1995 Russian film
| Shirli-myrli |
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| Directed by | Vladimir Menshov |
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| Written by | Vladimir Menshov
Vitaliy Moskalenko
Andrei Samsonov |
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| Produced by | Vladimir Dostal
Alexander Litvinov |
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| Starring | Valery Garkalin
Vera Alentova
Inna Churikova
Igor Ugolnikov |
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| Cinematography | Vadim Alisov |
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| Music by | Timur Kogan |
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Production
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Release date | |
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Running time | 136 minutes |
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| Country | Russia |
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| Language | Russian |
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Shirli-myrli (Russian: Ширли-мырли, also released as What a Mess!) is a 1995 farce comedy film of the early post-soviet era directed by Vladimir Menshov.[1] Centered around a pursued con man, who stole a huge diamond, the movie, among other things, satirizes chauvinism, antisemitism and other ethnic tensions in the 1990s Russia. Valery Garkalin plays multiple roles as identical twins who were raised believing they belong to different cultures and races and used to look down on each other's.
Plot summary
While digging in the diamond mine "Unpromising" in Yakutia an enormous diamond was found. It is called The Savior of Russia: officials declare that the sale of the diamond could pay off the national debt and pay for every Russian citizen to take a three-year-long vacation at the Canary Islands.
While the diamond is being transported to Moscow (by Antonov An-124 Ruslan)[1] it is stolen by the crime boss Kozulskiy (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan), who is then robbed by professional thief Vasiliy Krolikov (Valeri Garkalin).
For the remainder of the film, the plot revolves around Krolikov, a con man raised as a Russian and his two other identical multiple birth brothers, one was raised as a Jew to become a world famous musician, another as a Russian Roma to become a Romani tabor [ru] chief and a deputy of the parliament. Krolikov is pursued by Kozulskiy's mafia and two militsiya officers - Jean-Paul Piskunov (Igor Ugolnikov) and an unnamed lieutenant (Sergey Batalov). At the end of the film it turns out that there is a fourth brother, raised as an African American, making all characters played by Garkalin at least quadruplets.
