Vitaly Mansky

In five European cities: Helsinki, Rome, Budapest, Brussels and Moscow, five directors made a film about the place in which they live. The director of the Moscow series Vitaly Mansky lives in the house where the great documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov used to live. What Vertov saw in his windows and what a modern director sees today.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

The story is about a family that lives in a ghost town. 15 years ago, there was a job and a happy life here. After the closure of the mine, there were only old barracks, mountains of recycled land and unnecessary people who had lost the meaning of life. Is it possible to survive in such conditions and not sink even lower, when all moral boundaries are erased? Are these people's hopes for happiness destroyed? And is there a place for a holiday, a dream, or love in a hopeless reality? At the festival "Texture" in Perm, the tape was awarded the main prize.

The Leningrad period of V. Putin's life.

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

In 1991, the Communist Empire of the USSR was destroyed. And one of the main symbols of Soviet power — Lenin's Mausoleum and Lenin's Body itself were left without an owner. The film tells about Lenin's body, its contents, its protection and different opinions about the future of this body — to sell, to revive ..., to bury. "Lenin's Body" is a film about a society that survived the collapse of the Empire.

The collective life of the generation born as Jurij Gagarin became the first man in space. Vitaly Mansky has woven together a fictional biography – taken from over 5.000 hours of film material, and 20.000 still pictures made for home use. A moving document of the fictional, but nonetheless true life of the generation who grew up in this time of huge change and upheaval.

Three young women, who each have a sought-after commodity - their virginity. Kristina, Karina and Katya each try to make their way in a world ruled by fame, popularity and money.

In five European cities: Helsinki, Rome, Budapest, Brussels and Moscow, five directors made a film about the place in which they live. The director of the Moscow series Vitaly Mansky lives in the house where the great documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov used to live. What Vertov saw in his windows and what a modern director sees today.

In five European cities: Helsinki, Rome, Budapest, Brussels and Moscow, five directors made a film about the place in which they live. The director of the Moscow series Vitaly Mansky lives in the house where the great documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov used to live. What Vertov saw in his windows and what a modern director sees today.

The film is dedicated to the work of one of the most famous Russian composers, the author of the first Soviet rock opera Alexander Zhurbin. The 4 episodes tell about the different facets of the composer's work, about symphonic music, about musical theater, about cinema, about pop songs. The film is built as a monologue of the protagonist, the shooting was carried out in Moscow, Tashkent, New York, St. Petersburg. The composer's wife, poet and translator Irina Ginzburg, and the son, composer Lev Zhurbin, take part in the film.

The true, detailed lives of the girls of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. as they break through in their promotional tour in America.

The true, detailed lives of the girls of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. as they break through in their promotional tour in America.

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

The daily life of the Dalai Lama is brought home with remarkable intimacy in SUNRISE/SUNSET. Granted total access to His Holiness for 24 hours, this is a day in the life of the Dalai Lama from when he wakes up at 3 a.m. until his bedtime at dusk.

An immersion into the intimacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. The architect of perestroika and glasnost, who was praised in the West but reviled in his own country, still combative despite his advanced age, loneliness and illness, offers his personal and political testament.

On February 24, 2022, Yevhen, together with his friends, volunteered to join the first aid squad on the front line. They provided life-saving support and evacuation of the wounded. This film reveals the experiences of these young men for six months full of drama, despair, fear, hatred, bitterness, love, and, most importantly, faith in victory.

On February 24, 2022, Yevhen, together with his friends, volunteered to join the first aid squad on the front line. They provided life-saving support and evacuation of the wounded. This film reveals the experiences of these young men for six months full of drama, despair, fear, hatred, bitterness, love, and, most importantly, faith in victory.

Just like the novel 1984, film 2020 is not about a calendar year, although it is about unique events. The year 2020 serves as a backdrop for a conversation about freedom and unfreedom, starting on the eve of 2020 with Mikhail Gorbachev and continued by Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis; documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, who emigrated from Russia to Latvia; actress Chulpana Hamatova, who was once a confidante of Vladimir Putin; and actor and artistic director Yevgeny Mironov. Together, they create a theatrical production on freedom and a man who gave everyone equal opportunities to enjoy it.

