Sergei Selyanov (1955, Tula, Russia) studied screenwriting at the VGIK and was one of the leaders of the Russian underground film movement. His Den angela was the first real Russian independent, but only emerged from the archives during perestroika. Selyanov has received several prizes for his work.<br />

Sergey Selyanov

Alexander Rogozhkin

Russian soldiers guard a pointless border post. From the no-man's-land they are bribed, invited for love or shot at. An oppressive film despite its humour that was far ahead of today's news about Chechnya.

IFFR 2000

Blockpost, 

main programme features

Blockpost

Alexei Balabanov

Gangster film shows a caricature of the situation in Russia during the 1990s, when the Mafia blossomed and created its own culture (bling avant la lettre). With Nikita Mikhalkov in his first role as antihero.

IFFR 2006

Dead Man's Bluff, 

Kings & Aces

Dead Man's Bluff

Extremely realistic thriller about Soviet Russia in the 1980s, when a crazy policeman introduces his own laws when he has to solve two important cases: the kidnap of the daughter of a local party leader and a murder. Balabanov at his best.

IFFR 2008

Cargo 200, 

Cargo 200

Sergei Bodrov jr.

Actor Bodrov jr. (Brat) makes his début with a laconic and fluent story about two half-sisters aged 9 and 14, who have to flee from their crooked father's gangster enemies. Filled with the couleur locale of today's Russia.

IFFR 2002

Sisters, 

Sisters

Sergei Seljanov

Montage documentary based on screenplay by Kovalov shows the Russian Messianic influence on politics and film in the early years of the revolution.

IFFR 1997

Russkaya ideya, 

Oleg Kovalov retro

Russkaya ideya

Bakur Bakuradze

He's a family man with a farm. She's a convict from a nearby prison obliged to work there. Something happens between them. What does it entail? Without giving answers, Bakuradze depicts the elusive nature of intimacy. An almost silent film on the tragic beauty of everyday routine.

IFFR 2012

Hunter, The

Bright Future

The Hunter

Evgeny Yufit

A painter of animals who grew up as an orphan finds out more about the death of his father. In the cellar of his parental home, he finds a file of scientific research about crossing the human race with related biological species.

IFFR 2005

Bipedalism, 

Yevgeni Yufit focus

Bipedalism

A killer, a musician, a friend of the musician, a prostitute and an old man embark on a journey to a so-called 'Belfry of Happiness'. A high-speed and highly ironic road movie about reversals of fortune. Maestro Balabanov's most personal film.

IFFR 2013

Me Too, 

Spectrum

Me Too

A woman does anthropological research into the evolution from ape to man. The story largely unfolds in her subconscious. By the (only) master of Necro-realism.

IFFR 2003

Killed by Lightning, 

hubert bals fund

Killed by Lightning

Guka Omarova

New film by the maker of <strong>Schizo </strong>is a magic story of crooks in the Kazakh mountains. Natural healer has to leave her land because the Mafia thinks the location is suitable for a filling station. A harsh battle between the supernatural good and the earthly evil ensues.

IFFR 2009

Native Dancer, 

Native Dancer

Hard, yet also sensitive film from Kazakhstan, in which the young Schizo takes money from a dead free fighter to his wife and falls in love with her. Only now does he understand why he's alive.

Schizo, 

Rotterdam Perspective

Schizo

The latest film of the Russian master takes us to the early1990s and the city of St.Petersburg, right before the disintegration of the Soviet imperium. The stoker writes his book, makes people’s houses warm and does not see strange things happening around him.

IFFR 2011

Stoker, A

A Stoker

Artistic masterpiece of one of the greatest contemporary Russian film makers based on the short stories of Mikhail Bulgakov, as adapted by the tragically killed Sergei Bodrov Jr. Stylistically as polished as his Of Freaks and Men and as raw as his most recent film Cargo 200.

Morphia, 

Morphia

Lesha Shultes, a pickpocket, leads the ordinary life of an average urban creature. The only extraordinary thing about Shultes is that he carries a little notebook with him and notes down everything. This minimalist drama of a 'small man' in a metropolis delivers an existential message with a distinct Russian flavour.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

Sergey Selyanov

Filmography

Sergey Selyanov at IFFR

Russkaya ideya

Blockpost

Sisters

Killed by Lightning

Bipedalism

Killed by Lightning

Schizo

Dead Man's Bluff

Cargo 200

Morphia

Native Dancer

Shultes

A Stoker

The Hunter

Me Too