20 best movies like Once in Trubchevsk (2020)

A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.

Judas, a seasoned thief, finds himself in the market square where Christ is giving a sermon and his apostles are collecting alms. He follows them and steals their money, only to be caught red-handed. Nevertheless, the Teacher forgives him. What is more, He invites the thief to become one of His followers and offers him a position as the group’s treasurer. Shocked by Christ’s unexpected offer, Judas decides to join the apostles, if only to figure out what is going on. He gradually starts to comprehend Christ’s message, but feels that the apostles are blindly following their teacher. Judas argues with them, and tries to defend his right to divine the truth of God. But when he fails to make them understand, he realizes that Christ’s teachings may sink into oblivion without benefiting humanity. His solution is to betray Christ. “By killing a man, have I not saved a God?”

This film presents a contemporary view on modern Russian upper-class youth. The film genre is a social drama. The main five characters of the movie are financially secured and socially successful - producing, managing and hosting a popular TV show. They are beautiful, happy and satisfied with their lives. They are good friends to each other and the others. The glass world they surrounded themselves by is full of love and smiles... Until one day something happens to the leading character and suddenly they all face the real world. The glass shatters. Their lives are changed forever. They will never be the same

Igor, a Russian oligarch gets into a heated argument with Eva, his estranged daughter whilst traveling on his private jet. Igor orders the plane to land. As the plane touches down Eva disappears into the Goan jungle. Thus begins Igor's desperate search for his only daughter. A search that will bring him and Eva into contact with various characters who in turn are trying to find their own paths through life. Makar, a guy from Novosibirsk, who is desperately searching for enlightenment. Alexey and Kristina are ending their marriage here, while Dimon and Lenya are raising hell and pushing Goa to its partying limits. Kosmos the Guru ("just don't call him that") dispenses the chemicals that in a bat of an eyelid will take you to an alternate reality. There are different destinies here. There are a myriad of people. But all of them have one Motherland, which is easy not to love as long it is close to you

Devoted to the last days of Soviet writer, poet, and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov, this film follows the efforts of two of Shalamov’s most devoted admirers to preserve the author’s legacy. Having lost his sight and hearing and living in a retirement home, he carried on doing the only thing that mattered to him — writing — until his final breath. This film is a testament to the value of writings that tell the unpalatable truths of the 20th century. To evoke the gritty texture of the Soviet world, Sententia is shot on 16mm black and white film.

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Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Rakshan Banietemad ends her eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking with this ingenious, mosaic-like narrative, which knits together the stories of seven characters to create a microcosm of Iranian working-class society.

She is a healer. A hermit. A Fool-in-God. She is a little over forty years old. She doesn’t disdain alcohol. She can be ridiculous, humiliated, offended. She has long been indifferent about herself. Everybody avoids her and is afraid of her, but secretly at night they all hurry to her home. After all, only she can get rid of their illnesses. For her, this is a damnation, and each time she swears that she won’t help people any more, but each time she is unable to refuse them. She knows that her gift will ruin her some time, but she continues to be the only chance of salvation for people.

A famous movies director tries to understand why his life started to change so drastically.

The history of Levon and Armen, whose roads had diverged 16 years ago, but one casual encounter reveals the secrets of the past. Will they return the lost?

A well-known civil servant from the Mayor's Office in a provincial Russian town receives a note: You'll soon die. He takes no notice, and gets ready for his normal Sunday – family problems, his personal life, work, other matters… But this Sunday turns out very far from normal. From the very start things come crashing down, smiting everything in its path, including all plans, external composure, and even his own life.

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Four novels: "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn", "Winter" - four very different love stories...

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

One day, Tamara went out to throw out the garbage and met Pasha at the entrance with a bottle of wine and a desire to talk. After a visit, the man gets into the apartment of a new acquaintance, and she tells him how much she loves her husband Lenechka, who took her "rejected" from the village, planted her at home for a sewing machine and called "gupeshka" - in honor of an aquarium fish, submissive , silent, unwittingly devoted to the owner.

The drama based on hidden implicit faith in miracle unfolds between the members of the family with an unhappy love story of a desolate teenage girl who tries to withstand this family madness after their devotee grandmother came to their flat from upcountry.

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.

