In this affectionate, leisurely paced comedy, an Odesa policeman is out walking his beat when he discovers an adorable infant abandoned in a cabbage patch. He does his duty and takes the baby to an orphanage, but later he and his wife, who have an unusually affectionate and cozy relationship, decide to try and adopt the little one. What they must go through to accomplish that goal is anything but straightforward.

A lawyer defends a wealthy woman accused of murder. She claims it was self-defense. The lawyer is not sure.

Blonde Lilia and brunette Violetta are fascinated by horse racing, and the young racers are more than a little attracted to them, too. However, the worlds of sporting and romance don't always coexist peacefully as the two girls learn the hard way through a series of touching, surreal, and sometimes heartbreaking encounters. One of the most beautifully photographed Russian films in recent years, this acclaimed modern classic was hailed at numerous film festivals including the Berlin Film Festival and Russia's Kinotavr Festival, where it won the Jury and Critics Prizes. Amazon

Kira Muratova made this film under the pseudonym of Ivan Sidorov in 1983, but the official release came in 1988. Taken from the novel by Vladimir Korolenko, this somber drama tells of a judge who is devastated after the death of his wife and is neglectful of his children. His son befriends the children of a street beggar who live in an abandoned, derelict church. After his experience with is new friends, the young boy begins to feel sorry for his father and sympathizes with his loneliness.

A woman is paid a surprise visit by her long-forgotten classmate, who needs her advice: should he choose a wife or a lover? An outrageously burlesque mise-en-scène is repeated many times but each time in a different place and performed by new actors. Why?

”Kira Muratova, the grande dame of Eastern European cinema returns with her richest, most imposing vision of societal decay and personal efflorescence since The Aesthenic Syndrome encapsulated a very different moment in the former Soviet Union's history in 1989. Set largely in the vast central railway station of Kiev, a casino, a shopping arcade and the snow-blanketed streets between, Melody is a majestically realised pageant of the burgeoning new economy of inequality. Like Dickensian orphans or children in a fairytale, a motherless brother and sister arrive in the city and traipse through festive Christmas streets looking for their respective fathers…
The heedless adults who rush around them are endowed with varying blends of self-preoccupation, larceny, skepticism, boredom, gluttony, panic, but even at their most appalling these caricatures of urban insanity are disturbingly, sometimes even hilariously familiar. Muratova's vision of 21st-century decadence is thrilling in its ripe theatricality and self-conscious dramatic heft, yet its thunderous damnation could awaken the most jaded soul. This deeply unfashionable film is some kind of masterpiece.” – BG at tvnz.co.nz/new-zealand-international-film-festival/

Michail helps out Nicolai and Lubia giving them a ride to a nearby construction site. They will work there to build a new town and factory.

The movie examines the lives of the not-so-fortunate dregs of society through absurdist comedy. The unfortunates of the title are mentally challenged people, some of whom could be termed insane - or merely inane.

Brief Meetings is about a love triangle between three very different people. Nadia, a country girl, falls in love with Maskim, a roaming guitar playing geologist, and in her search for him she ends up working for Valentina, his long-distance, bureaucrat wife. Nadia begins to work as a maid for Valentina, but as they spend time together they have flashbacks to their brief meetings with Maskim. These flashbacks occur throughout the film and both Valentina and Nadia have them. Finally news arrives of Maskim's return to Valentina. On the day of his return Nadia cooks a meal for them both and leaves before they arrive, Valentina never knew of Nadia's encounters with Maskim, and Maskim will never know of Nadia's time with Valentina.

In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.