1. No Nation Without Culture (Без культуры нет нации)
“While shooting my feature documentary film, Memory, in April of 2021 in Grozny, Chechnya , I felt the influence of the gigantic portraits of Putin, Kadyrov Senior and Kadyrov Junior all over the city. They observed me from everywhere. In parallel to the production of the film, we set out to capture the feeling of totalitarianism that these portraits conveyed. We got up at 4 in the morning and shot through the window of a car because such actions put us under threat of persecution. We understood that we were documenting the time of the birth of fascism in Russia.” Vladlena Sandu
2. Dictator: One Crazy Job (Dictateur, un boulot de dingue)
They’ve become the human face of inhuman barbarity. Leaders like Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, Stalin, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Nicolae Ceausescu, Bokassa, Muammar Kadhafi, Khomeini, Mussolini and Franco governed their countries completely cut off from reality. These paranoid leaders were driven to abuse their power by the pathology of power itself. Dictators are driven by a relentless, thought-out determination to impose themselves as infallible, all-knowing and all-powerful beings. But they are also men ruled by their caprices, uncontrollable impulses, and reckless fits of frenzy, which paradoxically render them as human as anyone else. The abuses they committed were clearly atrocious, yet some of them were as outlandish as the characters portrayed in the film The Dictator. They sunk to depths worthy of Kafka: so incredibly absurd, they are outrageously funny.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
3. Labor rhythms of Checheno-Ingushetia (Трудовые ритмы Чечено-Ингушетии)
Documentary film about the labor activity of residents of Chechen-Ingush ASSR
4. Hell (Ад)
Alexander Nevzorov's documentary of the storming of Grozny in 1994-95
5. Babitsky's War
Documentary of the Second Chechen War, centered on the work of war journalist Andrei Babitsky..
6. Business Trip to Death (Dienstreise in den Tod: Russische Spezialeinheiten in Grozny)
Short documentary about Russian special forces during the Third Battle of Grozny during the First Chechen War
7. Kadyrov, The Dictator of Chechnya (Kadyrov, Ubu dictateur de Tchétchénie)
(Kadyrov, Ubu dictateur de Tchétchénie)
It has an average vote of 3.4 on TMDB.
8. 60 Hours of the Maikop Brigade (60 часов Майкопской бригады)
A two-part documentary about the Russian Army's disastrous assault on Grozny on New Year's Eve, 1994.
9. Red Sparrow
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Dominika emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, she meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
It has an average vote of 6.535 on TMDB.
10. The Sum of All Fears
When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.
It has an average vote of 6.34 on TMDB.
11. 12 (12)
A loose remake of “12 Angry Men”, “12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must unanimously decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his heartbreaking journey through war in flashbacks.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
12. Beyond Borders
Sarah Jordan, an American living in London in 1984, is married to the son of a wealthy British industrialist. She encounters Nick Callahan, a renegade doctor, whose impassioned plea for help to support his relief efforts in war-torn Africa moves her deeply. As a result, Sarah embarks upon a journey of discovery that leads to danger, heartbreak and romance in the far corners of the world.
It has an average vote of 6.4 on TMDB.
13. Target of Opportunity
Jim Jacobs and Nick Carlton, childhood friends, are CIA operatives on a sting operation in Chechnya. The raid of a rebel militia group goes bad and the entire teams gets wiped out except for Jim and Nick, who manages to save them both. Five years later, they are out of the CIA game.
It has an average vote of 4.2 on TMDB.
14. Prisoner of the Mountains (Кавказский пленник)
Two Russian soldiers, one battle-seasoned and the other barely into his boots and uniform, are taken prisoner by an anxious Islamic father from a remote village hoping to trade them for his captured son.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
15. Escape Plan 2: Hades
Ray Breslin manages an elite team of security specialists trained in the art of breaking people out of the world's most impenetrable prisons. When his most trusted operative, Shu Ren, is kidnapped and disappears inside the most elaborate prison ever built, Ray must track him down with the help of some of his former friends.
It has an average vote of 5.176 on TMDB.
16. The Cage is Looking for a Bird (Клетка ищет птицу)
In a small Chechen village, Yaha spends her days with Madina, with whom she is very close. Both girls dream of leaving their homes after graduation and escaping to the real world, far from their village. Yaha’s older sister Heda also dreams of being free, but the price for this is very high - if she decides to try for a divorce, her only son will be taken away from her, such are the traditions in her culture. Will Yaha, Madina and Heda succeed to get free, and at what cost?
17. War (Война)
During the bloody war in Chechnya, a British couple and two Russian soldiers are taken hostage by Chechen rebels. Two of the hostages are then released to bring the money for the British woman who is forced to wait for the ransom.
It has an average vote of 7.161 on TMDB.
18. Purgatory (Чистилище)
This is a story about the battle for a hospital building in Grozny in January 1995 between Russian Army forces and Chechen rebels supported by Arabian mujahideen and international mercenaries. Although the story is fictional, most of the characters are based on real-life prototypes and events are the compilation of true events during the Grozny Siege in the First Chechen War.
It has an average vote of 5.3 on TMDB.
19. Eliso (ელისო)
Georgia, 1864. The Tsarist regime is using Cossacks to forcibly resettle Muslim Georgians to Turkey in order to steal their land. Meanwhile a Muslim girl falls in love with a Christian from the next village.
It has an average vote of 4.7 on TMDB.
20. L'Effet de Mes Rides (L'Effet de Mes Rides)
Claude, a multi-faceted artist passionate about animation, decides to make "his own" film at last, before he turns 70. He embarks with him on this adventure Gaston, his 7-year-old grandson, curious about everything and always on the go, to whom he transmitted his passion for drawing and moving images.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.