Exceptions Without Rules

An almanac of short feature films based on stories by Mikhail Mishin from the collection of short stories "Pause in a Major".

In Profile and Full Face

Collective: Unconscious

A man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret their first days of freedom. A suburban mom's life is upturned by the beast growing inside of her. And a high school gym teacher runs drills from inside a volcano. What happens when five of independent film's most adventurous filmmakers join together to literally adapt each other’s dreams for the screen?

Гарача гыз

The City of First Love

The film tells about the inhabitants of the Russian city of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad-Volgograd. The film consists of three novellas, united by the theme of love and the scene - a city on the Volga.

Spring On A Roadside

Puple, Valerian and Asiko are elderly actors. People no longer pay attention to the famous actors of the past. The troupe went on tour without them. They gladly agree to introduce their art to the residents of the village of Fandauri, but as they arrive in the village they find out that they have been invited to the opening of the spring, and they are only asking them for a poem or just a word that touches their heart. The cheerful mood of the actors will be replaced by a sad one.

The Zavyalov Weirdos

A film anthology featuring three stories: 1) “The Capron Christmas Tree” - Two men and a city dandy, courting a village girl, return home on New Year’s Eve, with the dandy’s nylon Christmas tree gift offending the men. 2) “A Ticket for the Second Showing” - Timofey, an elderly village swindler, regrets his life and prays to Saint Nicholas for a second chance. 3) “The Version” - A rural braggart recounts his city adventure with a restaurant manager, challenging disbelievers to join him on a repeat trip.

Au-u!

The film comprises three cinematic novellas: (1) “And They Arrived at the Peasant’s Hut… or the Adventures of Writer Senya in Search of the Hidden Word,” in which writer Senya draws inspiration for his rural novels from his housekeeper Yermolayevna’s tales; (2) “The Song, or How the Great Louarsab Organized a Choir,” where a city visitor attempts to form a choir of centenarian elders in a Georgian mountain village; (3) “What Is Our Life?! or What Is Our Life?!”—during a musical reenactment of pre-Revolutionary France, a drunken actor’s tardiness forces King Louis XIV (also the theater committee chairman) and the cast to improvise the play’s ending.

Big "Wick"

A satirical express train sets off on its way. The driver S. Mikhalkov gives a farewell beep ... On the first carriage an inscription - "Summer cottage". The following are 8 short stories ...

People Of Our City

Armenian film containing three short stories: the story about the first driver and coachman of old Yerevan, the complicated psychological relationship of a loving couple set in the backdrop of Garni Temple during reconstruction and a story about human life from the point of view of a poor and homeless dog.

One Fine Day

A film almanac consisting of two short stories, united by a common idea of the need to maintain harmony between private and public interests: “Suite” and “One Fine Day”. The hero of the story ”Suite" is a lifeguard on the shore. The events taking place at sea do not bother him at all. To the music of Bizet, he dreams of Carmen, her exploits, valor and strong love... The hero of the short story “One Fine Day”, a promising researcher, one morning saw a spaceship from his balcony. Do this a little restlessly to his mother-in-law, neighbors, acquaintances, boss and, finally, to a psychiatrist...

Adult Games

Two episodes about the relationship between men and women in Lithuanians soviet era.

Little Brother is watching you

Collide

A gripping chronicle of three couples over the course of one fateful night in an LA restaurant named Collide. Hunter finds himself on an awkward blind date with the captivating Tamira, while a busboy and his waitress girlfriend hope to score a big payday, and outside, Peter sits in his car observing his wife Angie meet with the restaurant’s manager. Though all strangers, their stories are weaved together as they hurl towards an explosive end.

Haya

Jerk Off Session

When Johannes gets caught by his girlfriend while laying on the bathroom floor watching porn and masturbating she doesn’t care and wants him to enjoy himself. That makes Johannes lose the feeling of shame he needs and sends him into an existential crisis and loses his ability to masturbate. Trying to regain that shame leads to an explosive confrontation for them as a couple.

