7 best movies like Papa (2020)

A documentary biopic of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent figure of Russian political opposition and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Boris Nemtsov got murdered in Moscow in February of 2015.

A cold murder-on-video case sets two friends on an investigative journey of their own. Snooping around the darkest crevices of Russia's Neo-Nazi underground, they are determined to find the murderers.

The documentary project The Term was conceived in May 2012. When the directing trio commenced mapping the Russian sociopolitical landscape, Vladimir Putin had just settled into the Kremlin for his third term. The original experimental format of “documentary bulletins,” which were published daily online, allowed for wide-ranging content; in the feature film version, however, the filmmakers focused solely on the members of various opposition groups. Nevertheless, the work’s neutral position remains and viewers have to interpret the objectively presented situations for themselves. The main characteristics of this strongly authentic movie include close contact with the protagonists, precise editing, and an effectively controlled release of information.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

The camera is the silent witness to the last weeks before Svetlana Donskova succumbs to her illness. We follow her slow surrender. Initially cheerful in the taxi, joking about being unmarried at 30, she gradually comes to spend increasing amounts of time lying on her couch in her apartment.

A story about the most mysterious and, possibly, the most significant of the living Russian-speaking writers - "Russian Salinger". Sasha Sokolov is a classic of Russian literature and Russian modernism, who influenced writers such as Mikhail Shishkin, Vladimir Sorokin, Vladimir Sharov, Viktor Pelevin. True, so far little has been known about Sokolov itself.

Masha Drokova is a rising star in Russia’s popular nationalistic youth movement, Nashi. A smart, ambitious teenager who – literally – embraced Vladimir Putin and his promise of a greater Russia, her dedication as an organizer is rewarded with a university scholarship, an apartment, and a job as a spokesperson. But her bright political future falters when she befriends a group of liberal journalists who are critical of the government, including blogger Oleg Kashin, who calls Nashi a “group of hooligans,” and she’s forced to confront the group’s dirty – even violent – tactics.