Movies from Russia

When Miron’s beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his best friend Aist to help him say goodbye to her according to the rituals of the Merja culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero, a picturesque region in West-Central Russia. Although the Merja people assimilated into Russians in the 17th century, their myths and traditions live on in their descendants’ modern life. The two men set out on a roadtrip thousands of miles across the boundless
lands.

Once upon a time … is the best way to tell the incredible story of the
adventures of the ‘mermaid’ Alisa in the Russian capital Moscow. There was
a time when Alisa lived by the sea. Her life was nothing out of the ordinary.
She dreamed of one day dancing in a ballet; she sang in a children’s choir
and attended a special school, because, at the age of six, she suddenly
stopped speaking. None of which would be noteworthy, were it not for the
fact that Alisa possessed a remarkable gift: the ability to fulfil wishes.
At the age of 18 she leaves her coastal town for Moscow, where her destiny
soon takes hold and she meets him … a man whose desire to be saved and
protected is pretty much written all over him.

In an amazingly beautiful place, on the bank of the wide Don, in a remote, half-destroyed village, surrounded by only steppe for hundreds of miles, a real drama takes place. An unexpected passionate love between a young man and a married woman literally destroys the lives of not only the main characters, but also their close ones.

Michalkov