Malkhaz Abuladze

An American journalist and his cameraman are caught in the combat zone during the first Russian airstrikes against Georgia. Rescuing Tatia, a young Georgian schoolteacher separated from her family during the attack, the two reporters agree to help reunite her with her family in exchange for serving as their interpreter. As the three attempt to escape to safety, they witness--and document--the devastation from the full-scale crossfire and cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians.

An ordinary working class boy, like all his peers, he played football day and night and dreamed of being a striker. But no matter which team he played for - in the yard, at the factory, or in the army - he was inevitably put in goal.

When Sandro’s father decides to devote his life to God and leaves for a monastery, the teenage introvert finds himself deprived of the fundamental certainties of life. Abandoned by his father and his mother, who is working abroad, the young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery, opening up both to a new friendship with the radical Lasha, who has ties with an ultra-right organisation, and also to the chance to explore his own sexuality.

Two escaped convicts pose as children's summer camp staff in order to evade capture and learn about caring for others in the process. Sumrak has been in prison since he was 16 years old but is pushing thirty now, is well acquainted with prison gang culture and covered with tattoos. Evgeni Koltsov is a former police officer unjustly imprisoned and destined for a death sentence from the other inmates if he stays in prison.

hree stories happening in three different centuries, revolve around a mysterious painting entitled "Two Owls". In the 19th century thread, a man living in a big mansion is worried about his brother whose wife died a while ago. The brother however behaves as if she was still alive. A befriended psychiatrist is being called for help in order to examine the phenomenon in long conversations. He has to recognize however that the man's behavior doesn't harm anyone. He actually offers a painting to the doctor which his wife allegedly just finished: it's called "Two Owls". The painting reappears in the midst of World War II. A woman finds it in the apartment of her husband's lover. The general of the Red Army was just found dead there. He died in the arms of his concubine. Torn between ambiguous feelings of grief and anger the widow has to make a decision. She also needs to retain her composure as the military police is already waiting outside. The last story happens in present time.

Chechnyan War veteran Alexei Volkovoy (aka Volk) is a brutal gangster in Russia's underworld as well as a covert agent for the Russian military. Think of him as the Russian Jason Bourne.