Marlen Khutsiyev

After the release of "Nostalgia", Andrei Tarkovsky runs out his Soviet authorities permission to work abroad: he has to go back home. But he understands from the messages of some friends and colleagues that his life in Russia would be even tougher than before. So he then decides to break with Soviet authorities and, a year before the Milan Conference of 1984 during which he will announce publicly his decision, he leaves his friends that are hosting him in Rome and takes refuge in a secret location.

The movie is set during the last days of a foreign intervention against Soviet Russia. Police are searching everywhere for a Bolshevik named Brodsky but cannot find him. Meanwhile, a man named Michel Voronov serves as a teacher to a rich woman's son, Zhen'ka.

To be somewhere precise yet stand nowhere at all, to embody one’s convictions, yet never miss the essential, to rise up and be present at the critical moment, to bear witness to a world waiting to tell itself and be retold, to come and go, both at once, abandoning reckless speed, but rather gently touching the human soul with images, with whispered words, the cracks in the wall of life: this is the choreography masterfully created in the film Beyond Territories, Valerie Osouf’s portrait of the world acclaimed filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

In the world, there is a city-port Odesa, which was specially created as a refuge for people of different nationalities and religions. Humor is a special language that helps people from Odesa to communicate and get along with each other. Legends are spreading about Odesa's humor and accent. But - a paradox - people are constantly leaving it. It is loved, but it is left as a child leaves his mother. On the example of this city and its inhabitants, we wanted to understand - why people flee from their cities. We tried to find the answer taking pictures of Odesa citizens in Germany, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Austria, France and other places. Michael Zhvanetskij, Roman Kartsev, Leonid Barats and Rostislav Khait Victor Loshak,  Oksana Fandera, Valerij Todotovskij, Mikhail and Anatoly Kontush and many others are telling their stories and giving their opinions on what is the phenomenon of the city by the Black Sea.

In 1920, just 3 years after the October revolution, the peoples had to decide between conforming to Bolshevism or national self-determination. In that torn-apart-time, one man, the comedian Volodya, tries to mediate, not between different ideologies, but social life and art. While others just want to wash away their gloom, he reflects on the everyday sorrows and the role of art in that time of changes.

Andrei Tarkovsky is the most famous Russian director, often called a genius during his lifetime. He made relatively few films, but each has become a classic of world cinema, including "Andrei Rublev," "Solaris," "Mirror," and "Stalker." His films seem to be crafted from air, water, fire, deep emotions, and even his own dreams. This art is profoundly sincere and confessional, but what about the creator behind it? What was this god-like figure like, living a mortal life filled with weaknesses, fears, and doubts?

The second World War echoes throughout the whole Khutsiyev's oeuvre. The director himself did not participate in the war: "The thing is, I didn't fight. I had been a sickly boy, so I was turned down because I still looked like a child. This is sort of like a debt I've been repaying ever since". In "People of 1941", Khutsiyev recites his favourite pieces by war poets and invokes documentary footage.

About one day of a large mining family. In the center of the picture is a veteran, a former miner, and now a pensioner Panteleimon Dmitriyevich Grinin, who on Victory Day decided to introduce children to his “lady of the heart” hairdresser Zinaida. The action lasts only a day, but a lot happens during this time with the sons, daughters-in-law, daughter and Zinaida...

The story of VGIK teachers and students about the acting profession.

In October of 2015 Marlen Khutsiev turned 90. The master had no intention of retiring, he was working on his new movie. The crew were lucky to be allowed on the set of this film about the relationship of two Titans of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. The shooting process, recorded over the period of almost a year, constitutes the main part of this documentary entitled Khutsiev. Action Starts!. It also includes Khutsiev's reflections on the nature of creative work and his dramatic creative biography.

People's Artist of Russia Alexander Belyavsky has played in more than a hundred films, but the first thing that viewers remember is his role as Fox in Stanislav Govorukhin's legendary film "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed." Despite the success of the film, the actor himself had always dreamed of a major comedic role. While waiting for offers from comedic directors, Alexander Belyavsky came up with the idea of a television humorous program called "Kabachok 13 Stulev" and hosted it for several years...

During the filming of the documentary film “The Gift”, Giuliano Fratini meets the master Marlen Khutsiev, who agrees to speak about Tarkovsky. But before being asked any questions, as a sign of thanks to his Italian guests, he wants to talk about Italy and in particular about Fellini, about the friendship they forged at the Moscow Festival in 1963. Back then the Italian master asked to meet him, the little Georgian who had problems with the regime. This small film is a tribute to the Italian genius but also to the Georgian master.