The Vanishing

Reda seemingly has a life of privilege in Algiers, in his late twenties still living at the family home, with a father who has arranged a job and a fiancée. Reda is eager to please, yet the more he tries the more he veers off course.

Happily Ever After

Is love compatible with coupledom? And what of freedom and fidelity? These are some of the questions facing two married men.

In Paris

After a love affair ends badly, a young Parisian named Paul sinks into the same kind of deep depression that led his sister to kill herself. He moves back home with his father and aimless brother Jonathan but refuses to get out of bed.

Nostalgia

Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.

Bleach the Movie: The DiamondDust Rebellion

When an artifact known as the "King's Seal" is stolen during transport from Soul Society, Hitsugaya Toushirou is assigned to retrieve it. Toushirou goes missing after a battle with the thieves, leading Seireitei to suspect him of treachery. They order his immediate capture and execution. Unwilling to believe him capable of such a crime, Ichigo, Rangiku, Rukia, and Renji set out to find Toushirou.

sex, lies, and videotape

Ann, a frustrated wife, enters into counseling due to a troubled marriage. Unbeknownst to her, her husband John has begun an affair with her sister. When John’s best friend Graham arrives, his penchant for interviewing women about their sex lives forever changes John and Ann’s rocky marriage.

To Kill the Beast

Emilia arrives at her Aunt Inés' hostel located on the Argentina-Brazil border, looking for her missing brother. In this lush jungle a dangerous beast which takes the form of different animals seems to be roaming around.

Mainstream

A young woman thinks she’s found a path to internet stardom when she starts making YouTube videos with a charismatic stranger – until the dark side of viral celebrity threatens to ruin them both.

Mickey 17

Unlikely hero Mickey Barnes finds himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.

Fire of Love

A doomed love triangle between intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and their beloved volcanoes.

Star

Giacomo is a low-level actor and voice actor with a great passion for acting. After another disappointing audition he has one last chance to get the part assigned

Pathaan

A soldier caught by enemies and presumed dead comes back to complete his mission, accompanied by old companions and foes.

Tokyo Fist

A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Kojima, on the subway. Kojima is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Kojima might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.

East of Main Street: Asians Aloud

In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, HBO presents a collection of perspectives from a diverse group of Asian Americans.

The Hidden

When average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher determine the cause.

The Shop on Main Street

In a small town in Nazi-occupied Slovakia during World War II, decent but timid carpenter Tono is named "Aryan comptroller" of a button store owned by an old Jewish widow, Rozalie. Since the post comes with a salary and standing in the town's corrupt hierarchy, Tono wrestles with greed and guilt as he and Rozalie gradually befriend each other. When the authorities order all Jews in town to be rounded up, Tono faces a moral dilemma unlike any he's known before.

Val

For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.

No Other Land

This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.

Antichrist

A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

I Am Santa Claus

Ettore has spent the last five years in jail for a robbery. Once out of prison, he has nowhere to go, his wife broke up with him and doesn’t want him to meet their little daughter who was born right before he was arrested. Alone and desperate, Ettore roams the streets of Rome and meets a strange old man, Nicola. He decides to take advantage of him and rob him. But after breaking into his house, Ettore realizes Nicola doesn’t have anything worth stealing and furthermore, the old man tells him a rather stranger thing: he affirms to be Santa Claus…

Body Double

After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home's telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous woman dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl's murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers—with porn actress Holly Body as his guide.

Dune: Part Two

Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Antrum

Rumored to have been lost, Antrum appears as a cursed film from the 1970s. Viewers are warned to proceed with caution. It’s said to be a story about a young boy and girl who enter the forest in an attempt to save the soul of their recently deceased pet. They journey to “The Antrum,” the very spot the devil landed after being cast out of heaven. There, the children begin to dig a hole to hell.