Victor was having a wash in his cabin when the boatswain called him to the phone. Although Victor had already heard: “Nika died”, he shouts all the same: “I can’t hear!”. Victor goes onto the mainland. After two days without sleep he reaches the hospital. When the doctor has finished speaking, Victor indifferently turns away to the window. All the details of this view from the window suddenly feel closer to him. Victor goes outside. The street is fast asleep. The entire town is asleep, as if extinct. But everything is breathing, snoring, muttering in a dream. This sleeping town is like a nightmare. In this nightmare those helplessly asleep are intertwined with the memories of his love. Victor wanders around the town in search of a person who is also, like him, on this side of reality. And he finds him.

Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

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A story of a successful businessman who falls in love with a silent movies actress and starts to look everywhere for a woman who looks exactly like her.

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

Day of the Full Moon, a series of vignettes from Russia past and present, summons the spirit of Ophuls’ La Ronde, Altman’s Nashville and Short Cuts, and the time-shifting strategies of Resnais (Mon Oncle d’Amérique) to tell provocative, connected stories illustrating the waltz of years and whim of memory. In 1948, a young man, a boy, and a waiter are captivated during the full moon by a mysterious woman in a lilac dress. The effects of this event ripple across the years, washing over more than 80 characters, including a disc jockey, a fairy princess, a gangster, Alexander Pushkin, and a nostalgic dog. But which of these are dreams, and which reality? Director Shakhnazarov continues his career-long focus on the intersection of past and present with this mysterious, exhilarating mosaic of humankind, which in the end both seduces and satisfies.

The main character of the movie is a young man from downtown Moscow. He got everything from his father - his money, car, university. Sasha wants to live his life differently, but doesn't know how... He dreams of being Tsoi or van Gogh. One day Sasha meets Masha, an extraordinary and complex woman. Her mother, an aged actress, is an alcoholic and trying to take her own life. Sasha decides to help the girl

Igor and Alexandra are 30 -years old lovers.She is a theater production designer.He is an actor.She works hard,he drinks.They cannot leave and cannot get on.This story is about eternal problem of choice and talent to listen to ones heart .About a dangerous illusion of the youth that there is a lot of time to make mistakes and that is too early to make decision,to get married,to give birth to a child.The main characters have to realize that there is no time and there is no rough copy we have to live present moment because tomorrow may never come.

A young couple Andrei and Nadya get lost in a deep Siberian forest. It’s where they start their thorny way of fighting inner fears and working on the mistakes they made in the past. The forest is a metaphor of life where this couple has gone astray. Or maybe it’s the garden of Eden to which the persecuted have finally found their way back.

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

The creators of the legendary tango à trois reunite for an encore performance 25 years after breaking up. Determined to take on the night as if they had never aged they face the realities when their families arrive to join the audience.

The picture tells about Angela - a talented cellist. Having escaped from her problems from Italy to Russia, she does not find peace here either. Boredom and misunderstanding of others torment her, and the inner fire of contradictions tears to pieces. She has a difficult relationship with her father, she wants to return his love and attention. They are loved and recognized in their small orchestra, however, no one supports and does not understand her impulses to bring something new, to overcome a boring routine and finally change the world of music. It’s getting harder every day to achieve Angela’s inner harmony, or as Angie calls her. The world is full of cruelty, contention and misunderstanding, and finding a place in it for a bright and kind person who cannot feel lies and betrayal with his warm heart is very difficult, almost impossible.

Mark Ginzburg is a talented artist who is always depressed. He's 52, but personal and professional success has escaped him. Many years ago, Mark moved from his native Riga to Tel Aviv to get away from his oppressive father, Viktor, who still supports him financially. Victor Ginzburg is a famous conductor. His work is his life. He never cared about Mark's feelings and tried to mold his son in his own image. Their highs and lows turned long ago into a love-hate relationship. More hate than love. Father calls his son by his childhood nickname Birdie, which infuriates the son. Son calls his father Your Majesty, which infuriates the father. After Viktor is diagnosed with a fatal illness, the father and son set off on a difficult journey that leads from hate to love.

Vladimir is reaching the end of his life and decides to leave his wealth to his only daughter, cutting out his wife and her son from his will.

A look inside the story of two newlyweds who are parted from each other and spend the next half-century of their lives trying to reunite.

Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In Crossing Over, writer-director Wayne Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find – and create -- in 21st century L.A.

