Best Russian documentary movies

Blockade (2006)

The images comprise only of material Sergei Loznitsa found in the Moscow film archives about the siege of Leningrad during the World War II. By providing the originally silent images with a meticulously reconstructed soundtrack, the scenes from everyday life under siege seem to be set in the present. By not intervening in the montage but giving the scenes room to tell a story, the scenes transcend the specific historic events and lead a new life. They do not evoke memories of the past, but become a breathtaking reanimation of reality.

Stairway to Heaven (1996)

This Petersburg you will not see on the covers of glossy magazines and advertising brochures. This city is ghosted and brutal, and it is inhabited by very different, often very gloomy people.

Genius. A Night for Ray Charles (2004)

A meld of legendary performers and contemporary artists of today who have been influenced by Ray's music perform in this concert extravaganza.

Crocus / Strelka (2010)

In September Zemfira organized a mini-tour in honor of the re-release of the first three albums. Solo performance at the Moscow concert hall "Crocus City Hall", September 17, 2010.

Green Theatre in Zemfira (2008)

Full-length musical film, built on footage of the concert Zemfira in the Green Theatre of Gorky Park of the city of Moscow

Enter Shikari: Further East (2019)

Enter Shikari Russia Tour Documentary

Box of Matches (2020)

The Association of DJs of Flammable Beats — these are the people who made soul, funk and hip-hop familiar at Moscow parties: for 20 years, they systematically educated the public, offering an alternative to a straight barrel. "Box of Matches" tells about the times when broken rhythms were not yet mainstream, and immerses us in the current life of each of the characters, interrupted by musical pauses.

My Perestroika (2010)

Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow.

Russia in Bloom (2013)

A documentary about Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, a pioneer in color photography of early 20th-century Russia.

Russian Jews. Part One. Before Revolution. (2016)

The history of Jewish people in Russia up until the 1917 revolution.

Lermontov (2014)

200 years ago, the Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov was born. The young man with huge eyes: his portrait is known to everyone since school. Lermontov wrote poetry, fought, fell in love, and was killed in a duel. Short life of 27 years. But what do we know about the real Lermontov? Biographical documentary-feature film tells in detail about the life of an outstanding person and a great poet.

Sakharov. Two Lives (2021)

Avenue, university and even an asteroid bear his name. Academician Sakharov is known all over the world: someone as the creator of the hydrogen bomb, someone as an outstanding public figure and human rights activist. All his life Andrei Sakharov lived between two fires - science and humanism - and this dualism formed the basis of the film. The picture will show the scientist as he saw himself, through his dialogues with the Conscience.

Anniversary of the Revolution (1918)

A chronicle of the Russian Revolution of 1917, from the bourgeois democratic February Revolution to the great socialist October Revolution and the final triumph.

Сказки о Маме (2018)

Baikal: The Heart of the World 3D (2021)

Baikal is the oldest, the deepest and the purest lake on the planet. But it's not only that - Baikal is an ideal model of our world, as it shall be. Everything is possible here: to walk on water, to touch the sky, to talk with the universe. Baikal is our hope and our future. It's a film about the thirst, about the eternity and about all of us. The genre is epic documentary. The aim is to change the world.

Intro (2016)

After the death of her son Julia seemed to be frozen. I can not regain consciousness. But she believes in a new meeting with the one she lost.

Haulout (2024)

On a remote coast of the Russian Arctic in a wind-battered hut, a lonely man waits to witness an ancient gathering. But warming seas and rising temperatures bring an unexpected change, and he soon finds himself overwhelmed.

Putin's Palace: History of World's Largest Bribe (2021)

After surviving poisoning by a Novichok nerve agent, Alexey Navalny made his most important film. Putin's Palace: History of World's Largest Bribe is about the palace near Gelendzhik that presumably belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also shows vineyards, corruption schemes and more.

Fall (2022)

An Ural city of Nizhniy Tagil. Summer is over and a ten years old Vadim is moving to a new district and attends a new school. The last warm days of September. Vadim is making his way through the fading rays of the autumn sun.

Don't Call Him Dimon (2017)

A 2017 Russian documentary film about alleged corruption by Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. The film claims that Dmitry Medvedev has embezzled an estimated $1.2 billion.

Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer (2019)

An account of the life and work of Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky (1932-86) in his own words: his memories, his vision of art and his reflections on the fate of the artist and the meaning of human existence; through extremely rare audio recordings that allow a complete understanding of his inner life and the mysterious world existing behind his complex cinematic imagery.

The Tram Goes to the Front (2021)

For the besieged Leningrad, the primary need was bread. But it was equally important to ensure the smooth operation of transport communications. In order for the city to live, people had to go to the factories, soldiers - to the front; it was necessary to transport a huge amount of cargo… The most indispensable transport was the tram.

Khodorkovsky (2011)

Khodorkovsky, the richest Russian, challenges President Putin. A fight of the titans begins. Putin warns him. But Khodorkovsky comes back to Russia knowing that he will be imprisoned, once he returns. When I heard about it, I asked myself: why didn't he stay in exile with a couple of billions? Why did he do that? A personal journey to Khodorkovsky.

БесогонTV «Если папа – коррупция, а мама – двуличие, какой у них будет ребенок?» (2021)

The Great Northern Way (2019)

With the participation of Fyodor Konyukhov. An extreme and beautiful route in the Russian Arctic. A path of ten thousand kilometers through the harsh lands of the North. For the first time in modern history, the legendary route of Semyon Dezhnev, the great Russian Explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia of the 17th century, was explored and filmed in a unique visual diary of hard-to-reach places that nobody had seen before. The most picturesque and inaccessible places in Russia, from Arkhangelsk to Chukotka, are now closer thanks to the film.

Brexitannia (2017)

A sociological portrait of the United Kingdom after the historic Brexit vote of 2016. A funny, sometimes terrifying and non-judgemental look at the new populist politics sweeping western democracies.

Born to Be Free (2017)

BORN TO BE FREE is a revelatory investigation by three intrepid free-diving journalists, Gaya, Tanya and Julia, into the global trade in wild sea mammals. Their journey takes us to the most remote corners of Russia and witnesses, for the very first time, the shocking treatment that whales, dolphins and walruses are subjected to and discovers the corruption at the heart of this cruel international business.

Russian death (2019)

What is the Russian death? Author of the film walking at different cemeteries and search answer at this question.

I Don't Believe in Anarchy (2014)

The film details the early years of the legendary Siberian Punk/Rock group 'Гражданская Оборона' (Grazhdanskaya Oborona), and its frontman, Egor Letov.

Catastrophe (2016)

The Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is the most powerful in Russia and the sixth most powerful in the world. It was built during the Soviet Union, from 1963 to 1978 on the Yenisei River in Siberia. In 2009, one of the world's largest man-made disasters occurred at the hydroelectric power station, which claimed the lives of 75 people. It took five years and 40 billion rubles to resume operation of the station. And although the exact cause of the accident has not yet been established, the engineers accused of the accident have been jailed. The accident showed that the Soviet legacy is still firmly in the minds of people, many of whom live in the past and are afraid of the future. The wear and tear of equipment, the backwardness of technology, corruption, a corrupt court, and propaganda based on the cult of "back to the USSR" portend new man-made disasters…