Sergey Dreyden

The Fall of the Empire

Russian Empire. The second decade of the twentieth century. As a result of the conflict between the Entente and the bloc of the Central Powers led by Germany, which erupted in August 1914, Russia is drawn into the First World War. A wave of unrest is rolling through the country. Revolutionary moods are increasing every day. Counterintelligence is trying with all its might to suppress the activity of German spies active in the territory of the country ...

Carpe Diem

Instead of preparing for entering university a young man Tomash mocks at people calling random phone numbers. Especially he bothers old professor of botany Edward Cockerel with one and the same joke all the time. They both got used to these calls at 3pm so much that they are eagerly awaiting them. Meanwhile the Nazis occupy Czechoslovakia.

Petrov's Flu

With the city in the throes of a flu epidemic, the Petrov family struggles through yet another day in a country where the past is never past, the present is a booze-fueled, icy fever dream of violence and tenderness, and where – beneath layers of the ordinary – things turn out to be extraordinary.

The Turn

Lithuanian schoolchildren were driving home, returning from an excursion. Not far from Minsk, the bus came under bombing. The war caught the boys far from home, by surprise. A turn in their destinies, knowledge of the harshest sides of existence... And the heroes are only thirteen years old.

Russian Ark

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

Kuprin. In the Dark

The tiger trainer Zenida from the story "Lucia" falls in love with Alarin, the hero of the story "In the Dark". Also, Oznobishin is fighting for the heart of the fearless tamer. And Kuprin himself watches the love vicissitudes of his characters.

While Defending the Front Line

Volkhov Front in 1942. The young political instructor of the counter-propaganda department of the headquarters of the division Rusanov is torn to the forefront. Together with an experienced warrior — captain Shaternikov — the hero gets to the forefront and transmits from the sound transmission programs addressed to German soldiers. And in the hours of calm passes several kilometers in order to see Katya, the signal woman of a neighboring sector of the front.

The Antique

A young Georgian man named Lado is involved in smuggling antique furniture from Georgia to Russia. Medea, Lado’s girlfriend, buys herself an apartment in St. Peterburg’s historic center. At the time of the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia, Lado is caught and deported.

A Span of Land

Based on the play of the same name by Boris Rymar.

Actor

Unsuccessful actor Ivan Lipatov gets a chance to play the most difficult role in his life - the role of a real person who has a family, a job and a lot of problems, the solution of which depends on the safety of a large number of people.

Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg

Considering that Musakov’s Abdulladzhan (1991) was dedicated to Steven Spielberg, we might suggest that these four boys embody nothing more complicated than a conflict of youthful innocence with some ominous threat—the basic workings of E.T. (1982) or War of the Worlds (2005), say. That threat, however, is best understood not through vague nationalism or warmed-over socialism, but through the other reference-point of Abdulladzhan—Tarkovskii’s Stalker (1980). Musakov leaves his boys in a simplified radiance so bright and so overexposed that it no longer looks like the skies of sunny Tashkent, but a disturbing, borderless luminosity to match the flat tonal range of Stalker’s “Zone.” Our Uzbek boys are nowhere in particular; this is a broader domain than anything international.

Against the Equations

Based on the play by J. Smetanova.

The Tale of Fedot, the Shooter

Fedot the Shooter is sent by the Czar to find some special food for the foreign ambassador's visit. During the hunt Fedot meets his love Marusya - the magical bird-woman. Evil Czar and his no-less-evil sidekick General with the help of the local witch Yaga try to eliminate Fedot by giving him more and more complex quests and to take Marusya to Tsar's palace. Marusya helps Fedot to solve the quests successfully.

Arventur

Remote Access

An experimental drama about a boy and his illness, a wife looking for a site for her husband’s construction company and a beautiful girl who works on a phone sex-line.