Sobachye Serdtse | |
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Doctor Preobrazhensky and Sharikov |
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Directed by | Vladimir Bortko |
Written by | Natalya Bortko Mikhail Bulgakov (novel) |
Starring | Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev Boris Plotnikov Vladimir Tolokonnikov |
Music by | Vladimir Dashkevich |
Cinematography | Yuri Shajgardanov |
Editing by | Leda Semyonova |
Studio | Lenfilm |
Release date(s) | November 19, 1988 |
Running time | 130 minutes |
Country | Soviet Union |
Language | Russian |
Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, translit. Sobachye serdtse) is a black-and-white 1988 Soviet television film directed by Vladimir Bortko. It is based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel Heart of a Dog.
Contents |
The film is set in Moscow not long after the October Revolution. A well-off surgeon Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky implants a pituitary gland and testicles of a recently deceased alcoholic and petty criminal Klim Chugunkin into a stray dog named Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the next days. After his transition to human is complete, it turns out that he inherited all the negative traits of the donor - bad manners, aggressiveness, use of profanity, heavy drinking. He picks for himself an absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)" and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive Preobrazhensky out of his big apartment. Eventually he turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare, and the professor with his assistant are urged to reverse the procedure. Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik he does not remember anything that happened and is left to life in the professor's apartment.