ListSimilar.

1. The Halt (Полустанок)

Trains travel through the night without stopping. The clatter of the carriages quickly disappears, along with the wail of the locomotive. The people at the station are all asleep. But why are they so exhausted ? And what are they waiting for? Set inside an isolated train depot, The Train Station is one of Sergei Loznitsa's most haunting films. It is also one of his most pointed social critiques. In this film, we are brought to a remote train station deep in the Russian woods. It's nighttime. In the distance, we hear the clatter of locomotives. The station, a small wooden building, sits silently, surrounded only by snow and train tracks.

It has an average vote of 4.9 on TMDB.

2. The Real Doctor Zhivago

Dr. Zhivago is one of the best-known love stories of the 20th century, but the setting of the book also made it famous. It is a tale of passion and fear, set against a backdrop of revolution and violence. The film is what most people remember, but the story of the writing of the book has more twists, intrigue and bravery than many a Hollywood blockbuster. In this documentary, Stephen Smith traces the revolutionary beginnings of this bestseller, to it becoming a pawn of the CIA at the height of the Cold War.

3. The Condemned

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners. In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life. A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.

It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.

4. People of Russia

This FitzPatrick Miniature visits the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , the largest geographically unbroken political unit in the world, covering one-sixth of the world's land mass.

5. Barbarossa: Hitler Turns East (Barbarossa: Hitler Turns East)

Hitler's invasion of Russia was one of the landmark events of World War II. This documentary reveals the lead-up to the offensive, its impact on the war and the brinksmanship that resulted from the battle for Moscow. Rare footage from both German and Russian archives and detailed maps illustrate the conflict, while award-winning historian and author John Erickson provides insight into the pivotal maneuvers on the eastern front.

6. Kunashir (Kounachir)

Kunashir, one of the biggest islands of the Kuril Archipelago, is situated 16 kilometers from Japan. It was occupied by the Soviet army in 1945. One year later, after a short period of cohabitation, 17.000 Japanese and Ainu people who were living in the Kurils and on Sakhalin were deported to the island of Hokkaido. Since that time Japan has been demanding the return of the Kuril Islands. A peace treaty between the two countries still has not been signed.

7. PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster

Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean.

It has an average vote of 8.1 on TMDB.

8. Conversations after Church

Six Christians face a dark night of the soul that leads them to question everything they believe.

9. Veterans (Veterans)

'Veterans', focuses on WW2 veterans, once fighters in the Red Army and now uprooted immigrants, fighting for their place in society. These people, who experienced the twentieth century's bloodiest war as Soviet soldiers, immigrated to Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union and found themselves in a society that is totally indifferent to their glorious past. The film offers a close and compassionate look at the veterans' lives, fueled by complexity, pain, and an almost silent insult, alongside joy and self-deprecating humor. The feeling of living on borrowed time drives the veterans to embark on what may be their last adventure.

10. Beyond the White (Beyond the White)

In Northern Russia, a few dozen people still live in their traditional houses surrounded by water, stone, and sand. Cut off from vital infrastructure, almost forgotten by regional governance, these people have to cope with their everyday struggles.

11. Rusia: Revolución conservadora (Rusia: Revolución conservadora)

(Rusia: Revolución conservadora)

It has an average vote of 9.5 on TMDB.

12. Alexeï Guerman, cinéaste bien interdit (Alexeï Guerman, cinéaste bien interdit)

(Alexeï Guerman, cinéaste bien interdit)

13. Moscow Does Not Believe in Queers

Documentary about the ten days the director spent in Moscow, during the 1986 Moscow Youth Festival, as kind of a gay delegate.

It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.

14. Eyes on Russia: From the Caucasus to Moscow

An extremely rare subject by the famed still photographer. A 1934 short.

15. Pussy Versus Putin

In 2012 two members of anarchistic female band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a Mordovian labor camp for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". Russian film collective Gogol’s Wives follow each step of the feminist punk band’s battle against Putin including their first disruptive performances on a trolley bus, shooting a video about transparent elections, a controversial performance in a Red Square cathedral, and footage shot in a jail cell. Support comes from many corners including Madonna who painted the words "Pussy Riot" on her back and wore a balaclava during her Moscow show. The documentary portrays the grim state of present-day Russia, a country starkly divided between conservatism and anarchy. Pussy Riot believes that art has to be free and they're willing to take it to extremes. "Pussycat made a mess in the house," they say, and the house is Russia. The filmmakers do not seek to moralize, they simply edit events and leave viewers to draw their own conclusions.

It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.

16. The Hitler–Stalin Pact (Le Pacte Hitler-Staline : autopsie d'un cataclysme)

How could Hitler and Stalin, sworn ideological enemies, come to a secret pact in 1939? The captivating and detailed story of the diplomatic fiasco that led to the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact and its devastating consequences.

It has an average vote of 8.2 on TMDB.

17. Baker Street Live

The sort film “Baker Street Live” is being produced for December 2016 exhibition “The Masterpieces of Russian Cinematography”. The film is aiming to intrigue the viewer by the strength of British culture taking place within Russian cinematography influencing and shaping the soviet and modern Russian society. The story of two puppets – Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson - undertaking an investigation and finding the lost pages scattered around London by which they are mostly intrigued. As the puppets keep finding page by page, they unveil their own story as if one discovers himself from within. And as ever, the successful investigation by Serlock results in the re-union of the lost pages with their lawful owner.

18. Babushka (Babushka)

Twenty-five years after she moved away, Canadian filmmaker Kristina Wagenbauer returns to her native Russia to visit her grandmother – her Babushka – with whom she spent part of her childhood, in this film brimming with tenderness and humour. The two women reflected in the mirror bear an undeniable resemblance, and each seeks to recognize herself in the other. Plumbing her memories, Wagenbauer hopes to re-establish a lost bond of intimacy and to confront the wounds of the past. Babushka has survived the Second World War, the break-up of the Soviet Union, the void that her daughter and granddaughter left behind when they moved abroad, and, more recently, the death of the love of her life. Despite all of this, she holds to life with a strong spirit of resilience.

19. The Last Days of the USSR (Les Derniers Jours de l'URSS)

From 1989 to 1991 a string of unpredictable events happened that brought to light the rivalry between two men: Gorbachev, hindered by the economic results of his perestroika, and Yeltsin, embodying the hopes of the Russian people. Illustrated with interviews of top protagonists such as Mikhail Gobachev himself, the documentary recounts the critical last two years of the former USSR.

It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.

20. Rock (Рок)

Documentary — featuring both interviews and live footage — about underground rock music in Russia, during the last years of the Perestroika.

It has an average vote of 5.75 on TMDB.