Films about culture

The story of everyday survival of the traditional sea hunters of the Bering Strait in the Far East of Russia is enriched with animated Inuit myths that at times prevail reality. This is a visually impressive cinematic parable about the vitality of the ancient Arctic culture.

The film is about the historical role of Georgians in Russian, and later - Soviet politics, culture and science. The heroes of the film are Bagration and Shevardnadze, Pirosmani and Danelia, Balanchine and Andronikov.

Five friends – a poet, an actor, a painter, an architect and a primitivist film director – are five red avant-garde artists who try to find the embodiment of their hopes and dreams in the young Soviet state. The Revolution is boiling up like a bottle with apple cider: winged service dogs and heart-shaped potatoes, dead Semashko, the People’s Commissar for Health, and cheerful angels, love for the Tsar and love for the young secretary Annushka, executions and pregnancies – everything is interlaced and inseparable!

A couple decide to open a home for refuges in the remote cold mountains of Norway.

Arturo, the successful owner of an art gallery, and Renzo, a talented but decadent painter, are old friends who cannot stop bickering. One day, Arturo comes up with a solution to all their problems, but the plan they concoct turns out to be crazier and riskier than they originally expected.

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

A successful top manager of an investment company, Ivanov, is fleeing the harassment of security officials from Moscow to Kiev, a city without rules, and is trying to find a place for himself there. He discovers the opportunity for easy money, as everything around can be stolen. In Kiev, Ivanov, with his friend and business partner Spitsin, goes to night clubs, visits the gallery of modern art and prepares a deal to buy shipwrecks from a local scam. "Ivanov", shot in Kiev before the Maidan, is based on real events, it is a strange and bewitching tragicomedy about corruption, infidelity and loneliness.

Although Brad has a satisfying career, a sweet wife and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento, things aren't quite what he imagined during his college glory days. When he accompanies his musical prodigy son on a university tour, he can't help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends who seemingly have more wealthy and glamorous lives. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or if their lives are actually more flawed than they appear.

A drama about a Russian artist who desperately tries to find himself in New York.

When Steve Dallas, a womanizing local weatherman, hears that his off-the-grid best friend Ben Baker has lost his estranged father, the two return to Ben's childhood home. Once there, they discover Ben has inherited the family fortune, and the ill-equipped duo must battle Ben's formidable sister and deal with his father's gorgeous 25-year old widow.

The modern parable of two brothers, overcoming a complex spiritual path towards each other, unfolds in the center of modern Moscow. Valera Romeev is a young artist who is forced to work as a street portrait painter. Having spent a serene childhood in a mining town in Eastern Ukraine, Valera struggles to find herself in a cruel megalopolis. Hoping for support, Romeev is looking for his elder brother Vadim, a successful businessman who left his father’s house for a long time and lost contact with his family. Strong, independent Vadim, refuses his younger brother to help. Cornered by circumstances, spurred on by jealousy and annoyance, Valery takes a desperate step ...

A story about a simple school literature teacher, Fedorov, who thought his life couldn't become more boring and pointless until he met a strange girl, who stormed into his very ordinary day, accused him of bringing her girl-friend to suicide and turned his life completely.

The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress, who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

The continuing adventures of the Portokalos family. A follow-up to the 2002 comedy, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

A college student starts to experience extreme seizures while studying at a university in Oslo, Norway. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable, and often dangerous, supernatural abilities.

A still closeted young woman brings her girlfriend home for Thanksgiving, only to have her coming out efforts thwarted by the unexpected arrival of her male roommate.

When a workaholic young executive, is left at the altar, she ends up on her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with the last person she ever expected: her estranged and equally workaholic father. The two depart as strangers, but over the course of a few hilarious adventures, a couple of umbrella-clad cocktails and a whole lot of soul-searching, they return with a renewed appreciation for family and life.

Salyut 7, the Soviet space station, was orbiting Earth in unmanned regime. Suddenly it stops responding to signals from the Ground Control. Fall of this station, the pride of soviet science and space industry, would not only damage the image of the country, but also bring upon tragedy, probably with loss of life. Astronauts have to be sent to the station to find what caused the breakdown and prevent the catastrophe. However, nobody has ever docked an uncontrolled object in space. To this day this is the most technically complicated mission in the history of the world of space navigation.

A drama set during the failed coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the hip Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, single dad and record store owner Frank is preparing to send his hard-working daughter Sam off to college while being forced to close his vintage shop. Hoping to stay connected through their shared musical passions, Frank urges Sam to turn their weekly jam sessions into a father-daughter live act. After their first song becomes an internet breakout, the two embark on a journey of love, growing up and musical discovery.

Masha is determined to jump off the roof, she feels unloved and betrayed. Her last wish is to listen to her favorite song. On this day, the cynical radio DJ Alex is working in the studio. A short call on the radio turns into a long conversation, and it looks like only Alex will be able to save the unfortunate girl before the song ends.

When a stadium is seized by a group of heavily armed criminals during a major sporting event, an ex-soldier must use all his military skills to save both the daughter of a fallen comrade and the huge crowd unaware of the danger.

1979: Cousins Carole and Jérôme go on an organized trip to Odessa, behind the Iron Curtain. During the day, posing as tourists celebrating their engagement, they visit monuments and museums. In the evening they slip away from the group and meet “refuseniks”, Jews persecuted by the Soviet regime for wanting to leave the country. While Carole is motivated by political commitment and a taste for risk, Jérôme’s motivation is Carole.

The Gift is a feature-length film exploring a major transformation in peoples' relationships with animals.

Sasha is a young girl living in a block flat with her family in Moscow. Once she falls in love with Antonin, a bohemian artist and hard drinker. Their short love affair is pulling her down, to the bottom of her subconscious. Overwhelmed with beautiful and frightening visions, she starts to paint - violently, until she can stand on her feet.

Nine year-old Andrey lives on the outskirts of a small village near the sea. His mother wants to put him into an orphanage. Andrey is scared by the perspective and understands that his life will drastically change. One stormy day he finds a dog on the beach and decides that it is the mystical beast known as Chupacabra, a goat vampire, which will make a miracle. Debut film developed at the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme.

In the late 17th century Russia, a dark magician arrives at the capital in search of the ultimate power hidden within the Magic Worlds, the entrance to which is located inside the Sukharev Tower and is tightly guarded by Jacob Bruce, the Wizard of Balance. When Jacob's apprentice Petya and daughter Margarita accidentally rip apart the ancient manuscript that is the source of his powers, they must venture into the Magic Worlds to restore it.

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful gig at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

A series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.

Mary Tobin has wonderful memories of family gatherings at the Christmas Lodge. When she arrives for a weekend vacation, she quickly realizes that the lodge that she loves has fallen into serious disrepair. With a lack of funds and a looming deadline, she not only restores the Christmas lodge's charm but finds love along the way.