In December 1924, a special department was organized in the Byelorussian SSR, engaged in the production of feature films. For almost 96 years, many beautiful films have appeared on TV screens and cinemas, highly appreciated by viewers and critics. Especially for you, we have compiled a photo-list of the best films of Belarusian directors with a high rating.
Proverbs (2010)
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk –2
- Director: Vitaly Lyubetsky
- After the film was shown at the Religion Today festival in Italy, V. Lyubetsky, along with Pavel Lungin and Alexander Sokurov, was invited to the Vatican to participate in the international conference "Cinema and Faith".
The multi-part feature film consists of five episodes. Work on the project took the period from 2010 to 2018. The series (from 1 to 4) is based on 3 well-known Christian parables. The fifth part is a full-length film, consisting of a prologue and 8 didactic stories. She tells the story of a novice who just recently came to the monastery. According to the creators, the project is designed for a wide audience and will be understandable not only to believers. All parables are filmed in an accessible style, using modern realities. In addition, the actions are commented and explained by the priest, so that the meaning of the stories becomes clear to the lay people.
August 44th (2001)
- Genre: War, Drama, Action, Thriller, Detective
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.9, IMDb - 7.5
- Director: Mikhail Ptashuk
- Screen adaptation of the novel "The Moment of Truth" by Vladimir Bogomolov
Events unfold in the west of Belarus in August 1944. The fascist invaders have already been driven out, but enemy agents still remain in the territories liberated by the Soviet army. Every day they go on the air and transmit encrypted messages to the enemy. An offensive operation to liberate the Baltic states is in jeopardy. In the conditions of the strictest secrecy, a group of counterintelligence officers led by Captain Alekhin was instructed to find and neutralize a command of saboteurs as soon as possible.
Crystal (2018)
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.0, IMDb - 7.0
- Director: Daria Zhuk
- The film was nominated for an Oscar in the nomination "Best Foreign Language Film"
In detail
The film takes place in the mid-90s of the last century. The main character Evelina is a lawyer by training, but does not work by profession. The girl considers herself a creative person and “plays music” in one of the clubs in Minsk. Her most cherished desire is to move to Chicago, the city where the house music style originated. In an attempt to obtain an American visa, Velya falsifies her employment certificate. And from that moment on, the most amazing events begin to happen in her life.
Above the sky (2012)
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.7, IMDb - 7.1
- Directors: Dmitry Marinin, Andrey Kureichik
- The film was shot by the order of the United Nations Development Program in Belarus with funds from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
At the center of this dramatic picture with a rating above 7 is a twenty-year-old resident of Minsk Nikita Mitskevich. He is young, carefree, plays in a musical group and is sure that a great future awaits him. But suddenly everything collapses. Nikita learns that he contracted HIV during a short holiday romance. From that moment on, the guy's life changes dramatically. Once close people do not want to communicate with him more, and the girlfriend breaks off the relationship. Such a situation would certainly have destroyed many. But the hero of the film did not break down. A strong will and a thirst for life help the young man to cope with difficulties.
Through the cemetery (1964)
- Genre: military
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.7, IMDb - 0
- Director: Victor Turov
- This film, produced by a Belarusian film studio, was included in the list of 100 most significant film projects about the Second World War by the decision of UNESCO.
It's autumn 1942. The fascist command is pulling together troops to Stalingrad. In order to prevent the replenishment of the German army with ammunition and manpower, the Belarusian partisans undertake the task of undermining enemy echelons heading to the front. But for this purpose, the "forest warriors" need explosives, which are very difficult to get on the territory completely controlled by the enemy. Soon a solution was found, and a group of three daredevils, including a 16-year-old boy, went on a mission. They are confident in their success and do not suspect that an unexpected meeting awaits them ahead.
My name is Arlecchino (1988)
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.8, IMDb - 6.5
- Director: Valery Rybarev
- The highest-grossing film in the history of Belarusian cinema.
The main character of the film is a young guy Andrei Savichev, who calls himself Arlecchino. He is the leader of a small group of "wolves" opposing various kinds of informals. Hippies, metalheads, neo-Nazis and rich majors suffer from the strong fists of Arlecchino and his followers. Andrei himself is not delighted with the life he leads, but does not know how to break out of the vicious circle. The situation is aggravated by the beloved girl of the hero, Lena. She leaves the guy for the wealthy "daddy's son".
II / Two (2019)
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk -6, IMDb - 6.0
- Director: Vlada Senkova
- The world premiere of the film took place at the International Film Festival in Warsaw as part of the Free Spirit competition program.
Our photo-list of the best films of Belarusian directors continues with a teenage drama from Vlada Senkova. In the center of this highly rated picture are three Belarusian high school students from a small town. They live the usual life of adolescents: they go to school and to tutors, arrange outings to the cinema and sleepwear parties, harass classmates, teachers and parents. But one day the familiar world of heroes collapses, and a terrible secret creeps into the light. Not only adolescents are involved in the story, but also adults, who will have to fight their fears and prejudices.
White Dew (1984)
- Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
- Rating: KinoPoisk -2, IMDb - 7.5
- Director: Igor Dobrolyubov
- At the 17th All-Union Film Festival in Kiev, the film was awarded a special prize and a diploma. The main prize for Best Actor was given to Vsevolod Sanayev, who played one of the main characters.
