Directed by:
Boris KhlebnikovScreenplay:
Aleksandr RodionovCinematography:
Shandor BerkeshiCast:
Sergey Dontsov, Anna Mikhalkova, Aleksandr Yatsenko, Natalya Gromushkina, Kirill Käro, Nikita Emshanov, Igor Chernevich, Sergey Burunov, Aleksandr Userdin (more)Plots(1)
When Jenya from Belarus has made a little money in Moscow, he wants to go home. It's just his luck that today his train doesn't go as far the terminus and he has to get off before his stop. First, he is held up and robbed of all his possessions but then, for once, fate seems to be on his side. An elderly man takes him in. However, his savior turns out to be some kind of knight on a crusade against evil, and has some pretty peculiar theories about the ways of the same. Like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the two of them set out under the suspicious eyes of the old man's daughter to rescue women and antique statues, retrieve secret messages from nesting boxes while never running from a fight. However, the actions of the uniformed representatives of the authorities seem to be equally absurd. The microcosmic terrain covered by the heroic duo is an inhospitable, winterly development of concrete tower blocks in Russia. Given the inanimate melancholy which the characters display at times and the special type of humor that results from a combination of dreariness and the grotesque, this film might as well be set in Aki Kaurismäki's Finland. (Berlinale)
(more)Cast
Sergey Dontsov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Papa (2004)
Russian Ark (2002)
Iron & Blood: The Legend of Taras Bulba (2009)
Anna Mikhalkova
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Vongozero: The Outbreak (2019)
The Barber of Siberia (1998)
Revizor (1996)
Aleksandr Yatsenko
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Vongozero: The Outbreak (2019)
Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021)
Arrhythmia (2017)
Natalya Gromushkina
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Help Gone Mad (2009)
Kirill Käro
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Idiot (2003) (series)
Vongozero: The Outbreak (2019)
Star (2014)
Nikita Emshanov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Gibel imperii (2005) (series)
Legenda 17 (2013)
The Sovereign's Servant (2007)
Igor Chernevich
Soviet Union
Best movies:
The Jewel (2011)
Roads to Koktebel (2003)
We Are from the Future (2008)
Sergey Burunov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Friday (2016)
Po shchuchyemu veleniyu (2023)
The Challenge (2023)
Aleksandr Userdin
Best movies:
Another Year (2014)
Pioneer Heroes (2015)
Help Gone Mad (2009)
Aleksandr Oblasov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Coach (2018)
Buy Me (2018)
Travelling with Pets (2007)
Evgeniy Sytyy
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Gogol. A Terrible Vengeance (2018)
Gogol. Viy (2018) (TV movie)
Core of the World (2018)
Vladimir Korobeynikov
Best movies:
A Long and Happy Life (2013)
Help Gone Mad (2009)
Sergey Nasedkin
Best movies:
Arrhythmia (2017)
A Long and Happy Life (2013)
Free Floating (2006)
Sergey Pestrikov
Best movies:
A Long and Happy Life (2013)
Help Gone Mad (2009)
Tatyana Tokareva
Best movies:
Free Floating (2006)
Help Gone Mad (2009)
Lyudmila Motornaya
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Granny (2003)
Arrhythmia (2017)
Bury Me Behind the Baseboard (2009)
Lyubov Uchaeva
Best movies:
Simple Things (2007)
Help Gone Mad (2009)