20 best movies like Zhizn' raz (2018)

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

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.

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?

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Alevtina Romanova is a warden in the woman's colony, and the only thing that is different from her «iron lady» image is her voice - a voice which even a notable opera diva would envy. However, Alevtina has been ashamed of her talent since the times she was a kid and nowadays, preliminarily making sure no one's around, she rarely sings for herself. Despite the fact that Alevtina is trying to stay invisible, one of the prisoners secretly records her singing on video by a cellphone and puts it online. The tape becomes a real sensation, and soon Alevtina is invited to Moscow to participate in the main singing show on national television. A sincere desire to change her life awakens inside Alevtina but she's not ready to compete in the show at all. The only person who could train her voice and prepare her for the performance is that very prisoner, who recorded the video, who turns out to be a singer in the past.

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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.

In a small town everything is visible. However much you try to hide something, some disturbing signals will reach the family sooner or later. And then you have to make a choice: start a new life in the same place with your new “half” or confess to the old half and return to the usual flow of life. The film’s heroes stand before such a choice.

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.

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

The Humorist is a film about a week in the life of Boris Arkadiev, a fictional Soviet stand-up comedian. Boris is tormented not only by external oppression and censorship but also by his own insecurities that poison all his relationships.

A thrilling love story between the young boxer Vincent and the German Eva, who soon has to marry with the middle-aged Dirk to save her family. While the war starts in the Netherlands their impossible love inflames. May 14, 1940, the day that the centre of Rotterdam is bombed and the young lovers lose sight of each other.

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

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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.

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?”

The picture tells about the feat of Russian scientists who are sent to Svalbard as part of the Russian-Swedish expedition in order to measure the actual size and shape of the globe.

Russia’s answer to U.S. box-office hit “The Social Network”, the movie tells the story of a pair of Moscow students in the mid-90s who create an internet search engine that becomes one of the largest in the world.

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

Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces an impossible moral choice.

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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.

An act of civil disobedience turns into a standoff with police when homeless people in Cincinnati take over the public library to seek shelter from the bitter cold.

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.

Heli must try and protect his young family when his 12-year-old sister inadvertently involves them in the brutal drug world. He must battle against the drug cartel that have been angered as well as the corrupt police force.

The protagonist Mikhail Nosov is a simple worker. His life consists of work at the machine tool and loneliness in a small rented apartment, TV, the Internet and visiting cheap night clubs. Once Nosov gets acquainted with a prostitute by the name of Diana. Nosov likes Diana and hires her as escort. Diana should live in his apartment. However, Diana turns out completely different to what Nosov imagined her to be, and his life takes an abrupt turn: unexpectedly he goes against his firm principles, changes priorities and understands that life is not as one- dimensional as it seemed to him from the conversations with colleagues and news programmes.

When their drug abusing mother is released from prison determined to rebuild their family, Rey kidnaps his younger brother Oliver and escapes their desert home for the California coast.

A story based on love between Anton Chekhov and a young writer Lidiya Avilova.

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.

Two brothers are trying to find out the truth from years ago. The whole town is against them.

During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.

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.

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...

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.

Yakutia, the 1930s. Old Mikipper and his wife Oppuos live their days in thick taiga. Cows, hunting, fishing make up the simple everyday life of the old people. Once early in the winter an eagle flies into their garden. The old people dare no drive it away because eagles are sacred. All through the winter they feed the bird so that it does no attack their cattle. Gradually they grow accustomed to each other. On a cold Christmas day the eagle makes its way into the house and occupies the honorary place in the corner on the shelf next to the icons. From then on the people and the bird start their life together in one house.

Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant...

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

Elderly Aleksandra visits her Russian soldier grandson, Denis, at the Chechen war front, providing comfort as she tours his army. All the while, Denis ponders the reason for her unexpected appearance.

Young father agrees to fulfill three criminal boss's wishes in order to get money for his son's surgery abroad.

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.

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

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.

biography movie

An Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv discovers a dark secret about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing.

One Monday morning Katya, Vika and Zhanna learn that there will be a school disco, their first disco, on the coming Saturday night. The girls feverishly start preparing for the event, which rapidly becomes the most important moment ever in their universe, and looks like the ideal way to escape their daily lives...

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.

A 13-year-old girl grows up between a boxing ring and the street. Her friends are guys who kill and rob. In the 1990s the whole city hates them, but for Masha they are the best people in the world, who love and protect her. She sings them jazz and dreams of becoming a singer. But one day Masha learns who they actually are and what they have done to her life and family. She matures, leaves the small city for Moscow, trying to break with her past. But one day the past stands directly before her.

After the bizarre death of her brother, Johana Burwood must return home after four years, to face her strange siblings, her out of touch father and her very touchy past.

Five short love stories, which become a statement of the directors about love. A shoemaker, a reporter, a pavement hooker-in, a psychiatric patient and a young man released from prison are the main characters of the film, heroes in a time of no heroes. All of them have the important qualities of being openhearted and not afraid of loving.

Lachlan MacAldonich is a self-described “lazy Scotsman” and former guitar player for a once-popular 1990s rock band. No longer famous, he now lives a comfortably numb existence working on an organic farm outside Los Angeles. He drinks himself into a stupor every night and retires to his shabby apartment to record his podcast, recounting the tragic deaths of great musicians. After a particularly heavy night of drowning his sorrows at a local watering hole, he is arrested for driving under the influence. This snag, coupled with a long-ago conviction for a drug offense, means Lachlan faces possible deportation. His only hope of remaining stateside is proving that his absence would cause extreme hardship for a spouse or relative – forcing him to confront relationships he thought were buried forever.