Enjoy laughing uproariously at cartoonish Russian stereotypes? No, not the Boris and Natasha variety, but the boorish, boozing, money-grubbing caricatures who might, say, peddle caviar on the streets of Paris. Or how about Gypsy fiddlers who transform into musical savants? Has Radu Mihaileanu made the film for you!
Even more so if you appreciate Seven Samurai–like tales about a band of aging, disgraced musicians assembled by Andrei Filipov (Aleksei Guskov, too good for this), former conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, who's been reduced to mopping the floors of the concert hall as the janitor-in-residence.
Sacked 30 years earlier for refusing Brezhnev's order to rid the Bolshoi of its Jews, Andrei has a scheme to steal back his spot as conductor by leading his rag-tag troupe in a performance at the Théâtre du Chatelet. Inglourious Basterds' Melanie Laurent solos, Miou-Miou cries, and patrons erupt into mawkish applause. Oy.
