Diana Milyutina

St. Petersburg, 1903. A world of luxury and leisure for men, a world of fear and submission for women. Ksenia and Stesha work in an underground brothel under the control of a handsome and ruthless lady. Girls sell men their bodies, feelings, flirting and the illusion of love. It seems that they have nothing but beauty. In fact, they have access to a secret power — the purity of the soul and the desire for freedom. And with this power, they can change everything.

Saka no Ue no Kumo is an NHK 21st Century special drama which was aired over three years starting from November 29, 2009. The series runs 13 episodes at 90 minutes each. The first series, with 5 episodes, was broadcast in 2009, while series two and three, each with 4 episodes, were broadcast in late 2010 and 2011. While most episodes were shot in Japan, one of the episodes in series two was shot in Latvia. The TV series is based on the novel Saka no ue no kumo by Ryōtarō Shiba and adopted by Hisashi Nozawa. The theme song of the drama series is titled "Stand Alone". It was composed by Joe Hisaishi, written by Kundo Koyama and performed by British soprano singer Sarah Brightman.

The country is gradually moving away from the 90s, life is getting better and people are again attracted to the Black Sea resorts, where travelers along the way become victims of brutal murderers. In the pursuit of profit, they spare no one: neither women, nor the elderly, nor children. All attempts to get on the trail of criminals end in nothing and there is not a single serious clue in the case. At the same time, Vitaly Vitvitsky and his pregnant wife Irina Ovsyannikova go on vacation to the Crimea and themselves fall into the clutches of criminals, who turn out to be members of the "Amazon Gang", led by a certain Smallpox.

1986. Teenagers are killed one by one in the area of the government dachas on Rublevskoye Shosse. Intelligent investigator Valery Kozyrev, his audacious partner from Rostov Evgeny Bokov and very young investigator Natalia Dobrovolskaya begin the investigation, not even knowing how much it will change the fate of each of them. The only witness capable of identifying the maniac - schoolboy Igor, whose parents are not at all happy about his son's contact with the police.

Handsome, witty, self-confident adventurer, womanizer Dzhamal, who fled from his native Kazan to Moscow, hiding from the father of his former passion. In the capital, the experienced hero-lover quickly finds a place where he is offered to apply his talents on an "industrial scale": he is hired by the famous School of Relationships "Egoists". And if for the director Valeriya Shamina this is a chance to earn big, then for her best specialist - careerist and practicing psychologist Elena Ostrovskaya, Dzhamal becomes a real problem.

Every summer for 11 years the Belyaevs' from Severodvinsk has been spending their vacation in Gelendzhik. The Northerners stay with their old friends in the same guesthouse. The long-term friendship of the families led to the fact that a young man, the son of the head of the "Northerners" family named Sasha, this summer, firmly decided to propose to Lyusya, the daughter of the head of the "Southerners" family ... Meanwhile, the Northerners' family is on the verge of divorce. Larisa is tired of tolerating her childish husband Seva Belyaev, who just can't grow up. The last straw was the news that Seva, before leaving on vacation, quit his job without telling anyone. The conflict within the family explodes, and Larisa announces to her husband that she intends to get a divorce ... The situation in the Southerners family is not easy either. It turns out that over this year Lyusya's father has found a new girlfriend - Madina.

Egor lives in a small seaside town and is graduating from high school this spring. He cannot stand the routine of his life much longer, and with his loyal friends Kisa and Hank, they start to look for excitement in their small town.

Different strokes for different folks - says the proverb. Born a rabble dies a rabble. But this is the year 1700, the time of dramatic changes in the Russian Empire, the time of reformations carried out by Peter the Great. Young serf Ivan Starshov is head over heels in love with Maria, the daughter of his master. He doesn't want to accept that the young princess is no match for him. "You gave me wishes, but you do not allow me to satisfy them!" rages Ivan against God. He asks a priest for help, since God created all people equal. But the priest repeats the proverb. Accept your fate destiny as it is. In despair, Starshov repudiates from faith. Ivan is stubborn; he leaves the village to take possession of his fate. This is how the protagonist gets on the winding road to the true understanding of Love.

In their youth, investigator Ekaterina Mazurova and operative Sergei Polyakov witnessed the tragic events that took place in their native village of Zamayachny, which then received the unflattering nickname Yama. In 1990, a maniac appeared there. His victims were several girls, among whom was Valya, Katya's sister and Sergei's fiancee. Then the murders stopped, as suddenly as they had begun. For eleven long years. And all this time Sergey was living with a thirst for revenge, and Katya, in order not to go crazy, simply erased that terrible summer from her memory. But the maniac is back again. And now Katya and Sergey have to meet again to deal once and for all with the past, which, as it turned out, never let them go.

1940. Three little boys find mysterious package from another di- mension including the potion allowing the human beings live much longer they do. One of them suddenly dies in the river while others drank the potion. Now they are able to live million more years but still they will never forget what happened with their f riend.

Polina and Olya have been friends since childhood. Polina lives for her studies, but her quiet life ends when the girl who dreams of going to study in China fails the selection for an exchange program. It seems that life has lost its meaning, but then an opportunity arises to fix everything: you just need to spend Maslenitsa week with a student from China, immersing him in our culture and introducing him to the traditions of seeing off winter. This student turns out to be the son of a high-ranking Chinese official, the arrogant Wang Yu with a difficult character, but nothing can stop Polina from using her last chance. Nothing, except a broken leg. Olya knows that studying in China is Polina's blue dream, so she immediately decides to help her friend by replacing her during Maslenitsa week.

Nine passengers on the Perm-Antalya flight find themselves locked in the airport's border control zone. It appears that they were gathered there for a reason.

The beginning of the 2000s. New realities, instant adaptation to the proposed circumstances, enchanting careers, unexpected unknown professions... All this could have happened only at the turn of the century, when the Soviet system instantly went out of fashion, replaced by the lightning invasion of the Western world in a grotesque parody. The main character of the film is an inconspicuous girl Nadezhda Strakhova. Nadezhda, oddly enough, is married. Her husband, Vitalik, a provincial, married a childless Nadezhda for the sake of a Moscow residence permit and a typical "Khrushchev" on the outskirts of Moscow. Nadezhda works two jobs to support her small family: in the mornings in the district library and in the evenings in the theater wardrobe. One day her life changes dramatically.

A six-grader is looking for ancient reassure during winter vacations.

On the day of her twentieth wedding anniversary, Nadezhda Grushina loses everything that made up the meaning of her life: her businessman husband leaves for another, her grown-up daughter goes abroad. Nadezhda remains alone in her parents' large apartment in the center of St. Petersburg.