Unveiling intimate never-before-seen footage of Vladimir Putin’s first political campaign, Vitaly Mansky searches for clues to Russia’s fate in the blank stare of its future dictator. This behind-the-scenes view of a global turning point asks profound questions about the politics of personality.

With typically deadpan poise, Vitaly Mansky takes an unprecedented peek behind the curtain of North Korean totalitarianism in this breathtaking exposé. Sneaking unapproved footage past their government minders, the filmmakers capture vanishingly rare evidence of a meticulously stage-managed society.

Tracing world history back to an elderly man in an empty home, Vitaly Mansky’s disarmingly simple portrait of a pivotal figure in global politics discovers grand insights in quiet observation. This rigorous yet elegiac study of leadership scrutinizes the messy humanity behind epochal events.

Using his own fractious family as a synecdoche for national divisions and allegiances, Vitaly Mansky rakes through deeply felt personal histories with an anthropologist’s sharp-eyed detachment. This haunting time capsule—showing a nation on the brink of emergency—only grows in relevance.

Vitaly Mansky’s unflinching dispatch from the battlefield in Ukraine is an unfiltered document of large-scale violence—and a cry for national autonomy. Codirected by a volunteer in Ukraine’s medical battalions, this sobering film offers a stark look at the realities of war through firsthand footage.