Russia

Karolina Bielawska’s Call me Marianna (2015), Oleg Mavromati’s No Place for Fools (2015), Alina Rudnistkaya’s Victory Day (2015)

Susanne Kappesser looks at these three films that deal with gender and heteronormativity.

Experimental as ever, Alexei Fedorchenko makes revolutionaries clash with indigenous people.

Alexander Sokurov gets tangled up in delusional idealizations of art in his meditation on the Louvre.

Colette de Castro reviews Andrei Konchalvosky's newest pic that earned him the Silver Lion at last year's Venice IFF.

Bakur Bakuradze's cinematic contribution to the human representation of war criminals is theoretically interesting but aesthetically flawed.

The moral decay pictured in Yuri Bykov's new film reminds Julia Zelman of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.

Alexei German Jr.’s latest feature is a beautiful but convoluted portrait of Russia.

Debut filmmaker Ella Manzheeva lets the beautiful Kalmykian landscape speak for apathetic characters.

Konstanty Kuzma wonders whether the pacifistic pathos of films like If Only Everyone.... justifies their existence.

Moritz praises this first feature from Azerbaijan about a clash of generations.