Shagana you are mine, Shagana!
Because I’m from the north, or something,
I’m ready to tell you the field,
About wavy rye at the moon.
Shagana you are mine, Shagana.
New Year’s comedy – what it should be? Well, first of all, it should be a family movie so that the whole friendly family, having gathered together on the couch, enjoys its viewing. Secondly, it should be a comedy that has humor, both for an adult generation and for a cheerful children. Thirdly, like any art, the film should reflect reality and raise problems that are exciting for society. Well, and finally, the film should transmit a festive atmosphere – however new year we have one of the main holidays in the year. And what should be the New Year’s comedy from the second half of the “dashing” nineties, when a trouble -free depression reigned in our cinema, interspersed with a gangster “romance”? And today I will tell you today on the example of the 1997 film “Poor Sasha” from the director Tigran Keosayan.
Characters and actors
And we will start by parsing the main characters. Sasha is a heroine who gave her name the name of the film and loves when she is called the full name of Alexander. A twelve -year -old girl, played by a twelve -year -old actress Julia Chernova, who became the Russian version of the rich Richie with her governess, a personal driver and study at a prestigious college. But in the life of such a young creation there was not enough main – family. She did not know dad at all, and mother was constant busy with the banking business and could not devote much time to her daughter. And here she is, in order for her mother to become a mother again, she decided to rob her bank on the New Year’s Eve. I understand this – a gift!
Vladimir Berezkin is a noble robber and the second main character played by Alexander Zbruev. A former engineer who is versed in computer systems, who was imprisoned for robbing a bank. But do not think anything bad – he is a kind person who decided to take away from the bank a deposit selected from him in the early nineties. For this act, he was put in places "not so remote". There he would have served a calmly set time if he had not been asked to save the deputy minister, who was mistakenly locked in a huge safe. For his salvation, Berezkin was given a weekly “vacation” for the New Year holidays and he went to his wife in Moscow, where a number of amazing adventures occurred with him.
Olga Vasilievna, actually the mistress of the bank and mother of Alexandra. "New Russian" devoting most of his time to business, sometimes absolutely forgetting about her native daughter. But in her defense, I note that she understands this and even tries to compensate for the lack of maternal attention, although not always successfully. But in general, a strong woman who “made herself” in a difficult time for the country. And I almost forgot: the character was played by a wonderful actress Vera Glagoleva.
Olga Volkova in this film played Governing https://royal-panda-casino.co.uk/bonus/ Governing Amalia Arkadyevna – an intelligent woman who reads world classics and speaking several languages. And this short sentence in the best way describes such a sophisticated nature straight from the Victorian era.
Aristarchus of Rastopchin is an elderly homeless person, gathering in underground crossings in a suit of Santa Claus. Having met with Berezkin, saved our hero and became his accomplice and assistant in not quite legal matters. Despite his social status, he has good manners, which speaks of his past and it is quite possible Aristarchus truly a former deputy of the State Duma. The character was already played, alas, the actor Boris Sichkin left us.
Nikolai Kryshkin is Olga Vasilievna’s business partner, who was engaged in monetary fraud, which the owner of the bank found out about. In response, she demanded to return everything stolen in a short time, but, and Kryshkin himself decided to organize a false robbery of the bank in order to kidnap the documents that compromise him and move away from responsibility. The main antagonist of the film was played by the real "star" of our cinema of the nineties – Valery Garkalin.
Complex age. The lack of parental attention. And as a result – the acute crisis of originality!
The film begins with the salvation by our computer genius of the deputy minister from some huge safe. As a reward for this, the bosses of the prison released the prisoner home for the New Year holidays. Before the release, the main local authority nicknamed the clumsy gives Berezkin a large amount of money for the necessary purchases from the "will". And with such a list of goods, our hero goes to his wife to Moscow, where he is immediately improperly robbed by a local stray boy.
Arriving at his old apartment and breaking the lock in the door, Vladimir learns from a telephone conversation with his wife that she had sold an apartment and now a police outfit will come behind him due to a triggering alarm. Having thrown all the purchases of the clumsy, the protagonist runs away from representatives of the law enforcement agencies and, finally, meets his wife. He will learn the sad news from it: the “Lapul” filed for divorce and is going to return to the “historical” homeland.
Left without money from criminal authority and without a wife, our hero throws the remaining hundred -dollar bill in a jar to supplies Aristarchus Rastopchina. So in the underground crossing two strangers of each other met each other and, how to wound up, drank tightly. After the drunk, Berezkin decides to take his own life, but his new friend pulls him out of the loop. To make up for the stolen money of the clumsy, Aristarchus persuades Vladimir Berezkin to go to the "case". Having received a tip from the newspaper announcements, a former engineer under the guise of Santa Claus penetrates a strange apartment and opens a safe, but his craving for alcohol played a cruel joke with him.
Having recovered from the lulling in the glass, our hero is captured by the little girl Sasha. And Berezkin learns from her that this announcement was submitted to the newspaper specifically to find a “bear cub” to rob the bank of his mother. On this act, the little girl was pushed by the desire to “return” her mother to the family. Vladimir decides the help of his new accomplice with this case, but their plans have to be changed when they find out that Kryshkin also decided to arrange a robbery of the bank and kill Alexandra’s mother. For this, the business partner Olga Vasilievna took advantage of the help of the guards of the same bank, who in the past were ordinary "brothers" from the beginning of the nineties. And how the plot developed further, you can find out by watching the film completely, since it is quite short and rich in events and jokes. Now it’s time to move on to his criticism.
I did not just describe the recipe for the perfect New Year’s comedy into the introduction. This list will serve us as a guiding star when analyzing the film. And so we start! This film is a family? Well, here I have a double impression. On the one hand, the film has an official rating of “0+”, but I would not recommend it for viewing with small children. On the screen, scenes with “brothers” and “Zekov’s concepts” often arise and do not forget about the scene with an attempt to suicide the protagonist. But if your children are already Sasha’s peers, then I can recommend him with a creak for family viewing.
And so, the second question: “Poor Sasha” is a comedy? And here we can confidently say – yes. There is also humor for people from the nineties, which is only worth the economic educational program of Aristarchus Podopchin. "There is no place for an engineer in the monetary cycle". There is also a ridicule of the surrounding reality of those years where "there is one crook around". Part of this remained in the past, but, and much, to my regret, has not changed. The only thing the film is clearly not enough for children’s jokes, but for our cinema (especially that time) there were always problems with this. We practically do not come out of purely children’s films, but this is a topic for a separate conversation.
The third question: what topics affects the film and how reality reflects? The second film makes masterfully by riding the foundations of the Society of the nineties, which I already talked above. The cinema also carries a small dose of “depression” characteristic of the cinema of that time, but does not too much too much. Well, the film itself tells us the story of the three confused people. Sasha ready to go for a crime for the sake of reuniting a family. Olga Vasilievna stubbornly continuing to engage in business without looking back on loved ones. And “noble” thief, finally disappointed in his life. And this amazing adventure that happened to the heroes will forever change their lives and return such a simple human feeling as “happiness” in their hearts.
And to generalize, then this is undoubtedly a very good lyrical comedy with a positive mood, despite all the problems of the time. But she, although shot specifically for the premiere for the new 1998, is little connected with the New Year holidays. If the plot of the plot occurred in the summer, then the film would not at all lose. The theme of love, mutual assistance, family well -being is relevant throughout the year, but if you look at other Russian New Year’s comedies … then everything is definitely here. “Poor Sasha”, in my modest opinion, is the best New Year’s comedy, albeit poorly related to this topic. And I urge you to get acquainted with her at these festive holidays and recharge the positive for upcoming achievements.
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