Kin-dza-dza!

'Kin Dza Dza' is the kind of film that comes along every once in a blue moon. It's a very simple story of two very ordinary and very different strangers, one Russian, the other Georgian. Whilst going about their normal, every day business they inadvertently become stuck in a rather extra-ordinary situation, with no understanding of where they are or how they got there. The film follows them as they attempt to get home, meeting all manner of strange people with very strange concepts of hierarchy, race, society and culture. A very simple premise.

When I first saw this movie I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I came across it by pure fluke one day in my university's video library when I was looking for an interesting Cold War era Soviet film to watch. It's easy to see why it is viewed as a cult classic by many Russians and Georgians alike.

The cinematography is surprisingly enticing. It's not particularly inspired, but it somehow just drifts along with the characters. The shots of the desert are bold and striking, whereas the shots inside ships or inside the nomads' homes are dark, cluttered and uninviting. There are stark differences between all the set pieces, and the director is thankfully skilled enough to make the transitions between these vastly different sets seamlessly. The music is very simple and almost casual as it drifts in and out of focus very subtly with the sequences on-screen. The acting is also something to behold. It fits very much in line with the ethos this film seems to carry: simplicity. The characters in this film range from the stoic and reserved, to the verbose and hyperbolically animated. All the actors play their roles very well, adding memorable nuances to their characters, and really helping to convey the peculiarity and absurdity of the situation being portrayed.

The underlying motive of this film appears to be to convey a message of equality. 'Kin Dza Dza' is a film which, through humour and through sheer simplicity, is able to make the viewer realise the absurdity of social and racial discrimination. I whole-heartedly recommend watching it. It's comical, it's whimsical, it's witty and it's poignant. Well worth the time, if you're able to acquire it.

I can't believe this movie has been out for twenty years, and no one in the US has ever heard of it. I wish the studio that owns the rights would release it on DVD, and allow many American critics to see one of the great Russian masterpieces of film. I first saw this film on the IMDb Top 50 Sci-fi poll, and decided to give it a try. I was able to locate it online, and within a few days it had finished downloading. Until they release this on DVD with English subtitles, downloading the movie is really you're only option (unless you are Russian). It shouldn't be too hard to find, however, just be patient.

Anyway, this film is a complete joy! All of the characterizations are perfect, and the film's gritty futuristic feeling is a mix of Star Wars, Blade Runner and Rosencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead. I can't recommend this film enough! It's a smart, funny and brilliant piece of cinema that I hope finds its niche before its too late.

I'm really surprised about the commentators referring to "сrappy special effects" in Kin-dza-dza. Are you crazy guys ? Re-watch "Terminator" with all that crappy cheezy stop-motion in bare endosceletone scenes. LEGO brick movies fans shoot the same with a cheap camera. Just think that "сrappy soviet SFX" in Kin-dza-dza uses no stop-motion or scale-down, all Plukan flying tech moves absolutely smoothly and is integrated into the picture completely seamlessly. Compare this to any famous same age sci-fis. Robocop-2 uses stop-motion to animate a scale-down figure of Robocain, and Robocop is a live actor imitating robo-moves inside a costume. And in Kin-dza-dza you see all fantastic Plukan flying tech like real-time real-size (no scale down, no stop-motion) moving objects integrated into the picture seamlessly. So please, just don't confuse the minimalistic design of Plukan starcrafts which is an important part of the scenario with poor rendition of SFX in this movie. Plukan tech is minimalistic dirty rusty crappy looking squeaking - it was deliberately planned so by the movie makers and conveys some ideas.

There isn't much I have to say about "Kin Dza Dza" that hasn't been said by the previous reviewers. But I like this movie so much that I could not resist throwing in my two cents. Yea, it's primitively, or, as someone has pointed out, minimalistically done, so don't expect any special effects. But you know what, who needs them when the movie is that good. The galaxy "Kin Dza Dza" is the slums of the universe, and it shows us our alternate, post-apocalyptic future with a great sense of humor, pantomime and sarcasm. Great cast too. Lyubshin, Leonov and Yakovlev do a fine job here. Since the film's director is Georgian, some Georgian gags were thrown in as well. Oh, and did anyone notice Dyadya Vova's and Gedevan Aleksandrovich's renditions of Frank Sinatra's songs? "Blade Runner," "Brazil," "The Road Warrior," and, to a lesser extent, Luc Besson's "The Final Combat" are all considered to be the classics of the post-apocalyptic, anti-utopian movie worlds. Well, you can add "Kin Dza Dza" to this list.

"Kin-dza-dza" is a cult movie in Russia - and, in fact, it deserves this status completely, being an absolutely unique, minimalistic and freaky science fiction flick. Completely fantastic - and did I mention minimalistic? - art direction, excellent casting, and, of course, an anti-utopic plot that had miraculously slipped by the Soviet censorship, make this movie a true classic.

Mr. Spielberg, eat your heart out. All that "Light and Magic", and you still never came close to doing anything like this.