The best Mariya Shalaeva’s drama movies

The fanciful tale of an introverted little girl who grows up believing she has the power to make wishes come true. She must reconcile this belief with reality when, as a young woman, she journeys to Moscow and grapples with love, modernity and materialism.

Soviet Georgia, 1983. Preparations for Nika and Ana's wedding are in full swing and it's a big day for both of their elite families. For the newlyweds and their friends, however, the celebrations are in fact part of a cover-up, as they plot an audacious escape from the Soviet Union.

What is love? The heroes of the film try to answer this question. A series of the most different characters and their stories are woven together. Small stories about various things, all about love: a young pair who prefer to live through images of Japanese anime-heroes; a secretary who receives an obscene offer from her boss; a Japanese woman who arrives in Moscow in search of a Russian man; a graffiti artist in search of beauty; an ex-wife employed by her husband for an unusual task; and many other things...

A 30-something single mother must find adoptive parents for her son when she founds out she has an incurable illness in this family drama.

Sergei and Kira were considered the most beautiful bohemian couple among cinema lovers of Saint Petersburg in the early 90’s. Their fantastic love affair ended with Kira leaving town, fleeing for new life, new relationship. Sergei has died shortly after. Only after a few years does Kira realize that she never stopped loving Sergei. And that she’s doomed to stay in a neverending dialogue with a dead lover.

The creator of the best virtual reality games is convinced that in reality everyone and everything is controlled, but a chance meeting with a young activist opens his eyes to the fact that the world is much wider and more complicated than anything that he knows and understands about it.

Contemporary Moscow. Svyatoslav, a poor boy, falls in love with Asya, a rich girl, and wants to marry her. To support her in the manner in which she is accustomed, he opens an upscale restaurant. But he soon discovers he has a unseen enemy.

The action unfolds in our days, in the small Volga town of Kalinov, where nothing has changed since the days of Alexander Ostrovsky’s classical play: if any rays of light do appear in the dark empire, then they are doomed to perish quietly in the general absurdity and ignorance, or shine brightly as a token of protest against lie and tyranny. The young, married girl Katerina Kabanova leads a happy life — at first sight. Only her mother-in-law Kabanikha constantly nags her and does not allow her to take things easy. Her weak-willed husband Tikhon loves his wife, but he always sides with his powerful mother. When Katerina unexpectedly falls in love with Boris, the young relative of the town’s mayor, she finds that he also has tender feelings for her…

A young man who was raised in a children's home wants to go to the Chechen war. He believes in his heart that he belongs there and that in those difficult conditions he will make himself visible. After the training, Alexander enters the elite troops of the special forces and leaves for the harsh ordeals that wait for him in the war. He doesn't change his principles and manifests himself as a hero, who won't be a traitor, even if his life depends on it. The concepts of real friendship, love and honor are eternal values. After overcoming all hardships and learning the pain of loss, he finds his love and a home, where they will wait for him, where he comes home from the war...

Young Alisa is fed up with her life in Moscow, and moves to St. Petersburg. Her roommates in the collective flat are two junkies, Vel and her boyfriend Valera the Dead Man. First they fight, but soon the two women form a friendship. Together they even go after the Petersburg underworld when Dead Man is abducted because he can't pay his debts.