Radio Liberty

How Lyusia Stein - a graduate of VGIK and a municipal deputy of Moscow - went to work for Ksenia Sobchak's campaign headquarters.

A girl from St. Petersburg walks around protest-ridden Moscow, talking to riot police and believing that sooner or later they will go over to the side of the demonstrators. An 18-year-old student of a St. Petersburg college introduces herself as Alice and tells about herself that from the age of four she lived in an orphanage and in foster families. In Moscow, Alisa, for whom this is the first rally in her life, walks along the police cordons and looks under the OMON helmet. "Under the mask you can't see, are you even human?"

The "Akrestino" detention center in Minsk received the gloomy fame of a place where people were especially severely beaten and tortured. However, this did not stop the demonstrations, and the authorities - at least temporarily, stopped their attempts to forcefully suppress the protests - and people freely took to the streets of Belarusian cities, and demonstrations in Minsk became unprecedented in number in the post-Soviet years.

The tape is dedicated to writer, publicist, long-term employee and editor-in-chief of the Russian service of Radio Liberty Peter Vail. Filming took place in New York, Prague and Venice. The film uses rare archive photo, video and audio materials. Vail's texts are read by Alexander Filippenko. Peter Weil died in December 2009. In 2014 he would have turned 65.

Striptease dancers - student, nurse, former loan officer, former athlete. The girls chose this profession to earn money. However, this is a complex world with complex rules, in a sense, dangerous production. The owner of a strip club is also a difficult profession. Lucky Lee, the head of the Moscow Golden Girls establishment, is a bright character, video blogger, fighter for world peace. To become the owner of a strip club, he gave up banking.

Sex guru, feminist, an adherent of polyamoric relations and one of the organizers of the Kinki Academy Elena Rydkina is engaged in education in the field of sex culture - she lectures, conducts master classes and trainings.

The Yakut shaman Alexander Gabyshev believes that Vladimir Putin is "a product of dark forces," so he went on foot to Moscow to "expel" him. The shaman began his journey alone, but soon his followers began to join him. In Chita, he gathered a large rally. Buryatia was the next region on the path of Gabyshev: mass protests began in Ulan-Ude because of the detention of his supporters. Gabyshev was going to go to Moscow for two years - so as not to rush to communicate along the way with the people. The shaman and his followers moved along the roads, overcame an average of 20 kilometers per day, stayed for the night in tents, sometimes in roadside hotels. Local residents and people passing by went to talk to him, take pictures, help with groceries and money.

A police sergeant of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” comes to Moscow to receive the Donbass Volunteer badge as a reward for participating in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine on the side of pro-Russian separatists.

Mother of a girl who committed suicide due to bullying at school; yesterday's teens who have experienced bullying; a girl who herself was involved in bullying. All the characters in this film have something in common: pain, complexes, self-doubt, indifference of adults. But the problem can be solved, and the heroes of the film talk about what to do in such situations.

About young workers and why they joined the protests - the film by Sasha Kulak, Yulia Vishnevetskaya and Andrei Kiselev "Strike. Minsk Tractor Plant".

Near Moscow at the end of April they took the Reichstag by storm. More precisely, a copy of it - during the reconstruction of the battle in the Patriot Park... Hundreds of people - in uniform, with weapons and equipment from the Second World War - ran through mud and puddles to the Reichstag model built near the forest...

On the 11th of November 2018 the elections were held in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. One of those who came to vote is a former locksmith Alexander Zaslavsky, a participant under the call sign "Old" in the battles in 2014 and 2015.

The Great Cross procession is considered the largest and most difficult pilgrimage route in Russia. Many participants in the course believe that if you go this way with pure thoughts and a specific request to God, then it will be fulfilled. The main character of the film Leonid also has a request - an intimate dream. And there is a feeling that for him this religious procession is the last.

The tale of how in St. Petersburg watched the match "Russia-Croatia".

A film about Misha Bo, a famous young blogger, poet and photographer in St. Petersburg. In 2017, Misha was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In February 2020, Misha passed away. He did not lose his fortitude and fought to the end.

Tyva, the poorest region of Russia, ranks first in the country in terms of the number of confirmed losses in the war in Ukraine per capita. Nadezhda Baykara, a resident of the small Tuvan village of Sush, is proud that the men from her family have always served. My uncle died on the territory of Ukraine in the Great Patriotic War, my son participated in the seizure of Crimea, was in Syria. In the spring, Nadezhda's beloved grandson, Aldyn-Herel, died in the war in Ukraine. Baykara is sure that her other grandson will also become a soldier. Meanwhile, local shamans perform rituals to protect soldiers sent to Ukraine from death. Only a few young Tuvans, despite the risks, dare to speak out against the war.

Rinat Sadykov lived all his life in the village of Oimur in Buryatia on the shores of Lake Baikal. He says that his wife wanted to move to the city, but he insisted on living in the village. Their children went to school in Oimura. After the divorce, the ex-wife moved to the city. Lately, Sadykov worked as a lumberjack, and went to work in Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, because there was no work in the village. For the same reason, Sadykov advised his youngest son Vyacheslav, when he joined the army on conscription, to sign a contract and remain in military service. The last time the son came to the village to his father from the military unit for the new year 2022 to meet him together, and after that he went to the exercises in Belarus. After the start of the war on February 24, people from the military registration and enlistment office came to Sadykov's house and reported that Vyacheslav had died.

After three teenagers died of an overdose, artist and activist Katrin Nenasheva organized a self-help group called "Teens and Cats". In it, teenagers share their difficulties and support each other. Initially, at the meetings of the group, they talked about how to cope with drug addiction, later to this was added a discussion of mental illnesses, bullying, violence, selfharma.

On May 9, at the Immortal Regiment procession in the mountain village of Mizur in North Ossetia, local residents came out with portraits of their warring relatives. One of the posters featured a photograph of an officer who died in March in Ukraine. 33-year-old captain Aslan Dzantiev was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. On May 9, his family arranged a memorial ceremony, neighbors and relatives, according to the traditional Ossetian custom, prepared food and lit a candle on the grave of the deceased. In Caucasian families, men and women do not sit down together at the table and grieve differently, men make toasts and behave with restraint, and women cook food and do not hide their grief. Aslan Dzantiev grew up without a father and remained childless, his mother, grandmother and young widow mourn him at home.