Films by Language

Russian

Brief Encounters

Korotkie vstrechi

Kira Muratova

The 20 years Brief Encounters was banned by Soviet censors could not diminish the originality of this exquisite film, making it an instant classic.

Compartment No. 6

Hytti nro 6

Juho Kuosmanen

Two strangers connect in the intimate confines of a train compartment in Juho Kuosmanen’s arresting sophomore feature.

Dear Comrades!

Dorogie tovarishchi!

Andrey Konchalovskiy

Andrey Konchalovsky’s tense political drama, a Venice prize-winner beautifully shot and rich with historical detail, tells the story of an infamous 1962 Soviet massacre and its attempted cover-up.

Flee

Jonas Poher Rasmussen

A thrilling tale of resilience, Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner Flee is just as interested in the quiet toll trauma takes on survivors as it is the extraordinary acts that ensured their survival.

Natural Light

Természetes fény

Dénes Nagy

Natural Light confronts Hungary’s complicity in war crimes against pro-Soviet ‘partisans’ during World War II.

Never Gonna Snow Again

Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie

Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert

A mysterious, unclassifiable semi-satire of its disconnected upper-classes, Poland’s selection for this year’s Oscar race follows an angelic masseuse trying to draw meaning out of his patients’ lives.

The Painted Bird

Václav Marhoul

By equal turns horrifying and beautiful, The Painted Bird sees Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul put a young boy through every manner of evil that 1940s Eastern Europe can conjure in this war-torn vision of hell.

Petrov's Flu

Petrovy v grippe

Kirill Serebrennikov

Timelier than perhaps intended, Kirill Serebrennikov’s hazy fever dream set in a flu-stricken, semi-dystopian post-Soviet Russia is a confronting, elusive vision of life in an eternally wintry hellscape.

Unclenching the Fists

Razzhimaya kulaki

Kira Kovalenko

The withering grip of the patriarchy pervades Kira Kovalenko's Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning tale of a young woman coming of age within a suffocating family in Russia’s desolate North Caucasus.

Yellow Cat

Sary mysyq

Adilkhan Yerzhanov

An absurdist chase across rural Kazakhstan, this offbeat gangster comedy follows a movie-obsessed ex-con with mobsters on his tail and a girl on his arm as he strives to realise his dream: building a cinema in the mountains.