Just like the novel 1984, film 2020 is not about a calendar year, although it is about unique events. The year 2020 serves as a backdrop for a conversation about freedom and unfreedom, starting on the eve of 2020 with Mikhail Gorbachev and continued by Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis; documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, who emigrated from Russia to Latvia; actress Chulpana Hamatova, who was once a confidante of Vladimir Putin; and actor and artistic director Yevgeny Mironov. Together, they create a theatrical production on freedom and a man who gave everyone equal opportunities to enjoy it.

Using Cuban cities as the backdrop to personal stories, the renowned documentary maker Vitaly Mansky depicts the complexity of contemporary Cuba. As the regime begins to slightly relax its iron grip, the island begins to slowly open up to the world. Despite the economic hardship, a life full of passion, temperament and energy still pulsates in Cuban cities. Food is rationed and decent living conditions is an illusion for many. The dreams of today’s senior citizens, who believed in Fidel and his communist experiment 50 years ago, have not been fully realized. Children of these revolutionaries still follow the ideals of the revolution but do not seem all that convinced. Instead young people prefer to enjoy small pleasures the regime allows for. While many Cubans look for life outside of Cuba, for tourists the island is for many reasons very special destination. Motherland or Death is the story of real life played out against the picturesque background of today’s Cuba.

A documentary film based on the works of the Armenian mystic and lyric poet, monk and theologian Grigor Narekatsi (c. 950 - 1003/1011). A thousand years ago, in ancient Armenia, St. Gregory of Narekatsi wrote a book of prayerful contemplation, which to this day is the deepest revelation of the spiritual world of man in search of the meaning of life. The protagonist of the film is a modern person living in the modern world. A world in which the fundamental question of the meaning of life is not relevant.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

Refugees from the Caucasian republics, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Russians, meet on the shore of the Black Sea: they work as shop keepers, life guards, karaoke singers, or just enjoy their holidays. It all happens at a place called Broadway, which is no-where to be found on a map, not even the most detailed ones. The temporary inhabitants of Broadway construct a whole world en miniature, consisting of small carts, tents or booths parked in close, haphazard rows. The scenery, which is put up for a few weeks during the summer, bubbles with life – and in no way corresponds with ordinary daily life in Russia.

The collective life of the generation born as Jurij Gagarin became the first man in space. Vitaly Mansky has woven together a fictional biography – taken from over 5.000 hours of film material, and 20.000 still pictures made for home use. A moving document of the fictional, but nonetheless true life of the generation who grew up in this time of huge change and upheaval.

The documentary play "Nikolina Gora", as well as A. P. Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard", represents a cross-section of Russian society at the breaking point of time. The characters of the film are heirs — owners of land in a pine forest on the banks of the Moskva River, allocated in 1924 to outstanding figures of science and art by the Soviet government.

From Rock protest to Rock conjuncture... Perestroika not only opened the way for various cultural phenomena that had previously been in the underground, but also gave rise to a wave of opportunistic product that uses the aesthetics of underground art. A film about the production of the rock opera "Dogs" by the theater of a young spectator.

The evil launched into another will always return to the one who launched it. After returning from Afghanistan, an internationalist soldier kills a teenager on the street just for his appearance.

The history of the Greeks living in Kazakhstan and never having been in their historical homeland ... After the great Stalinist migration of peoples, the Soviet Greeks found themselves in the Kazakh steppes. The heroes of the film are the Greeks of the city of Shymkent (Shymkent), one is the director of a puppet theater, the other is the director of the house of culture. Soviet Greeks in a foreign homeland still remember their own.

The war between the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijani SSR is the first crack on the body of the Soviet Empire, and this is the first war for the post-war generation. A war in which there are no rightists and no culprits. A war where everyone is a victim. The first war in recent history, but so similar to all the subsequent ones, the end of which is not in sight. The film crew spent several months at a checkpoint where the Russians separated the warring parties.

The hero of the film, Mark, the last of the old Jewish family living in Russia and then in the USSR, emigrates to his historical homeland in the early 90s. Under a formal pretext, before leaving, Mark literally comes to the small town where his childhood was spent for one day.

Joseph, Adolf and Eva Josef, Adolf and Eva. The history of the whole country passes through the history of the inhabitants of a communal apartment in the very center of Moscow.

In 1991, the Communist Empire of the USSR was destroyed. And one of the main symbols of Soviet power — Lenin's Mausoleum and Lenin's Body itself were left without an owner. The film tells about Lenin's body, its contents, its protection and different opinions about the future of this body — to sell, to revive ..., to bury. "Lenin's Body" is a film about a society that survived the collapse of the Empire.