"White Dew" is one of the most famous and beloved films of the Soviet era. He talks about the fate of the Belarusian village, which is to be demolished in the near future. All residents of the village have already received warrants for new apartments in city high-rise buildings and must vacate the old houses. But if some villagers are happy with this turn of fate, others are not eager to leave their homes. Among the latter is Fyodor Khodas, the most respected resident of the White Dews. In this village he was born, got married, left here for war, here he gave birth and raised three sons, and buried his wife. This place has become a part of himself, and now the hero has to say goodbye to him.
An occupation. Mysteries (2003)
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.9, IMDb - 7.1
- Director: Andrey Kudinenko
- The film was originally made as a short film. But after the film was shown at a festival in Rotterdam, the Dutch Hubert Bals Foundation gave the director a grant to complete the project to the full meter.
The picture is a military trilogy interspersed with biblical motives. Parts of the film, or mysteries, are titled "Adam and Eve", "Mother" and "Father". They are connected by common heroes and events and tell about the period when Belarus was under fascist occupation. The tape raises questions of family happiness, love, betrayal, heroism and cruelty.
Alien fiefdom (1982)
- Genre: Drama
- Rating: IMDb - 5
- Director: Valery Rybarev
- The film was shot in a special manner reminiscent of the art house genre. It is considered one of the best projects filmed at the national film studio "Belarusfilm".
The action of this dramatic picture unfolds on the eve of World War II on the territory of Western Belarus, which at that time was part of Poland. A young peasant woman, Alesya, dreams of getting someone else's house at any cost in order to live in it with her beloved, from whom she is expecting a child. The brother of the heroine Mitya dreams of freedom from the nobles and writes freedom-loving verses, for which he is subjected to interrogations and punishments. The young man knows that he will not be able to realize himself as a national Belarusian poet, will not be able to preserve his originality, language, his “I” under the conditions of the Polish occupation, therefore he leaves his native village in search of a better life.
Restricted Zone (2020)
- Genre: Thriller
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 5.6
- Director: Mitri Semyonov-Aleinikov
- At the project stage, the film won the Republican competition and received financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus.
In detail
Events transport viewers to 1989. 4 guys and 2 girls go hiking along a pre-planned route. But something goes wrong, and the heroes find themselves in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. By chance, a resident of an abandoned village dies because of young people. And then events begin to unfold in the most unpredictable and frightening way.
GaraSh (2015)
- Genre: Comedy
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.0, IMDb - 5.7
- Director: Andrey Kureichik
- The first independent film to be broadcasted in Belarus. The most profitable national film in the republican film distribution.
If you love watching funny stories, then the next movie is what you need. At the center of the tragicomedy lies the story of a young Belarusian guy who was deported to Belarus after 5 years of work in the United States. Returning to his homeland, Vitaly gets a job as an auto mechanic in a workshop located in Shabany (synonym for Moscow Butovo) and tries to get used to the "soviet" methods of work of his boss Boris Grigorievich. Curious stories constantly happen to the hero due to the collision of his "Western" thinking and the realities of Belarusian life.
Chaklun and Rumba (2007)
- Genre: military, drama
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.0, IMDb - 6.6
- Director: Andrey Golubev
- Alternative title - "The second mistake of the sapper"
This highly rated dramatic film follows the fate of the sapper soldier Fedya Chaklun and his faithful shepherd dog Rumba. Carrying out their daily work, the partners discover a section of the road mined by the Nazis and report the traffic controller. However, the girl, carried away by her own thoughts, forgets about the warning. As a result of her irresponsibility, a Soviet tank is blown up on a mine, the entire crew of which is killed. Fedor, like a real man, takes the blame for what happened. As a punishment, he and Rumba are sent to a penal company.
King Stakh's Wild Hunt (1979)
- Genre: Horror, Drama, Thriller, Detective
- Rating: KinoPoisk -6.9, IMDb - 6.9
- Director: Valery Rubinchik
- The film, which is called the first mystical thriller of Soviet cinema, is based on the story of the Belarusian Vladimir Korotkevich.
The events of the painting unfold at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Polesie. The young ethnographer Andrei Beloretsky came to this region to study the legends. He settled in an old estate, the owner of which, Nadezhda Yanovskaya, is the last in her family. The woman tells the guest a story about Stakh Gorsky, who was killed by a close friend. According to the existing legend, the ghost of the deceased king periodically appears and arranges a wild hunt for the descendants of his killer. Beloretsky does not believe in the veracity of what he has heard, but soon events unfold in such a way that his own life is threatened.
Alpine Ballad (1965)
- Genre: Drama. Melodrama
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.1, IMDb - 7.2
- Director: Boris Stepanov
- The tape is based on the work of the same name by Vasily Bykov. The film won the main prize at the 1968 Delhi International Film Festival.
Our photo-list of the best films of Belarusian directors ends with a poignant love story during the Second World War. This highly acclaimed film takes viewers to Western Europe. Somewhere in the Alps there is a factory where prisoners of war work. One day, Allied aircraft bombard the production and several prisoners manage to escape. Among the lucky ones is the Soviet soldier Ivan Tereshka. He takes refuge in the mountains and meets there the Italian Julia, who also escaped from captivity. Together, the heroes try to get away from the plant as far as possible, but the Nazis still overtake them.
