Existential Motifs in Russian Feature Films of the early 21st century

The article presents an analysis of works on the subject of the article, which showed that scholars adhere to a one-sided view regarding early 21st-century Russian cinema, considering it only from the perspective of atheistic existentialism.This circumstance served as the main reason for conducting our research.We analyzed the main ideas of religious existentialism by G. Marcel and atheistic existentialism by J.-P.Sartre; identified fundamental differences in their approaches to formulating the categories of freedom, love, hope, and alienation; and presented variations of the representation of these categories in Russian feature films of the early 21st century.The material for this study consisted of Russian feature films made in the second half of the 2000s -early 2010s.As a philosophical toolkit for their analysis, the categories (existentials) of alienation, freedom, love, and hope, as presented in the religious (theistic) and atheistic existentialism of G. Marcel and J.-P.Sartre, were used.To identify and describe the state and worldview attitudes of characters, the artistic space, and the dramaturgy of feature films representing the concepts of religious and atheistic existentialism, axiological, semiotic, and aesthetic types of analysis were employed.Based on the results of the conducted research, the article concludes.The impenetrable boundary between the inner and outer worlds in the consciousness of the heroes of the films Koktebel (Russia, 2003), Free Floating (Russia, 2006) and Hearts Boomerang (Russia, 2011) makes them closed, unable to express feelings and understand themselves.This becomes the main reason for their internal lack of freedom and alienation.Openness, sincerity and the ability to love make the heroes of the films The Island (Russia, 2006) and The Priest (Russia, 2009) truly free.