The unique view on the well-known story of Christ's death and resurrection, which we see with the eyes of brigand Barabbas who got away from death on the cross.
One of the most popular plot lines in literature all around the world - and probably the favorite of women audiences - is the story of a handsome prince who saves a beautiful young woman or raises her up out of poverty and misery, grants her wishes, gives her his love and - of course - a throne, which she certainly deserves because of her kindness, beauty, and various other wonderful qualities. The variations on this theme are countless, from the classic "Cinderella" or "Scarlet Sails" to Chaplin's "City Lights." But we all know that a romantic story is one thing, while life is, alas, something else altogether. And that "something else" depends on the country and era. Our story takes place in today's Russia, and that explains a great deal.
Herman Korolyov, 33, is getting by, working a meaningless executive job in a big city. One day he gets a strange call and learns that his older brother has mysteriously disappeared. Herman must go back to his hometown to defend the family business - a small gas station (and with it, old friends and a girlfriend from the past) - against the 'kukuruzniks', mafia-type gangs that are grabbing up businesses and land in the Donbas region and turning them into corn fields and railways that lead nowhere.
Water is the main protagonist, seen in all its great and terrible beauty. Mountains of ice move and break apart as if they had a life of their own. Kossakovsky's film travels the world, from the precarious frozen waters of Russia's Lake Baikal and Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma, to Venezuela's mighty Angel Falls in order to paint a portrait of this fluid life force in all its glorious forms. Fragile humans experience life and death, joy and despair in the face of its power.
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney delivers one of his strongest explorations of global politics in considering the strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely leader of the anti-Putin movement. In tracking Mikhail Khodorkovsky's story, Alex Gibney creates a compelling portrait of post-Soviet Russia, a nation caught between radically divergent political models - and where fortunes can transform overnight. The collapse of the USSR ushered in an era of chaos and opportunity. With laws lagging behind socioeconomic change, Russia fomented a kind of gangster capitalism. Mikhail Khodorkovsky took advantage of the privatization of state assets, created Russia's first commercial bank, and built Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company. His success in business was accompanied by a level of political influence that would.