Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov • 2020 • Kazakhstan

A movie-obsessed ex-con and his sultry female companion are lovers on the lam in Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s droll and touching crime caper. Kermek (Azamat Nigmanov) returns from the joint to his native Kazakh village with a dream: to build a cinema on...

Directed by Orkhan Aghazadeh • 2024 • Azerbaijan

In Soviet times, Samid worked as a village projectionist. Nowadays, the cinemas are long gone and he gets by repairing TV sets, beset with grief at the loss of his adult son. But a run-in with local teenager Ayaz, a passionate DIY filmmaker, reawa...

Directed by Aleksei German • 1998 • Russia

Moscow, February 1953. General Yuri Klensky is a prominent brain surgeon, living a life of luxury and prestige – until he is accused of being part of a plot to kill Stalin. The story of his arrest, torture, and eventual “freedom” upon Stalin’s own death...

Directed by Ignas Miškinis • 2024 • Lithuania

Ignas Miškinis crafts a witty, wild, and heartfelt coming-of-age tale out of the chaos of the post-Soviet nineties. Adapted from Rimantas Kmita’s wildly popular book, The Southern Chronicles unfolds on the rough streets of Šiauliai, “the Manchester o...

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Directed by Sergei Loznitsa • 2010 • Russia/Ukraine

The first Ukrainian production ever to compete for the Palme d’Or, My Joy marked the fiction debut in one of the most vital directorial careers in modern film. Sergei Loznitsa’s grim...

Directed by Laila Pakalniņa • 2015 • Latvia

At once an homage to and a subversive reimagining of Soviet cinematic heritage, Laila Pakalniņa’s Dawn is one of post-independence Latvia’s most crucial films. Pakalniņa draws on the Stalinist propaganda myth of Pavlik Morozov: an ardent Pioneer who wa...

Directed by Maria Rigel • 2025 • Armenia

Maria Rigel’s mercurial crime drama moves to the rhythms of the natural world, paying tribute to Armenian film icons like Sergei Parajanov. Hayk (Albert Babajanyan) is an introverted child living in the care of his aunt Narine (Lusine Avanesyan) in a remo...

Directed by Sybilla Tuxen • 2023 • Russia/Denmark

Danish documentarian Sybilla Tuxen’s intimate and expansive portrait of youth on the edge in modern Russia asks urgent questions about political agency and personal freedom. Following three young women – Alika, Alyona, and Katya – as they attempt...

Directed by Dmytro Moiseiev • 2024 • Ukraine

January, 2022, on the eve of the Russian invasion. Retired miners Serhiich (Viktor Zhdanov) and Pashka (Volodymyr Yamnenko) are the sole remaining residents of a Donbas village in the “grey zone” between Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces. Cut off from ...

Directed by Sergei Livnev • 1994 • Russia

A dizzying exercise in postmodern parody, this nineties cult gem from Sergei Livnev delves into the dark heart of Stalinist cultural production. The tale of a simple female tractor driver who undergoes an experimental gender reassignment procedure before...

Directed by Aktan Arym Kubat • 2025 • Kyrgyzstan

One of Central Asia’s most revered directors returns with a meditation on tradition and transformation set against the rolling hills of Kyrgyzstan. Aktan Arym Kubat brings his customary empathy to bear on this story of three people whose fates are...

Directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev • 2014 • Russia

Andrei Zvyagintsev’s modern masterpiece recasts the Biblical parable of Job as an epic, witheringly comic treatise on life in Putin’s Russia. On the bleakly beautiful Arctic coast, mechanic Kolya (Aleksei Serebryakov) lives with his withdrawn second...

Directed by Kristoffer Hegnsvad • 2022 • Canada

Over more than 20 years of travel across the former Soviet Union, Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig has painstakingly documented the humble bus stop. From Ukraine to Uzbekistan, the bus stop provided local architects with a canvas for indivi...

Directed by Lauri Randla • 2020 • Estonia

Described by director Lauri Randla as “the Soviet Amélie”, this popular coming-of-age story captures the absurdity and the poignancy of late Soviet life. Set in Leningrad 3, a small Estonian town complete with a secret nuclear facility, the film follows ...

Directed by Pavel Chukhrai • 1997 • Russia

Left widowed after the Second World War, Katya desperately tries to keep her son Sanya safe from harm. When charismatic officer Tolyan enters her life, she succumbs to his charms, despite her son’s misgivings. But can Tolyan be trusted? This parable of ...