Khrustalyov, My Car!
| Khrustalyov, My Car! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Aleksei German |
| Produced by |
Aleksandr Golutva Armen Medvedev Guy Séligmann |
| Written by |
Aleksei German Svetlana Karmalita |
| Starring | Yuriy Tsurilo |
| Music by | Andrey Petrov |
| Cinematography | Vladimir Ilyin |
| Edited by | Irina Gorokhovskaya |
| Distributed by | PolyGram Filmed Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 150 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
Khrustalyov, My Car! (Russian: Хрусталёв, машину!, translit. Khrustalyov, mashinu!) is a 1998 Russian drama film directed by Aleksei German, screenplay by Svetlana Karmalita. It was produced by Canal+, CNC, Goskino, Lenfilm and VGTRK.
Plot summary
...On the first day of the cold spring of 1953 two events occur, not comparable in importance: fireman Fedya Aramyshev is arrested and "the greatest leader of all times and peoples" Josef Stalin is found lying on the floor of his dacha...
Some time before these incidents the life of military-medical service general Yuri Klensky is shown. In the Soviet Union the Doctors' plot rages to the utmost extent, but the jewish Klensky, cheering himself up with almost non-stop drunkenness hopes that the punishing sword of Soviet justice will not touch him. However, a number of events show that Klensky's hopes are futile, and soon arrest will follow. At first the General meets his own double in the hospital, and then in his house there is a "foreigner" bearing news that allegedly his relative lives abroad. Klensky, suspecting that it is a provocation, releases the "foreigner" from the stairs, but a local snitch manages to report in time to the MGB senior about the doctor's contact with foreigners.
Klensky tries to escape but ends up getting arrested. The General's family is evicted and is placed in a crowded communal apartment and Klensky himself after detention is left in free rein to the criminals who brutally beat and rape the General. But then a miracle happens: the bloody General is driven directly from the cell to the country to a certain "high-ranking" patient, who the shocked Klensky learns to be the "Great Leader". Fortunately, Stalin's state is hopeless, he is dying while wheezing and agonizing, and Beria's voice full of triumph utters the first sentence of post-Stalinist Russia, "Khrustalyov, My Car!".
Klensky is immediately released, but he does not return to medicine, the General "goes to the people". At the end of the film he being commandant of a train, happily drinks, and then balances a glass of port on his shaved head...
Cast
- Yuri Tsurilo as general Yuri Georgievich Klensky
- Nina Ruslanova as general's wife
- Mikhail Dementyev as general's son
- Jüri Järvet Jr. as Finnish reporter
- Aleksandr Bashirov as Fedya Aramyshev
- Ivan Matskevich as general's lookalike
- Paulina Myasnikova as general's mom
- Viktor Mikhaylov as general's driver
- Nijolė Narmontaite as Sonya
- Olga Samoshina as teacher in love
- Genrietta Yanovskaya as general's sister
- Evgeniy Vazhenin as officer in plainclothes
- Alexei Zharkov as large head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of USSR
- Aleksandr Lykov as convict-driver
- Yuriy Nifontov as Tolik
- Konstantin Vorobyov as a guard at the general's clinic
- Ali Misirov as Joseph Stalin
- Mulid Makoev as Lavrentiy Beria
Awards
At the 1999 Russian Guild of Film Critics Awards the picture was awarded as Best Film and Aleksei German received the Best Director prize.[1]
It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
References
- ↑ "1999". Russian Guild of Film Critics.
- ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Khrustalyov, My Car!". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-09-30.