Kin-Dza-Dza

Soviet Union

1986

135 Min

Color

Russian, Georgian

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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SCR Georgi Daneliya, Revaz Gabriadze

CAST Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze, Evgeni Leonov, Yuriy Yakovlev, Olga Mashnaya, Irina Shmelyova, Lev Perfilov, Anatoli Serenko, Aleksandra Dorokhina, Galina Daneliya-Yurkova, Anatoli Martynov, Victor Marenkov, Rezo Khobua

PROD DES Aleksandr Samulekin, Theodor Tezik

Two Humans, “Uncle Vova” and “The Fiddler” accidentally find themselves on another planet after pushing the wrong button on the strange device in the hand of an odd hobo, claiming to be an alien. Planet “Pluke” in the galaxy “Kin-Dza-Dza” looks like a desert. All “aliens” look human, and can understand Russian, after reading uncle Vova’s mind. Their own language is mostly telepathic and is limited to 11 words – 10 plus “koo” – all other words. The whole paradox of Pluke is that their civilization is much more advanced than ours in time and space traveling, weaponry and so on, but totally barbarian in the social way. There is a special (and only) way to identify two groups of creatures by pointing a little device on the person, orange light – “Chatlanian” (superior), green – “Patsak” (lower class). The most valued things on the planet are matches (or, rather, the chemicals ordinarily used on Earth for match heads). One match head equals to 2200 “chatles”. Uncle Vova and Gedevan “the Fiddler” Alexidze, have a long and dangerous journey in order to get home… —IMDb

Director

Georgi Daneliya

Georgi Daneliya was born on August 25, 1930 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since 1939 the family lived in Moscow, where Danelia’s father was the chief engineer for the Moscow Underground Metro System. Daneliya’s father became a decorated WWII General, specializing in construction of underground bunkers for the Soviet Government. His mother was a good chess-player and later worked as a second unit director at Mosfilm. Daneliya’s mother’s sister Veriko Andjaparidze was married to Mikheil Chiaureli, who was a personal friend of Joseph Stalin. Daneliya first earned his architect’s degree from the Moscow Architecture Institute. Then he studied at the Higher Director’s Courses at Mosfilm under Mikhail Romm, and graduated in 1959, becoming a film director at the Mosfilm Studios in Moscow.

During the cultural “Thaw” initiated by Nikita Khrushchev Daneliya was at the start of the Soviet “New Wave” in films. He had his first success shared with Igor Talankin. Their film ‘Seryozha’ (1960) was awarded… read more

Georgi Daneliya was born on August 25, 1930 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since 1939 the family lived in Moscow, where Danelia’s father was the chief engineer for the Moscow Underground Metro System. Daneliya’s father became a decorated WWII General, specializing in construction of underground bunkers for the Soviet Government. His mother was a good chess-player and later worked as a second unit director at Mosfilm. Daneliya’s mother’s sister Veriko Andjaparidze was married to Mikheil Chiaureli, who was a personal friend of Joseph Stalin. Daneliya first earned his architect’s degree from the Moscow Architecture Institute. Then he studied at the Higher Director’s Courses at Mosfilm under Mikhail Romm, and graduated in 1959, becoming a film director at the Mosfilm Studios in Moscow.

During the cultural “Thaw” initiated by Nikita Khrushchev Daneliya was at the start of the Soviet “New Wave” in films. He had his first success shared with Igor Talankin. Their film ‘Seryozha’ (1960) was awarded the Crystal Globe in Karlovy Vary. He then worked with Gennadi Shpalikov on a propaganda-free project about life in Moscow. Censorship caused a few obstacles by demanding changes to the plot and the script of ‘Walking the Streets of Moscow’ (1963). It became a popular lyrical comedy with a title hit song by Andrei Petrov. But soon Nikita Khrushchev was dismissed by Leonid Brezhnev and the “Thaw” ended. Daneliya’s brilliant comedy ‘33’ (1965) was labeled as anti-Soviet by the head of KGB Vladimir Semichastny, who wrote in a secret letter to the Central Committee: “anti-Soviet…film ‘33’ is an attempt to discredit everything including the cosmonaut’s flight.”

Daneliya had to wait for 4 long years until he got a chance to work on his next film. It was titled “Don’t Grieve” – ‘Ne Goryuy’ (1969), starring Vakhtang Kikabidze. His more careful, but masterful comedies ‘Gentlemen of Luck’ (1972), ‘Afonya’ (1975), ‘Mimino’ (1977) continued his successful career. A step beyond the comedy genre was made in his film ‘Osenny Marafon’ (1979). It’s a melodrama about a man in his mid-life crisis, torn between two women, and all three are trapped in the game of lies and personal demands, amidst the stagnant Soviet reality.

His innovative film ‘Kin-Dza-Dza’ (1986) stands out as a genre of it’s own. Everything is different, yet very familiar in this metaphoric film. New type of script with renown stars, new environment for and old tale, new language for ancient wisdom. Daneliya created a universe of allusions; It grows with a passage of time, while getting closer to our future. He presented a fresh view of the human nature, and played with reflections on his own life, the fate of a genius in a rigid society going through inevitable changes.

Danelia is blessed with good friends and highly professional collaborators. His first wife was actress Lyubov Sokolova (1921-2001) who played 370 film roles and is listed in the Guinnes book of Records. Their son Nikolai Daneliya (1958-1985) was a film director before his tragic death. Danelia lives in Moscow and works on his new project, an animation sequel to ‘Kin-Dza-Dza’. —IMDb

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