Wish Upon a Pike

Emelya is a young man everyone calls lazy. Fishing one day, he catches a pike that talks; the fish promises to grant his wishes in return for its life. What follows is what happens to a man who gets everything he asks for without any effort at all. The film was put together from four separate Russian folk tales and became one of the first large fairy tale adaptations in Soviet cinema. The account both rewards the laziness and puts it to the test. The tricks and the sets used in it are striking for what was possible at the time; the magic of the tale is shown directly on the screen. The account speaks to children but leaves something for the adult too. Aleksandr Rou’s fifty seven minute Soviet film was completed in 1938.