The history of mankind is also the history of wars. The film contains military footage of the twentieth century, never included in the official chronicles. The so-called "cuts" are, as a rule, of a "household" nature. The film is an image of a huge and hopeless war, where men wander through the twentieth century, where there is no front line, where the war turns into a mass sexual perversion that destroys the very logic of human existence.

The USSR was the last empire of the planet Earth. Mikhail Gorbachev is practically the only emperor who physically survived his empire. For ten years, the Russian TV viewer practically did not see the first and last president of the USSR. Moreover, we do not know how and how Gorbachev lives today, what he thinks about the past, what he expects from the future.

On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin delivered his stunning speech, notifying Russia of his own resignation and, it would seem, went into the shadows. During the year, the film crew followed the first president of Russia. Yeltsin's personal life in the inner circle. Another life, which is recorded on the screen for the first time.

Vladimir Putin is the first President of Russia in the new century. The first attempt of Russian documentary filmmakers to create a real portrait of the head of state. The first person of the country, as his relatives see him. The authors recorded the life of the hero from the first days in the Kremlin as acting President until May 7, 2001, the anniversary of his official inauguration, after winning the presidential election on March 26, 2000.

In five European cities: Helsinki, Rome, Budapest, Brussels and Moscow, five directors made a film about the place in which they live. The director of the Moscow series Vitaly Mansky lives in the house where the great documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov used to live. What Vertov saw in his windows and what a modern director sees today.

One of the legends of Soviet television is Valentina Leontieva. One of the first TV presenters. She was called the All-Union "Aunt Valya". The peak of Leontieva's fame came in the late 1960s - early 1970s, when she led the program adored by the people "From the bottom of her heart." And besides, there were festive concerts "Blue light", popular children's programs "Visiting a fairy tale", "Good night, kids", "Skillful Hands", "Alarm Clock"... Leontieva's story about herself in the film is illustrated by film and TV newsreels, photographs of her personal archive. But even the most vivid memories of former glory cannot drown out the pain and longing. Valentina Mikhailovna appears in front of the audience in a housecoat and slippers. The poor atmosphere, the unpretentious decoration of her home, and most importantly, the genuine sadness in her eyes and voice indicate that the once beloved and irreplaceable Aunt Valya was undeservedly forgotten.

The film tells about one day in the life of the participants of the 7th International Space Expedition - Hero of Russia Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Edward Lu and representative of the European Space Agency Pedro Duque. This day, October 28, 2003, is the day of their return to Earth after a six-month space watch.

"Gagarin’s Pioneers" is a journey of the director in search of his classmates from the 52nd school of the city of Lviv, with whom he studied in Soviet times. These are thirty-three short films about the author's thirty-three classmates. Today, several people still live in Lviv. The rest have gone all over the world. What unites the former pioneers of the Gagarin detachment now? What is the Motherland for them today, to which they swore an oath when they joined the pioneers in the spring of 1973?

On July 25, 1980, the great Russian poet Vladimir Vysotsky died. He was 42 years old. He did not die in a duel like Pushkin and Lermontov, did not fall from a bullet and a noose like Mayakovsky and Yesenin. The cause of his death was no less dramatic. Vysotsky struggled with death for a long time. But by the beginning of 1980, this duel turned into a fierce fight. After 25 years, we present the first documentary evidence of this struggle. Everyone has the right to their own judgment about the death of a great poet, but no one's judgment can claim absolute truth. According to eyewitnesses, after the meeting of the new 1980, Vysotsky's disease began to progress and turned into a real agony. We will reconstruct the events with chronological accuracy from January 1 up to July 25, 1980. In our film, people who knew Vysotsky intimately in the last year of his life tell us.

On July 25, 1980, the great Russian poet Vladimir Vysotsky died. He was 42 years old. He did not die in a duel like Pushkin and Lermontov, did not fall from a bullet and a noose like Mayakovsky and Yesenin. The cause of his death was no less dramatic. Vysotsky struggled with death for a long time. But by the beginning of 1980, this duel turned into a fierce fight. After 25 years, we present the first documentary evidence of this struggle. Everyone has the right to their own judgment about the death of a great poet, but no one's judgment can claim absolute truth. According to eyewitnesses, after the meeting of the new 1980, Vysotsky's disease began to progress and turned into a real agony. We will reconstruct the events with chronological accuracy from January 1 up to July 25, 1980. In our film, people who knew Vysotsky intimately in the last year of his life tell us.

