A man tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.

En el Turkmenistán soviético, región fronteriza de extremada aridez y calor sofocante, el joven doctor Malianov (Aleksei Ananichnov) alterna la atención médica a la población infantil con una investigación sobre la menor propensión a la enfermedad de los niños que viven en comunidades creyentes. Misteriosas fuerzas se conjuran para impedir el avance de este trabajo: un teléfono que suena incesantemente, un amigo que conmina al doctor a abandonar la región, la visita inesperada de su hermana, un muerto que le advierte sobre la conveniencia de no ir más allá de los límites establecidos, el asalto de un rebelde, la aparición súbita de un niño que reclama su atención. Personal adaptación de una novela de ciencia-ficción de los hermanos Strugatski que traza los avatares de una crisis espiritual en un escenario apocalíptico en el que se intuye el inminente desmoronamiento de un sistema político.

A rich woman accidently comes across a conversation on the phone about people talking about a murder.

The action in this lavishly produced film takes place at an oddly ark-shaped mansion during World War I, and in spirit (although not in story) it reflects the play which inspired it, the ferociously antiwar Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw. A large group of family and friends have gathered at this country house to dance, drink, and converse. Their conversation, in particular, is adorned with erudite literary references and quotations. Despite their apparent refinement, their preoccupations are simple: sex and violence. Disquieting images break the tranquility of the vacationers' inappropriate idyll: some of these include documentary footage of starving African children, images (both real and re-enacted) of George Bernard Shaw going about his daily life, and a corpse coming to life on an autopsy table, only to cheapen that miracle by scolding a group of women. The music used in the film ironically points to its disturbing message and is uniformly anachronistic.

Nikita, atormentado por la guerra civil, conoce a Luba, que es tan profundamente moral y solitaria como él. Con esta película Sokurov debuta como director basada en el libro "The River Potudan". Fue filmada en 1978 y prohibida por la censura soviética hasta que finalmente pudo estrenarse en 1987. Elogiada y defendida con entusiasmo por Andrei Tarkovsky, quien lo señala como su verdadero discípulo.

In this dreamlike film, a nameless father and his son, Aleksei, live together in an apartment in St. Petersburg. Aleksei's mother has died and consequently the two have a very close relationship. When Aleksei acquires a girlfriend, she refuses to take a back seat to his bond with his dad, and breaks up with him. Aleksei is also experiencing nightmares, dreading separation from his father to be a part of the military as his father was.

Based on the life of Hyakken Uchida, a Japanese author and academic. The film opens with Uchida resigning his job as a German professor at the onset of WWII. The story is told mostly in vignettes as he is cared for by former students in his old age.