Drama set in 1942, during one of the most important battles of World War II, which stopped the progress of Nazi forces and turned the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Soviet army mounts a counter-attack on the Nazi forces that occupy half of Stalingrad on the other side of the Volga, but the operation to cross the river is unsuccessful. A few soldiers who managed to get to the other side take refuge in a house on the bank of Volga. Here they find a girl who didn’t escape when the Germans came. While the whole might of the German army descends onto them, the heroes of Stalingrad experience love, loss, joy and the sense of ultimate freedom that can only be felt by those about to die. They defend the house at all costs while the Red Army prepares for another attack.

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.

Allide experienced The Great Terror under Stalin’s regime, and decades after her hometown people were deported to Siberia, she lives alone in an isolated house. One night, she finds a young woman in her yard – Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia that held her as a sex slave. Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in unearthing each other’s motives and gradually, and their stories merge into one, revealing the tragedy of a family during the cruelest years in Estonian history.

Russian poet, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky was an idol of the 1970s and '80s. In 1980, at the age of 42, he passed away during the Moscow Olympic Games. This is the story of his last great love as handed down to his son from a family friend. Written by nitorch.

Writer and expatriate Marina receives an invitation to meet graduates. Resigned to the nostalgic impulse, she flies from Europe to Novustoinovsk - a district city in the middle of the country, which has long ceased to exist. There, in the provincial hinterland of the past, her memories and old friends live, all of them ephemeral as television programs from another life. This is a life story about fate of ordinary people, about quarrels, spiritual growth and decline, about hope and changeable memory.

The wife of a Marine serving in Vietnam, Sally Hyde decides to volunteer at a local veterans hospital to occupy her time. There she meets Luke Martin, a frustrated wheelchair-bound vet who has become disillusioned with the war. Sally and Luke develop a friendship that soon turns into a romance.

A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of bank robbers to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.

The story of Joseph a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals into turmoil a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating results on both of their lives.

Preserving the text of the play, the amazing dialogues, the brilliant characters, we have transposed the action into today’s Russian provinces and changed only one thing: the age of the heroes. In Anton Chekhov’s play the heroines are aged around 25; now they are 55. What does that do? The heroes’ retorts, stylistically inappropriate from today’s twenty-year-olds, are absolutely organic for the older generation, the ‘Soviet’ intelligentsia. The problems of Chekhov’s classical work concerning the search for a meaning in life, the loss of ideals, the fear before death without having achieved anything in the world, the desire to be useful to others – all these things are also a typical attribute of the Soviet intelligentsia.

Robert Redford stars as billionaire John Gage, who offers a down-on-his-luck yuppie husband (Woody Harrelson) $1 million for the opportunity to spend the night with the man's wife (Demi Moore).

After his family is evicted from their home, proud and desperate construction worker Dennis Nash tries to win his home back by striking a deal with the devil and working for Rick Carver, the corrupt real estate broker who evicted him.

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so deeply immersed in their own psychic pains that they can't offer her the support she needs. Maria is wracked with guilt at her husband's attempted suicide, caused by his discovery of her extramarital affair. The self-loathing, suicidal Karin seems to regard her sister with revulsion. Only Anna, the deeply religious maid who lost her young child, seems able to offer Agnes solace and empathy.

A retired lawyer becomes friends with a young wife who has just moved in the adjacent apartment with her family.

The story begins with a prayer. And it ends with a prayer. The first one is a prayer to God. The second - to the Devil. Between the two prayers is Pavel - a talented, chaotic and irresponsible musician and composer. Everything is wonderful until the day he realizes he has lost the girl he loves. In order to win her love back, Pavel is ready to do anything - even pray to the Devil. When one prays to God, one relies on His mercy. When one prays to the Devil, this is a deal. You can ask for whatever you want and you have to offer something in exchange. And there is only one pawn in the Devil's game...

A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.

Orense, Spain, 1940, just after the end of the Civil War. Every time Elena locks the door of her home, she and her children become the faithful guardians of a sacred secret: Ricardo, her husband, their father, hides in the house, trying to avoid the brutal political persecution of the victors, who hunt, as if they were wild animals, and imprison or execute, those who have lost the bloody and tragic struggle…

A movie about two sisters - thirteen year old Sveta, poor and abandoned by her father, who longs to go off and be a sniper in the army, and spoilt eight-year old Dina, doted on by her gangster father...