In January 1943, the liberation of Ukraine from Nazi occupation began with a powerful offensive of Soviet troops in the direction of Donbass and Kharkov. The Red Army reached the Dnieper borders, crossed the Dnieper and liberated Kiev. Crossed the Dnieper and Mikola. On the Dnieper, he was wounded – an enemy fragment injured his knee. Since then, Mikola can walk very slowly and only with a wand. Now he lives on the outskirts of the city of Mena, in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine. He is not the only men's veteran – the veteran movement has always been developed here, monuments stood in almost every village, Eternal lights burned ... Now the events of those distant years have been forgotten in a series of today's problems. But for Men's veterans, May 9 is still the main day of the calendar.

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

Director Vitaly Manskiy sets off on the trail of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline to find out what it’s like for ordinary people living in its vicinity. This visually refined road movie, eloquently illustrating the absurd banality of modern Russia, is also an unsettling portrait of a gas line on which most of Europe is reliant.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

Russian Federation, December 31, 1999. After President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin becomes acting president of the country. From that day and for a year, Vitaly Mansky's camera documented Putin's rise to power. The story of a privileged witness. The harsh explanation of the reason why politics is the art of possibility of achieving the best with the support of many, but also of giving the worst in return.

Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.

Russia. August-September 2016. A month remains before the State Duma elections. The main characters of the film are a mother of four children, a paralympic, an opposition journalist, a philologist girl, a young economist and a trucker - independent candidates. What made each of them enter the fight and how do these men and women live on the eve of the elections is about this movie.

Yulia is sixteen, she lives in a hut and is pregnant. Vanya lives with his parents in a five-story building. His parents are against mesalliance and do not let the couple on the threshold.

Not far from Grozny, on an alternate railroad track, there is an old steam locomotive with several wagons attached to it. The steam engine gives steam — hot water is in the boilers, and a bathhouse is equipped in the cars, where soldiers and officers wash, laundry is washed ... A washing on wheels — at the same time a soldier’s bivouac, a piece of peaceful life, and the beginning of a new road. To this locomotive, these cars come - platooned, in batches and one at a time - tired, tired, unshaven, angry Russian guys. They scrape dirt off themselves. Soak from stubborn soot, warm with souls. They put on clean underwear. They drink vodka. They smoke. They talk about love, remember loved ones and native places. Cry. They sing. And around - the landscape after the battle. It's not over yet ... An accidental explosion. Stray bullet. And our guys washed into the unknown. Clean. Hoping to survive.

A drunk couple spend their summer-holiday at sea. Their life is not everything they hoped for, and abuse is part of their relationship. At sea they dream about love and understanding, and we observe their fellow countrymen spending their holidays on the same beach. Tragedy, comedy, love, hate, sex : it is all there.

A drunk couple spend their summer-holiday at sea. Their life is not everything they hoped for, and abuse is part of their relationship. At sea they dream about love and understanding, and we observe their fellow countrymen spending their holidays on the same beach. Tragedy, comedy, love, hate, sex : it is all there.

The main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...

The action takes place against the backdrop of the meager life of a decaying Russian village, where several women and an elderly alcoholic man remain. Two old women live here, the youngest of whom, Praskovya, devoted her whole life to her older sister Maria, who stopped growing in her early childhood. The only young woman in the village is expecting a child: everyone believes that from an angel.

A documentary film about the life and early death of Russian singer and songwriter Aleksandr Bashlachev through the eyes of his friends, family members and other representatives of rock music scene.

An immersion into the intimacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR. The architect of perestroika and glasnost, who was praised in the West but reviled in his own country, still combative despite his advanced age, loneliness and illness, offers his personal and political testament.

They say that the average Earthling spends about 10 years of his life at the TV screen. It is pointless to ask whether these are lost years - without television, it is impossible to imagine our civilization, although not 100 years have passed since its invention. "Iconoscope" is a chance to cover the entire vast history of television in 100 minutes of exciting and paradoxical spectacle.

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.

While Ukraine is fighting, how does it affect the rear? For a year and a half, Vitaly Mansky has portrayed his hometown of Lviv, where everyone’s existence is shaped by the Russian missiles’ flight time to their targets.