The best Nikolay Grinko’s drama movies

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.

A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

In WW2, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.

In a Carpathian village, Ivan falls in love with Marichka, the daughter of his father's killer. When tragedy befalls her, his grief lasts months; finally he rejoins the colorful life around him, marrying Palagna. She wants children but his mind stays on his lost love. To recapture his attention, Palagna tries sorcery, and in the process comes under the spell of the sorcerer, publicly humiliating Ivan, who then fights the sorcerer. The lively rhythms of village life, the work and the holidays, the pageant and revelry of weddings and funerals, the change of seasons, and nature's beauty give proportion to Ivan's tragedy.

The 1975 film by Georgi Daneliya "Afonya" was an unexpected commercial hit in USSR. The main character "Afonya" Borshev is a plumber, who spends his life partying with "buddies", many of whom he doesn't even remember after nights of heavy drinking. His wife leaves him, his boss places him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. Afonya met Katya at a dance club, yet didn't pay her much attention. But she is the one, who can save him... In this movie Daneliya achieves a perfect balance of satire and drama. Quotes from the movie gained a cult status in USSR.

Documents reveal in 1980 that the Germans planned to kill the Big Three in Teheran in 1943.This story starts in 1980 in Paris as the memories of Andrei Borodin (Igor Kostolevsky), a Soviet agent, take the action back to 1943 during the Teheran meetings of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A high-ranking Nazi officer developed a plan to assassinate the three world leaders in order to undermine the Allied forces. He commissioned the German agent Max Richard (Armen Dzhigarkhanian) to carry out his plan, but it failed miserably due to the quick action and thinking of Andrei. While in Teheran, Andrei met a French woman, Marie Louni (Natalia Belokhvostikova), living in the city and they had a brief but intense affair. Nearly four decades later, the Nazi officer has been captured - but not for long. Freed by terrorists, the officer is hunting down the German agent who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. Max lives at Françoise (Claude Jade), a young French woman, who hides him.

An expedition of a few geologists is going to Siberia in order to found a gold sources during 1918.

The years of the tsar’s adolescence and youth were permeated with deadly danger coming from some of the Boyars, the rebellious Streltsy and Tsarevna Sophia who aspired for power. But already at that early time Peter demonstrates a profound, bright intellect, a strong will and the sense of purpose, which help him disarm both his open and secret enemies.

War correspondent Lopatin takes a 20-day-leave from his hard work at the front in 1942. He travels to faraway Tashkent to meet the family of the killed soldier and visit the film set of the screen adaptation of his war-time stories. Lopatin also manages to walk the streets of Tashkent, take part in a factory workers' meeting and have a short-lived love affair. Although with no bombings and fighting, the city dwellers breathe the atmosphere of the ongoing war.

The families of 18 soldiers who heroically died in 1944 are meeting at the place of the squad last battle.

Sergei and Tanya are in love with each other. Sergei is drafted into the marine corps and Tania waits for his return. Sergei's division is abandoned in favor of helping local residents in distress. During the operation, his armored personnel gets carried into the sea. His relatives receive a notice of his death. Tanya's loving childhood friend, a hockey player, helps her to cope with misfortune and she marries him. But it turned out that Sergei did not perish. He, together with a wounded friend he saved, are found on a deserted island after a long winter. Back home, Sergei learns that Tanya has married another. Unable to accept the loss of his beloved, Sergei dies; but this death is a symbolic and emotional one, not physical. Sergei continues to live a normal life without shock and strong distress, meets another girl, marries her, has a child. In the finale there is a spiritual rebirth of the hero.

The film tells about Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. October 17, 1896. On the facade of the Alexandrinsky Theater — a poster about the premiere of "The Seagull". A few hours are left before the performance. Chekhov and his sister Masha are expecting Lika Mizinova from Moscow station to arrive from Moscow. Chekhov is alarmed by the upcoming premiere, excited by the meeting with love, which never took place. Memories of acquaintance with Lika, of the experiences caused by the rude scolding of newspaper men who predicted the young writer the inglorious "death under the fence", about the unexpected decision for everyone to go to Sakhalin...

The film is based on a true dramatic story of the fate of a wonderful Russian woman - Countess Yulia Petrovna Vrevskaya, one of the first Petersburg beauties. The events of the movie take place during the Russian-Turkish war for the liberation of the Bulgarian people from the Turkish yoke. An early widowed baroness, having left Petersburg, and having invested all her money in organizing a volunteer sanitary detachment, she becomes a sister of mercy on the front of the Bulgarian war with the Ottoman Empire of 1878.