this 1987 case, a crisis that has since affected millions in Russia: those living with the virus and those who have died from AIDS. Yet almost nothing is known about this individual. The few existing facts have long dissolved into myths, propaganda, and misinformation. No photographs, no footage — nothing. The biography of “patient zero” had to be reconstructed from scratch, turning the film into a historical investigation.

A portrait of Alexei Navalny (1976), the staunchest opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, severely poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021 and died on February 16, 2024 in a Siberian prison camp under unclear circumstances.

A film about Pavel Kushnir — a musician who refused to compromise, in art or in conscience. A “great little man,” as his friends describe him, Pavel played sublime music for two elderly women in an empty community hall with the same devotion he would have brought to Carnegie Hall. He wrote extraordinary novels and dared to protest, fully aware of the consequences. In 2024, Pavel Kushnir died in a prison in Birobidzhan.

The plot of the film is based on the second stage of the expedition "North is nearby." In the spring of 2019, daredevils on three all-terrain vehicles over 29 days covered more than 6,000 km along the northeastern coast of Russia from Novy Urengoy to Anadyr. They chose directions, and powerful Arctic vehicles carried them directly.

A new crisis in a few days rewrote all plans, canceled business, destroyed dreams. How have we changed and our ideas about the world? What will happen next? Will it happen again? There are two views on the situation here: from April and August 2020. And the five key topics are work, family, medicine, debts, and the second wave of the epidemic. Journalists Alexander Urzhanov and Igor Makarov, together with experts, entrepreneurs and ordinary people, understand the new reality.

Last bastion of freedom of expression or playground for extremists and criminals? Opinions are divided on the messaging service Telegram. Just like on its mysterious founder, tech billionaire Pavel Durov. Is this man an uncompromising advocate of radical freedom or an accomplice of criminals of all kinds? Author Aleksandr Urzhanov searches for answers.

Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020, presidential election day. The day of the start of the most massive protests in the history of the country. There are two people in the square. They could have been good neighbors or acquaintances, but they found themselves opposite each other, in the role of victim and aggressor. It seemed like they couldn't do anything. But both proved that this is not so. That there is a path between desperate feat and inhuman indifference.

“Just One: The True Story of Patient Zero” tells the story of the person commonly referred to as “patient zero” — the first Soviet citizen diagnosed with HIV. The official history of the epidemic in the USSR begins with this 1987 case, a crisis that has since affected millions in Russia: those living with the virus and those who have died from AIDS. Yet almost nothing is known about this individual. The few existing facts have long dissolved into myths, propaganda, and misinformation. No photographs, no footage — nothing. The biography of “patient zero” had to be reconstructed from scratch, turning the film into a historical investigation.

A portrait of Alexei Navalny (1976), the staunchest opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, severely poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021 and died on February 16, 2024 in a Siberian prison camp under unclear circumstances.

A portrait of Alexei Navalny (1976), the staunchest opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, severely poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021 and died on February 16, 2024 in a Siberian prison camp under unclear circumstances.

A film about Pavel Kushnir — a musician who refused to compromise, in art or in conscience. A “great little man,” as his friends describe him, Pavel played sublime music for two elderly women in an empty community hall with the same devotion he would have brought to Carnegie Hall. He wrote extraordinary novels and dared to protest, fully aware of the consequences. In 2024, Pavel Kushnir died in a prison in Birobidzhan.

The plot of the film is based on the second stage of the expedition "North is nearby." In the spring of 2019, daredevils on three all-terrain vehicles over 29 days covered more than 6,000 km along the northeastern coast of Russia from Novy Urengoy to Anadyr. They chose directions, and powerful Arctic vehicles carried them directly.

The film, written by Roman Super and Ivan Proskuryakov, tells about the only circus in the world where difficult teenagers learn circus art and become real artists. Using its example, the Uppsala Circus project shows how creativity can give children the opportunity to live more interesting and successful lives. The film makes it clear to teenagers that there are places where they will be welcomed, and people who are ready to understand and help.

Nadia Kuznetsova is 28 years old, she lives in Veliky Novgorod, graduated from school and University here, and dreams of going to the sea - and getting her fingers back. Nadia has a rare genetic disease-epidermolysis bullosa, which is called "butterfly syndrome". The patient's skin is injured by any touch. The disease is incurable: as Nadia herself says, "I don't fight it – I live with it." She is fighting for something else - to lead the life of an ordinary person.

A biographical film about the popular rap artist Detsl, whose real name is Kirill Tolmatskiy. The rap artist passed away at the age of 35 in 2019.

He gave us an unforgettable and unique childhood. What was the great Russian storyteller really like? A documentary film about Eduard Uspensky.

The history of Jewish people in Russia up until the 1917 revolution.

With the assassination in 1948 of the head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels, by the state security, new times begin in the relationship between the Soviet government and the Jews.