Za dvoma zaytsiamy

In an Ukrainian town of Kiev, at the beginning of the 20th Century a young loser named Svirid Golokhvasty owned a barbershop, which was in a lamentable state, because most of his time the owner spent drinking, gambling, and chasing girls with his equally no good friends. After losing a really big sum of money and becoming a bankrupt, Golokhvasty decided to solve his financial problems by marrying an ugly but rich Pronya who falls for his "educated" speeches and snazzy outfits and use her money to pay his debts and to attract a beautiful and virtuous Galya (the short for Galina :)) who despises him and doesn't want to even look at him. Thus the chase for two hares begins, and as you may guess, it is more than difficult to chase two hares in the same time.

Oleg Borisov, one of the best Russian actors of his generation with the incredibly wide acting range is just superb in one of his earliest and rare comic roles. The movie that was made over forty years ago with the modest running time of 72 minutes is an excellent comedy. We watched it couple of days ago with the friends and were amazed how masterfully it was made and acted. All the jokes and quotes are still funny and sparkling after all these years.

Only the absurd monoculturalism of IMDb prevents there being many more reviews of this film, a cult comedy classic from the period of the Krushchev thaw. It is light, frothy stuff, as the playboy barber, Oleg, attempts to juggle two love affairs - one with Pronya, the spoilt and pretentious child of nouveaux riches shopkeepers, whose money he needs to pay his debts and the other her poor but beautifully and honest Gaiya, daughter of a market-trader, with whom he has fallen in love. It is a reminder for those not aware of it of the richness and variety of Soviet film. Nonna Koperzhinskaya is perticularly splendid as Galia' fearsome mother and Pronya's fearsome aunt.

It is a hugely loved film in Russia and he Ukraine (it is set in Ukraine, based on a Ukrainian play and originally made in both languages) and one hope it will not become a political football (the Ukrainian soundtrack was recently rediscovered) between two peoples who have so much in common and every reason to remain friends and allies. Russian film without the Ukraine would be like a man with one leg and so equally would Ukrainian film be divorced from its Russian context. And, as a scene in this film reminds us, both would be incomplete without the input of the Ashkenazim.