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In 1990s Belarus, a wanderlust young DJ is derailed by a typo in a forged US Visa application, forcing her to a backwater village where she is determined to fake her way to the American dream.

Searching for an escape from an impoverished city life, a retired couple moves to an abandoned country house in the radioactive zone of Chernobyl. Twenty five years after the disaster, the husband is convinced the land is ready to be cultivated, his wife on the other hand is less sure. A fable of love, Half-Life explores the boundaries of commitment and fear.

Russian exchange student Alya struggles to fit into what it means to be an American teenage girl in 1994 when she realizes her host father has a crush on her.

In an attempt to break away from her religious upbringing, a young Jewish woman sets up an Internet date. The cruelty of casual sex triggers a painful obsession that this fragile character must overcome.

Fate granted Anna Akhmatova immense poetic talent, beauty, fame and a brilliant generation. Then came the executions of her loved ones, hunger, wars, revolutions, Soviet terror, isolation, betrayal. Yet Akhmatova emerges victorious, armed with mere words of poetry that-too dangerous to commit to paper-had to be memorized to be preserved. A Film follows this story reminiscent of an antique tragedy. Its participants, aside from the heroine, include Apollo and the muses, Dido and Aeneas from her beloved record of Purcell, Amedeo Modigliani, witches and visitors, statues and sovereigns, portraits and artists, armies and gardens, Paris and Leningrad, the storyteller and eternal chorus of milling crowds. The poet Anatoly Naiman, talks about Anna Akhmatova he knew and travels to the places she has left.

The Soviet Union's most famous composer took a sea voyage to America near the end of his life. This remarkable documentary is structured around his days on a Russian cruise ship in 1973. Soviet historical and propaganda footage form a visual counterpoint to a world-weary narration. Ample quotations from Shostakovich's writings give a window on his life story, which also spans twentieth century musical and world history. Unusual footage from his musical works, such as the operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth, are highlights in an elliptical and experimental tour-de-force.

When six year-old Katya explores the experience of death, she discovers life like she has never seen before.