The best Dmitry Brauer’s movies

The story of the Podolsk cadets’ heroic stand outside Moscow in October 1941. Cadets were sent to the Ilyinsky line, fighting alongside units from the Soviet 43rd Army to hold back the German advance until reinforcements arrived. Hopelessly outnumbered, young men laid down their lives in a battle lasting almost two weeks to obstruct the far superior German forces advancing towards Moscow. Around 3,500 cadets and their commanding officers were sent to hold up the last line of defense outside Moscow. Most of them remained there for eternity.

Based on true and tragic events in the life of Vitaly Kaloyev, an architect and family man. In 2002, his wife and children die in a mid-air collision along with 70 other people, mostly children. Vitaly is one of the first people to discover the bodies of his family at the site of the crash. The blame is put on the company responsible for monitoring the air space, as well as the lone air traffic controller on duty at the time. Two years later, after much obstructed efforts to get apologies and answers, Vitaly flies to Switzerland to obtain justice.

Pretty Sasha finds herself in a whirlpool of intrigue and criminal games after her lover, a talented painter, is murdered. Chased on one side by brutal criminals who don't leave witnesses, and on the other by the cops who consider her the #1 suspect, Sasha is forced to act alone to solve the mystery of her lover’s death and keep herself alive and free at the same time. Gradually she unravels the tangle of mysteries and deceptions, only to learn that her lover was forging paintings which had been sold for millions of dollars, and no-one really is who they say they are.

A chance meeting between Nicolai and Nina, a friend from the past, makes Nicolai return to an abandoned hotel in which, many years ago, he experienced his only love, full of tragedy and an overwhelming feeling.

Sebastian (Mark Waschke) is a physics professor at the University of Jena and dealing for years with parallel universes. Meticulously, he tries to prove its existence scientifically. His college friend Oskar (Stipe Erceg), professor of theoretical physics at CERN in Geneva, smiles at Sebastian's firm belief in parallel universes and the many-worlds theory. In order to devote himself to the evidence in peace, Sebastian brings his son Nick to a summer camp, while his wife Maike (Bernadette Heerwagen) is on vacation in the mountains. At a rest stop Nick disappears out of the car and so for Sebastian a nightmare begins. Increasingly he is loosing more and more control. What really happened? It is fatal to his own theory? And who is this mysterious Schilf, which occurs abruptly in Sebastian's life?

Joseph is in his mid-sixties and has just lost his beloved wife. Everything in his big old mansion reminds him painfully of the years they spent together. One day several visitors turn up unexpectedly. They seem to be relatives of his deceased wife. In the beginning, the uninvited guests treat Joseph with loving care, but bit by bit the situation begins to change. The visitors slowly, almost unnoticably, become aggressive, even hostile, invaders. They try to get rid of Joseph and take over his house, his world, his thoughts. Is this just the paranoia of an old man or really a ruthless invasion?

1979: Cousins Carole and Jérôme go on an organized trip to Odessa, behind the Iron Curtain. During the day, posing as tourists celebrating their engagement, they visit monuments and museums. In the evening they slip away from the group and meet “refuseniks”, Jews persecuted by the Soviet regime for wanting to leave the country. While Carole is motivated by political commitment and a taste for risk, Jérôme’s motivation is Carole.