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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 18 movies from Saint Petersburg School New Cinema
Misha, 14 years old. His father, whom he rarely sees. Misha’s dream of happy families living somewhere in the world out there.
Oct 2024
Olga Berggoltz possessed a voice that seemed to come from above – to the point where her misfortunes and disappointments appeared to bring her closer to fulfilling her mission. She moved humbly toward that purpose. During the siege her voice bestowed from heaven saved and gave hope to many citizens of Leningrad. Having suffered the loss of her nearest and dearest. tired and worn out, often starving she nevertheless went on the air. For the sound of the metronome was unbearable…
Apr 2026
Sasha fights for his classmate's girlfriend. His sister Marina works as a teacher in the daytime and dances on the raves at nights. Their existence in modern Russia seems to be a trap.
Feb 2022
Dima and Katya are spending a summer day together outside the city: swimming in a pond, sunbathing, making love, and sharing dreams from the night before. They are young, carefree, and in love, but beneath the mask of joy lies a quiet sadness. The day will soon end, and they will have to part, and neither of them knows how long this separation will last.
Oct 2025
Alyoshin is a pupil at a correctional orphanage. To confirm his legal capacity and to get out, he goes on an internship in a bakery. There, he falls in love with a co-worker and pretends that they are having an affair.
May 2025
A woman is waiting for a man from prison. He comes back to others.
Jan 2020
There is a rhythm in the nursing home: routine rounds, meals, endless lotto games and watching TV. The days of the nurse are sluggish and monotonous, he is indifferent to work and indifferent to others, almost all of his actions are already on the machine. But suddenly one random event pulls him out of his usual state.
Mar 2019
Nina lives with a seriously ill father and works on the psychological helpline. She has a little time between visits of doctors and conversations with unstable teens to watch the boys who are chasing the ball in the yard. Their liveliness is the complete opposite of her routine existence. She tries to escape from the darkness with the help of one of them.
Jul 2019
Marina has been doing gymnastics for over 15 years. She is the oldest (read, old) gymnast of the Pearl Olympic Reserve School. She would be happy to finish her career long ago and live a normal life: to study, to have a hobby, and in the end - to love. But by the will of the coach (or fate?), She did not go to the competitions, which she aspired to all her career. Therefore, she is forced to stay in sports for another two years at the age of 20 in order to wait for the next chance, and her coach, “Lena,” is forced to undergo endless trials, because that same Marina’s prison is the life of Elena Anatolyevna.
Dec 2019
Life in the stable is subject to the strict order established by its owner. The daughter, the only person close to him, refuses to play by his rules.
Mar 2020
A minivan rides through the evening city. From it in turn in different places passengers leave. Nothing is known about them, except that they are going to arrange a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks.
Vera Alexandrovna is 80 years old. She lives alone in her apartment. Нer only company comes from her caretaker, Irina, and her son, Kirill. Her days have long become monotonous: there is no room for chance, and everything happens according to her plan, exactly as she wants it. Old age is unacceptable to her; to acknowledge it would mean accepting dependence, vulnerability, and the loss of control over her own life. On a typical day, she takes a shower, reads a book, and visits her son. But this morning, a light bulb burns out — and nothing will ever be the same again. Her son Kirill is apathetic and withdrawn: he fears her, resents her, and yet reveres her, making their relationship both dependent and destructive. This unresolved tension culminates in a desperate act.
In 2020, a space program was launched to study time loops. Two sisters took part in the mission. For them, it was not just a scientific expedition, but an opportunity to return to familiar, but long-forgotten landscapes.
Video essay in the found footage technique. The film is built on a visual metaphor, it uses an ironic juxtaposition that tells about the strange force that makes humanity at all times, as if by itself, line up in even rows and arrange itself.
Apr 2021
He is jealous of her because his friend has invited her to the rehearsal of his group. She has not chosen anybody, but it seems they have done this for her.
Sep 2020
If you don't talk to your heart for a long time, one day it will talk to you by itself.
Vera is looking for her sister, from whom there has been no news for several weeks. Vera and her husband Peter break down the door to her apartment to make sure that the girl has been missing there for a long time. A woman in despair turns to the police, where they understand that it is almost impossible to find her sister alive. Vera is not sure that she will be able to make an identification, then her husband, who has his own personal interests in this case, is called to do it…