Una giovane finlandese scappa da una complicata storia d'amore a Mosca salendo su un treno diretto al porto artico di Murmansk. Si ritrova così costretta a condividere il lungo viaggio e un minuscolo vagone letto con un minatore russo. L'inaspettato incontro a bordo sullo scompartimento numero sei porterà i due ad affrontare la verità sul proprio desiderio di contatto umano.
Franco e Loris, l'inserviente licenziato di un allevamento bovino e un piccolo allevatore sull'orlo del fallimento, sono in viaggio dal Nord Italia all'Ungheria, in camion, in treno, a piedi. Li accompagna Corinto, il numero cinque al mondo, campione della riproduzione artificiale, che i due hanno rubato all'allevamento e vogliono vendere. E il suo ritmo imponente e inerme è anche quello su cui si calibra il ritmo del film: scorrevole e senza fretta, con lunghe pause "ruminanti" durante le quali Franco e Loris sfiorano la tristezza della guerra, la desolazione di profughi, l'arroganza di quelli che fanno affari nella terra di nessuno dell'ex socialismo. Un passo giusto per Mazzacurati, amaro, bellissimo negli esterni, complice negli interni notturni.
Sparky Smith (Joe Mantegna) was manager of the Seattle Mariners until he had one too many shouting matches with the team's owner (Michael Lerner) and winds up fired. Now Sparky's ready to coach any team who'll have him. The only problem is, no one will, until the day the Russian Sports Ministry led by the delectable Tanya (Natalya Negoda) comes knocking at his door. The Russians need a baseball coach for their Olympic team, and Sparky is just the man for the job. Once on Russian soil though, he soon discovers that the Russian team is composed of athletes, hockey players, and shot putters who barely know their way around a diamond. Confronted with this losing team, hilarious comedy ensues when Sparky is told to accept an invitation to have his team visit the States and play his old team the Mariners.
Minsk, Bielorussia, 1996. Velya, aspirante DJ, vuole trasferirsi a Chicago per realizzare i suoi sogni, ma la burocrazia, la linea telefonica e la condizione umana le porranno ostacoli difficili da evitare.
The end of the Cold War did not bring about a definitive thaw in the former republics of the Soviet Union, so that today there are several frozen conflicts, unresolved for decades, in that vast territory. As in Transnistria, an unrecognized state, seceded from Moldova since 1990. Kolja is a silent witness of how borders and bureaucracy shape the lives of citizens, finally forced to lose their identity.
More than twenty years after Vladimir Putin came to supreme power in Russia on May 7, 2000, Russian society is deeply divided. A young, modern generation opposes the growing repression by the regime, which still retains the support of many members of previous generations. Who are these ordinary citizens who dream of living in a different Russia? What price will they have to pay to achieve the freedom and justice they so desire?
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain an estimated four million children have found themselves living on the streets in the former countries of the Soviet Union. In the streets of Moscow alone there are over 30,000 surviving in this manner at the present time. The makers of the documentary film concentrated on a community of homeless children living hand to mouth in the Moscow train station Leningradsky. Eight-year-old Sasha, eleven-year-old Kristina, thirteen-year-old Misha and ten-year-old Andrej all dream of living in a communal home. They spend winter nights trying to stay warm by huddling together on hot water pipes and most of their days are spent begging. Andrej has found himself here because of disagreements with his family. Kristina was driven into this way of life by the hatred of her stepmother and twelve-year-old Roma by the regular beatings he received from his constantly drunk father. "When it is worst, we try to make money for food by prostitution," admits ...
Russian-speaking Katja was born in 1992 in the Estonian city of Narva, not far from the Russian border. She represents the entire generation of the 1990s, which sees itself as a house with no address or railway tracks leading nowhere. In the ruins of the Soviet Union, she searches for her national identity and learns to breathe freedom.