The documentary film "Cinematic Language of the Era: Marlen Khutsiev" is timed to coincide with the upcoming centenary of the master. In our film, talking about the life, work and dreams of Marlen Khutsiev, we focus the viewer's attention on the master's unique film language. And through cinematic language we reveal the director's personality.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

A heroic story about Soviet sailors fighting Nazis during WWII.

Virtually unseen since its Soviet television broadcast in 1971, the film, Peter Rollberg writes, is “devoted to the anniversary of the Paris commune, mixing historical footage with images of present-day Paris.”

Having returned from the army, 20-year-old Sergei settles down at the thermal power station and merges into ordinary life. Every day he meets and spends time with childhood friends — the young family man Slava and the merry fellow Nikolai, and once at first sight he falls in love with a stranger on the bus. A lyrical story about a generation of young people entering adulthood, a reappraisal of values, life principles, traditions in culture and art.

Having returned from the army, 20-year-old Sergei settles down at the thermal power station and merges into ordinary life. Every day he meets and spends time with childhood friends — the young family man Slava and the merry fellow Nikolai, and once at first sight he falls in love with a stranger on the bus. A lyrical story about a generation of young people entering adulthood, a reappraisal of values, life principles, traditions in culture and art.

The story unfolds in an industrial town where a young and charming literature teacher arrives, assigned to teach at an evening school. One of the boys from the metallurgical plant falls in love with the educated girl, but communication between the two young people turns out to be quite challenging.

Lena, a woman in her late twenties, loves her boyfriend, but in time comes to see that their relationship serves no useful function. What's more, she sees that her friends are for the most part empty-headed lackeys, causing her to wonder just what is the point of her life.

Lena, a woman in her late twenties, loves her boyfriend, but in time comes to see that their relationship serves no useful function. What's more, she sees that her friends are for the most part empty-headed lackeys, causing her to wonder just what is the point of her life.

Originally called World '68, later retitled The World of Today Romm’s film was conceived as an impassioned, large-scale essay on the origins of the 20th century and the subsequent reality the disappointed director felt slipping away from him. The film itself slipped away from him and was left unfinished at the time of his death. His younger colleagues, Marlen Khutsiev, Elem Klimov and German Lavrov, completed the film from the elements he left behind in addition to segments from Ordinary Fascism, closing the film with Romm’s ultimately optimistic outlook: "And still I believe that man is sensible..."

The second World War echoes throughout the whole Khutsiyev's oeuvre. The director himself did not participate in the war: "The thing is, I didn't fight. I had been a sickly boy, so I was turned down because I still looked like a child. This is sort of like a debt I've been repaying ever since". In "People of 1941", Khutsiyev recites his favourite pieces by war poets and invokes documentary footage.

The second World War echoes throughout the whole Khutsiyev's oeuvre. The director himself did not participate in the war: "The thing is, I didn't fight. I had been a sickly boy, so I was turned down because I still looked like a child. This is sort of like a debt I've been repaying ever since". In "People of 1941", Khutsiyev recites his favourite pieces by war poets and invokes documentary footage.

The second half of the 1950s. A new microdistrict is being built on the outskirts of the city. A group of guys - graduates of a craft school - is sent to the construction site. Also on the construction site arrives a group of girls from the village. The youth collective is fused, sympathy and love are born...

At the end of the Second World War, Fedor is demobilized and returns home where he meets a homeless boy, small Fedor. They decide to live together. The adult works in the building trade and the boy goes to school and looks after the house. They get on very well until Natacha arrives in big Fedor's life. After marrying big Fedor, Natacha tries to win the child's love. But he remains hostile.

A young man is forced to spend a few days with his father in law.

A young man is forced to spend a few days with his father in law.

A few days after the unconditional surrender of German troops, a group of Soviet soldiers is billeted at a farmyard which the war somehow never seems to have reached. This apparently peaceful picture is eerily undermined when the Red Army soldiers are confronted with the full extent of Nazi terror.

Fifty-year-old Vladimir Ivanovich Prokhorov, relieved of his worldly possessions, takes a journey back in time. Accompanied by a traveling companion barely half his age, he revisits the people and places of his youth and witnesses the dark forces that shaped the 20th century.

Fifty-year-old Vladimir Ivanovich Prokhorov, relieved of his worldly possessions, takes a journey back in time. Accompanied by a traveling companion barely half his age, he revisits the people and places of his youth and witnesses the dark forces that shaped the 20th century.