Daleko ot Sankt-Peterburga

I cried from the beginning until the end of this very emotional film. The native dances and costumes are beautiful! Dzintars Belogrudovs und Yevgenia Krykova are very very good actors. My little son liked this film also.

Narrator John F. Romanoff sits in a "Brooklyn" apartment (a deliberately fake studio set) writing his Russian family's history, which is enacted onscreen, starting with his grandfather in pre-revolutionary times and through to his dad's adventures as a Communist, soldier and political prisoner (all three played by Dzintars Belogrudovs). Goofball picaresque tone darkens when villain Karpatch (Voldemars Karpacs) has a deaf-and-dumb character hanged during WWII. Surreal interludes - featuring, for instance, a ballerina chased through woods by butch girl soldiers - feel more "Monty Python" than Bulgakov in terms of satire.