The Lendoc Film Festival opened in St. Petersburg on August 20, screening Vladimir Kott's comedy "Dedmobil," starring Yuri Stoyanov and Sergei Burunov, three months ahead of its wide release.
Organizers said the international festival, known as LEFF, features films from 13 countries in its 2026 program, including Russia, India, China, Iran and Belarus. The event also includes works from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Mauritania and Latvia.
LEFF program director Marina Ozerenchuk said the lineup placed meditative parables next to war dramas, and magical realism alongside themes of human loneliness. She said the festival focused on voices, both on screen and historical figures like the poet Olga Bergholz, and deliberately placed debut directors alongside established masters to maintain the event's living nervous tissue and its ability to surprise.
International co-productions
The festival showcases several international co-productions, including the Russian-Indian film "Songs of the Jinn" by Roman Mikhailov, the Uzbek-Belarusian "Kazbek" by Akbar Bekturdiev about Soviet hero Mamadali Topvaldyev, and the Tajik-Iranian "Fish on a Hook" by Mukhiddin Muzaffar.
The lineup also features the Chinese historical drama "Broken Spear" by Chuanlin Sun and the Uzbek-Turkmen biopic "Magtymguly," commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Turkmen poet.
An out-of-competition program, held with the state film body Roskino, focuses on large-scale historical and genre works from the Commonwealth of Independent States. It includes the Kazakh epic "Tamerlane" about the commander Timur, mystical thrillers "Cassandra" and "Dastur: The Curse" from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and the dramas "Paradise at the Feet of Mothers 2" from Kyrgyzstan, "Life is Beautiful" from Tajikistan and "In Pursuit of Spring" from Uzbekistan.
War and memory
Several films address military history, including Alexei Neimyshev and Maria Baeva's biographical film "Ether," which focuses on Bergholz, whose voice was broadcast on the radio during the World War II siege of Leningrad.
The documentary "Siege Zoo" by Andrei Egorov of the Lenfilm studio covers zoo staff who saved more than 100 rare animals during the blockade. Shamshod Ismatov's Uzbek short film "About That Spring" portrays war through the perspective of an 18-year-old postwoman.
The Belarusian film "One for Two" tells the story of pilots Andrei Nichiporchik and Nikita Kukonenko, who died steering a falling plane away from residential buildings, while "Defender's Soul" examines the modern Belarusian Armed Forces.
Documentaries and students
The documentary program includes the Kyrgyz film "Dogs" by Aliman Toktogulova and Karash Zhanyshov about a woman rescuing abandoned animals, and Aktan Arym Kubat's "Black, Red, Yellow," which follows a traditional carpet master.
Valeria Semenchukova's "Sun Service," produced by the Gorky Film Studio, details the construction of a National Heliogeophysical Complex in Buryatia and the Irkutsk region.
Student films from several institutions are also screening, including works from VGIK, the St. Petersburg Institute of Film and Television, the Seance Film School, Lendoc, and universities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Industry program
The festival's business program includes an August 21 meeting of regional and international cinema heads at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly.
The Aurora cinema will host a pitch session for more than 100 co-production applications from Russia and CIS countries, and a script laboratory roundtable on August 22. Organizers aim to use the laboratory to develop scripts with friendly nations and establish a full-cycle co-production center in St. Petersburg, from development to release.
LEFF is organized by the Lendoc Open Film Studio and Kinokultura, with support from the Russian Culture Ministry and the St. Petersburg Culture Committee. Past editions of the festival have drawn more than 35,000 viewers, including young filmmakers from Yakutia, Bashkortostan, Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk and other Russian regions.
Lendoc is Russia's oldest documentary film studio. The facility continued its operations during the siege of Leningrad, with operators and directors filming frontline footage and the besieged city. It has housed directors including Efim Uchitel, Pavel Kogan, Semen Aranovich and Alexander Gutman.
