What a Mess!

An enormous diamond found in Russia is to be sent to America to clear the country's debts. It is stolen. The suspect is a swindler named Vasily Krolikov. But Krolikov has three brothers scattered around the world: a Gypsy, a Jew, and an orchestra conductor in America. All four are identical, and one actor plays all of them. Vladimir Menshov directs. Valery Garkalin plays the four brothers. The context is Russia in the nineties. Four years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the economy in ruins, the film mocks every layer of society: police, mafia, church, army, diplomacy, the security services and the worship of America. The humour is deliberately broad and crude. Menshov had won an Oscar with Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, a measured and emotional film; this runs entirely the other way, and many critics at the time read it as a decline. In Russia it became a cult. Its lines passed into everyday speech and it is cited as one of the best known satires of the decade. Who it is for: viewers curious about Russian comedy and Russia in the nineties. Who it is not for: much of the humour depends on the language and the moment, and the ethnic caricatures are coarse and uncomfortable now.