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.

"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.

Not as dead serious as Blade Runner. Not as neon and air-conditioned as Brazil. It's not Earth, dear. It's planet Pluke. Dusty, rusty, dirty.

Amazing technology. To any point of the Universe - in five seconds flat. Unless someone borrowed one vital part of your engine without asking.

Interesting society. Everyone can read each other's mind. And still be able to lie.

A story of two Earthlings trying to get home from the cruel lying cheating stealing world of the galaxy Kin-Dza-Dza.

Definitely worth watching. Is there a subtitled copy available? I have no idea.

English/American culture (for the most part) tends to be rather reclusive, for example, there are virtually no foreign language songs on the radio. Because of this, many classics are missed, simply because people do now know about them.

This movie is the best example of a great classic unknown. If it would be made it Brittan in the sixties, it would have defiantly achieved cult status, and be widely regarded as all-time sci-fi classic. Alas, it is in Russian, and made at the end of the cold war, and therefore virtually unknown outside of the former Soviet Union.

The movie is full of wonderfully black humour (if you are higher up on the social scale, you sleep on a bed without nails, and they cannot beat you in the middle of the night), desert world with rusted metal structures, and wonderfully eccentric telepathic aliens with bizarre social structures.

This movie is truly a must see – a word of warning however, this is so far from a Hollywood movie, it is it's evil twin. Unlike Hollywood it has: A story Strong characters Crap special effects Complete lack of "touchy feely"

To get the best experience: 1. find subtitled version 2. find a Russian to watch it with you

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.